WHL NOTEBOOK: Geekie finds new home in Wenatchee

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This article was published 17/10/2023 (791 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Conor Geekie’s new adventure is turning out just fine.

The 19-year-old forward from Strathclair — like all Winnipeg Ice players — learned on social media on June 16 the Western Hockey League club was moving west to become the Wenatchee Wild.

While he was uncertain that day of what lay ahead, he quickly leaned into the experience.

“It’s got that small-town feel, which you know I like,” said Geekie, whose team hosts the Brandon Wheat Kings on Saturday. “It does feel like home. It’s a great city, I have great billets and obviously the organization has a lot on their plate but they’re doing great things.

“They’re keeping us all in the loop all the time. We have great fans, a great community and it’s been a lot of fun.”

The Ice left Winnipeg after ownership was unable to break ground on a new arena that had been promised as a condition of joining the WHL.

It has been a remarkably stable league in the last two decades except for the new Wenatchee club, which played as the Edmonton Ice from 1996 to 1988, the Kootenay Ice from 1998 to 2019 and the Winnipeg Ice from 2019 to 2023.

It’s hard to imagine two more different situations for the returning Ice. The players went from skating in a small, antiquated rink in a city of 750,000 to the beautiful 4,300-seat Town Toyota Center in a community of 35,000.

“It’s really nice,” the six-foot-four, 197-pound forward said. “It has everything you can ask for in a rink for a junior team. The biggest difference is we got there when they didn’t have the lights changed yet, and then they changed the lights, and it was ‘Holy, I can actually see the puck.’ “It’s been unreal. Our room is second to none I believe. You can never give too many kudos to the staff. They’ve had a lot on their plate the last couple months and they’ve done an outstanding job.”

Wenatchee is located in central Washington state — straight south of Kamloops — and will have a tidy travel itinerary. Its trips within the U.S. Division are reasonably short, starting with Everett (198 km), Kennewick (211 km), Seattle (238 km), Spokane (273 km) and Portland (469 km).

Geekie hasn’t had a chance yet to play in all the U.S. Division buildings. While Canadian fans are accused of watching games like they might be named general manager the next day and are scouting their guys, some American fans aren’t as knowledgeable but seem to have a lot more fun.

Geekie got a recent taste of Seattle’s boisterous fans, who are renowned for their loud chant where they name the opponent and adds “Sucks.” Hilariously, in Wenatchee’s first trip to the Accesso ShoWare Center, they chanted “Winnipeg sucks” because the teams met in the WHL final last season.

“I think (Canadians) have a little more knowledge in some instances,” Geekie said. “That’s what makes it fun playing here. You walk into Seattle and they’re booing as Winnipeg because they beat us last year. Their chant that they always do, they threw Winnipeg in there a few times.

“It does the job. It fires any player up.”

Oddly, three Geekies have played in the U.S. Division, but they each took different paths to get there. Father Craig was traded to the Spokane Chiefs by the Wheat Kings for the 1993-94 season, Conor’s brother Morgan was drafted by the Tri-City Americans and spent his entire major junior career there from 2015 to 2018 and Conor’s entire franchise was moved.

Conor’s brother, Noah, was drafted by the Calgary Hitmen and could have played in the league, but chose college baseball instead.

The Wild organization was certainly ready for the challenge of joining their third league, despite the hardship of pulling it all together in a matter of months. The Wild debuted in the North American Hockey League in the 2008-09 season, and moved to the British Columbia Hockey League in 2015-16. Wenatchee won the BCHL championship in 2018 under general manager Bliss Littler and have suffered just one season under .500 in team history. As a Junior A club, they had eight National Hockey League draft picks. Geekie appreciates all the staff has done to make them feel comfortable, but added it helps that the players have embraced the new experience.

“You have to give credit to the guys,” Geekie said. “We got the news sprung on us pretty quick but from the top to the bottom through the guys, I think we’re all really happy to settle in. It does feel like home to me and I’m sure it does to other small-town guys. Me and Briley Wood (of Rivers) seem to enjoy it out here quite a bit.”

One big plus is the players are billeted in a much more compact area and are able to get together more. Geekie noticed that immediately, with the Wild players doing a lot more team stuff and community stuff.

