Lambos treasures WHL memories, friendships

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This article was published 02/05/2023 (1113 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jonny Lambos is awfully busy these days, but sometimes the former Brandon Wheat Kings and Everett Silvertips defenceman can’t help taking a stroll down memory lane.

The 21-year-old defenceman from Winnipeg, who is now studying the sciences at the University of British Columbia, said he had a terrific four-year experience in the Western Hockey League.

“Those memories will be with you for life,” Lambos said. “They say it’s going to be some of the best years of your life, and they’re telling the truth. There are lots of friendships that are going to last a lifetime out of that.

“It’s a cool opportunity to be able to grow into something else now and still keep those friendships against guys you’re playing against and even guys who stopped playing hockey.”

The Winnipegger was originally selected with the 49th pick overall in the third round of the 2016 WHL draft by the Victoria Royals, but hadn’t played a game there before he was dealt to Brandon.

Lambos, along with his former Rink Hockey Academy teammate Ty Thorpe, was part of a blockbuster deal on Jan. 10, 2018 when Brandon sent captain Tanner Kaspick and prospect Cameron MacDonald to Victoria for first-round selections in 2019 and 2021 and the two young prospects.

Victoria’s 2019 pick indirectly became Nate Danielson — Brandon sent the 10th overall pick and the rights to college player Sean Comrie to the Kelowna Rockets to trade up to the fifth overall pick — and the 2021 pick became defenceman Charlie Elick.

After signing with Brandon, Lambos appeared in 127 career games with the club over three seasons — plus a one-game debut at 16 — scoring five times and adding 14 assists.

Lambos, who is the older brother of Winnipeg Ice defenceman Carson, got caught up in the numbers game in Brandon following the 2020-21 season. The Wheat Kings could only keep three of their 2001-born overagers, and had to pick from a group that included defencemen Chad Nychuk, Neithan Salame, Rylan Thiessen and Lambos, plus goalie Ethan Kruger and forward Marcus Kallionkieli.

Brandon received a seventh-round pick in 2023 for Lambos on July 14, nine days after Thiessen was dealt to the Swift Current Broncos.

“When I went to Everett, I matured a lot last year,” Lambos said. “I was a lot further away from home, and it wasn’t just a quick drive for my parents to come out. I didn’t see my family as much so I was definitely a little more on my own, which made me more independent and prepared me for this.”

In 60 games last season with Everett, Lambos has two goals and 17 assists for a career-high 19 points with 81 penalty minutes.

He also spent the year hunting for a post-secondary destination.

UBC went to the front of the line when Lambos’ Winnipeg friend Cyle McNabb, a former WHLer who started at the school in the 2021-22 season, convinced him that it might be a good fit.

It also didn’t hurt that Lambos had spent some time in Vancouver and loved the city.

“I knew this was where I wanted to be so I reached out to them pretty early on in the year,” Lambos said. “I did explore a couple of other places. I was looking back home in Winnipeg and a couple of places out east, but at the end of the day I felt this was the best fit for me.”

He had also skated against several of his new Thunderbird teammates in the WHL, which he said helped when he walked into the room.

“Our team was a little different this year in that we had eight or nine first-year guys and most of us had played against each other for the last three or four years and were all pretty familiar with each other,” Lambos said. “I did find with most of our guys being guys who played in the Western League and went through the same process, there a sense of camaraderie in that.”

On the ice, Lambos was in for a little surprise. He hadn’t watched much U Sports hockey and wasn’t sure what to expect. What he found was older and more mature WHL players who were only playing on weekends, which allows players to spend more time on their skills and in the gym, and less time in recovery.

“It’s definitely a more physical league, I would say,” Lambos said. “It’s just taking the guys from the Western League and they’re three, four or five years older.”

Still, Lambos thinks the tougher transition is playing against 20-year-olds when you’re 17, rather than 25-year-olds when you’re 21.

“I think maybe the gap is a little different from 16 to 20 because everyone is at different stages of filling into their bodies and being men,” Lambos said. “Being here at 20 to 25, not as much physical maturity happens during those years.”