“I was 25 minutes from anyone last year,” Geekie said. “I was pretty out of the way. Now, the farthest guy from me is 15 minutes. We golf out a lot out here, it’s nice weather, and we do spend a lot more time together. We eat out together, it’s been really nice, a nice change for us to have that ability to go see each other whenever we want.”

While Geekie stresses that doesn’t mean the players didn’t hang out together in Winnipeg, it just makes it easier to assemble as a team.

“We’re not in groups anymore,” Geekie said. “I’m not saying we were last year or the year before, but that tended to happen where you group up in your small little neighbourhood, but here, your whole city is the neighbourhood.”

Geekie was the 11th overall pick in the 2022 National Hockey League draft, and the Arizona Coyotes and signed an entry-level contract with the Coyotes on July 20, 2022. He attended his second main camp last month, and it made a difference having the experience and being one year older.

“It was a lot better,” Geekie said. “I found another part of my game. Definitely going into everything, I get a lot stronger and faster and I think I had a pretty big summer for myself on and off the ice. I think it’s also just growing into my body. I wasn’t always the most orthodox person so it’s good to have finally have that confidence in it.”

He was reassigned from Arizona to Wenatchee on Oct. 2. In four games this season, Geekie has two goals and six assists.

He is targeting areas of his game to improve as he contemplates a jump to professional hockey next season, but he keeps his own goals to himself. He is willing to share his hopes for the team.

“You obviously have those personal goals that you keep to yourself,” Geekie said. “I think for me it’s just trying to make a big jump next year. I’m really going to work on my skating again and just keep getting stronger and keep elevating those little spots.

“I told (overage defenceman) Graham Sward when I came here that I’m not coming here to lose.”

THIS AND THAT

• QUIZ — It’s no secret the Wheat Kings have skated some talented scorers over the years. How many of Brandon’s top 10 single-season goal scorers can you name? For bonus points, who had the fewest goals to lead the team in a season?

• WEEKLY AWARDS — The player of the week is 17-year-old Prince Albert Raiders forward Ryder Ritchie of Calgary, who had two goals and four assists in three games. The goaltender of the week is 19-year-old Portland Winterhawks netminder Jan Špunar of Olomouc, Czechia, who stopped 48 of 49 shots in a pair of Portland victories.

The rookie of the week is 16-year-old Swift Current Broncos forward Ty Coupland of North Vancouver, who had five points in three games last week as his team started a B.C. Division road swing.

• SIN BIN — There have been no suspensions in 10 days, and just five since the season started on Sept. 22.

• WEEKLY REPORT — In last Tuesday’s league report, 44 players reported injuries on the 22 teams. The worst hit was Wenatchee, which had five players out. • TRADE — The Tri-City Americans sent overage forward Tyson Greenway to the Calgary Hitmen on Sunday for a second-round pick in 2026.

• ALUMNI GLANCE — Jayce Hawryluk of Roblin made the move back over to Europe this season, skating with Bílí Tygři Liberec in Czechia. He has a goal and three assists in six games. Now 27, Hawryluk had 278 points in 232 regular season games with Brandon, and 61 points in 45 playoff games during his four years with Brandon between 2012 and 2016. After playing in Sweden in 2021-22, Hawryluk spent last season in the American Hockey League. He has played 98 games in the National Hockey League with the Florida Panthers, Ottawa Senators and Vancouver Canucks.

• THE WEEK AHEAD — The U.S. Division swing continues for Brandon against the Seattle Thunderbirds tonight, Portland Winterhawks (Wednesday), Everett Silvertips (Friday) and Wenatchee (Saturday).

• ANSWER — The top single-season scorer in Wheat Kings history is an easy one. Ray Ferraro’s record of 108 goals in 1983-84 is unlikely to ever be broken. The next highest single-season scorers are Bill Derlago (96 in 1976-77), Brian Propp (94 in 1978-79), Ron Chipperfield (90 in 1973-74), Bill Derlago (89 in 1977-78), Ron Chipperfield (72 in 1972-73), Kelly Glowa (71 in 1982-83), Darren Ritchie (62 in 1994-95) and Derek Laxdal (61 in 1984-85). The lowest number of goals to lead the team in the WHL era came in 2012-13 when Hawryluk had 18.