Lambos has a very tangible connection to his time in Brandon this year in the form of head coach Sven Butenschon, who played with the Wheat Kings for three seasons between 1993 and 1996. The big defenceman skated in 140 National Hockey League games before finishing his playing career in Europe. He took over behind the UBC bench in the 2016-17 season after serving as an assistant for a year.

“It was one of the first things we talked about when I talked to him last year,” Lambos said. “I had no idea he played in Brandon and played with the Canucks and with Germany in the Olympics back when it was in Vancouver in 2010. He has a lot of playing knowledge, and I think it’s good to have a coach who knows what players are going through because he’s done it himself.”

Lambos thinks his physicality appeals to Butenschon, who was also a defensive defenceman who took care of his own end first.

“He makes jokes about both of us being from Winnipeg and tough,” Lambos said.

In 21 games this season, the five-foot-10, 185-pound Lambos had eight assists and 48 penalty minutes.

UBC finished third in the nine-team Canada West with a record of 20-6-1-1, and then was swept in the semifinals by Alberta.

“I was really happy,” Lambos said of his season. “There was a lot of opportunity for the younger guys to step into big roles. It was a big adjustment at the start, not as much on the hockey side but you’re living completely on your own and have to take care of everything, your meals, your laundry, your classes.

“Being back in full-time school is demanding so once you figure out how to balance all that stuff, I was able to perform better on the ice too.”

He was smart enough to realize he could take university courses while he was playing in the WHL and that wouldn’t count against the scholarship he had accrued, so Lambos entered this school year with an incredible 33 credit hours already completed.

“It paid off a lot, especially being in the program I’m in, in the sciences,” said Lambos, who is hoping his academic path one day leads to pre-med. “If I had gone three or four years without doing any math or without doing any chemistry or biology, it would have been a lot harder to retain that information that they sort of expect you to have from high school.

“Also with some of the classes I took, I was able to hop right into second-year classes. It set me up well to maybe complete my degree a little faster.”

But there is still that little matter of time management. Lambos said most students simply take courses without the burden of hockey, and both can be full-time jobs.

“It’s hard to balance it at the start, because unlike high school, your education doesn’t really stop once you’re done your classes,” Lambos said. “If you want to do well, there’s so much learning in university for a student to do away from the classroom. You have to find that discipline and time management to be able to do that later in the day after you’ve gone to classes and after you’ve worked out and skated already.

“You’re tired, but you have to power through and find the motivation to get more stuff done.”

Lambos said the WHL scholarship plan is easy to use. He sent in some forms at the start of the year about where he’s going to school, and then the WHL pays for it without them having to do anything.

The only active role Lambos had to take was sending in receipts for books and then being reimbursed.

“It’s nice to have that,” Lambos said. “Any additional scholarship you get from the university is able to go straight into your pocket for living expenses and that kind of stuff.”

He has a studio apartment near campus, and without his mother or a billet mom, he’s now doing his own shopping at the grocery store and planning his meals to cook on the weekend. He admits his output in the kitchen remains a work in progress.

“I think my cooking skills have improved quite a bit, although I only eat a couple of different meals every week,” Lambos said with a chuckle. “I cook quite a bit on the weekend. I just don’t have the skill set to be cooking many different dishes so I have the same handful of stuff. The air fryer has saved me.”

His former Brandon teammate Chad Nychuk is playing in Abbotsford, but that’s nearly an 80-kilometre drive through city traffic so they haven’t met up.

Lambos, who is returning to Winnipeg for a job at a cardiac research lab this summer, has seen recently graduated Vancouver Giants forward Thorpe a couple of times, and played against Salame, Kruger, Wytinck and Connor Gutenberg.

He finds life has gotten a lot bigger for all of them than when they were in Brandon.

“I’m interested to hear what those guys are doing outside of hockey now,” Lambos said. “It’s a different league in a sense because there is so much more than hockey going on in your life whereas in the Western League, hockey is your one and only focus for most guys.”

» This is the final instalment in a five-part series on former Brandon Wheat Kings who have gone to school after their WHL careers ended.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson