WHL NOTEBOOK: Temple enjoys return with Regina

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This article was published 21/11/2023 (721 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Not that terribly long ago, Cole Temple was one of the little guys in the crowd watching the Western Hockey League’s Brandon Wheat Kings.

Now the 16-year-old forward finds himself skating against them with the Regina Pats, something he admits is a bit of a mind-bending thought.

“I think it’s pretty crazy, especially growing up as a kid who idolized those guys,” said Temple, whose father Jeff and grandfather Ted played for the team. “They were my heroes when I was going to games every weekend. I think time flew pretty quick and now I’m playing in the games and it’s pretty surreal and exciting.”

The Pats made Temple the fifth overall pick in the 2022 draft, seven selections before the Wheat Kings grabbed his friend Joby Baumuller.

The five-foot-10, 161-pound forward was called up for eight games last season — the left-handed shot made his Brandon debut on Jan. 4 in a 6-2 loss to the Wheat Kings — and earned a full-time role with the club in the fall.

He kicked his 2023-24 season off in style, contributing his first WHL goal and his first WHL assist in a wild 7-6 Pats overtime victory on Sept. 22 during Brandon’s home opener.

In 17 WHL games this season, he has four goals and four assists with eight penalty minutes and a plus-minus of one.

“I think I’ve been pretty happy,” Temple said of how he’s played. “I really like the team here. There are lots of good guys on this team, so it’s fun coming to the rink every day and being with a good group of guys. We’ve been off to a pretty good start I’d say. I think I’ve been doing pretty well at the start.”

The Pats weren’t necessarily expected to be in playoff contention by many onlookers after the graduation of superstar Connor Bedard, but currently hold down the Eastern Conference’s eighth playoff spot with a 10-11-1-1 record.

Temple said it didn’t hurt that he played the eight games with the Pats last season, noting it gave him a nice head start in September.

“I think it helped me a lot with confidence and just knowing what the speed of the Western League is like and how strong every guy is and how fast the play is. I think I really took that in over the summer and tried to get stronger. It was a good experience for sure, those eight games, just to see what it was like.”

All the games he watched the Wheat Kings play over the years also made the quality of play in the league less of a surprise, he added. But there is still a transition. In his draft year, he led the U15 AAA Winnipeg Hockey League with 108 points in 28 games and played in all situations. In his rookie campaign in the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League last season, he finished two points back of team leader Jaxon Jacobson, with 58 points in just 35 games.

But when he arrived in the WHL, he simply wasn’t going to be getting the same amount of ice time at 16. And he’s okay with it.

“I’m just trying to contribute to the team as much as I can, especially being a 16-year-old; it’s pretty tough to play in this league,” Temple said. “Obviously you’re not going to play 25 minutes a night like some of the top guys. As many shifts or as much time as I get out there, I just try to do whatever I can to help the team and maybe put the puck in the net.”

Another major change is coming off the ice. Temple lives about 15 minutes from the rink with his billet family, and is learning to balance a lot of competing interests for his time.

“It’s definitely been tough to adjust to,” Temple said. “We don’t get a whole lot of time for school and stuff so you try to do as much school work as you can in the day. It’s a full day from school and practice, so it’s been not bad to adjust to but it’s been fun.”

He also had one other incredible new experience this month.

Temple, who played with Manitoba at the Canada Winter Games a year ago, made his Hockey Canada debut earlier this month with Team White at the World U17 Hockey Challenge in Summerside and Charlottetown, P.E.I.

In eight games, he had two goals and four assists on a line with Baumuller and Caleb Desnoyers of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Moncton Wildcats. “Playing against that calibre of players was a really good experience just to see where us Canadians and myself fit in with the rest of the world,” Temple said. “The competition was extremely good, so that was good to see.”

He knew all the WHL players on the team a little bit already, but Baumuller was the only one he played with before because they skated together in spring hockey.

“It was awesome,” Temple said. “He’s a great player and I really like him. I’ve known him for a long time and he’s been a really good friend of mine, so it was nice to play on a national team on a line together. That was pretty special.”

So was the way the event finished for the pair. After Baumuller scored the opening goal of the final, Canada White beat the United States 2-1 in overtime to win gold, with the winner coming off the stick of Cameron Schmidt on a breakaway.

Temple was watching from the bench as Schmidt scooped up the puck, raced in, deked to the far side of the net and snuck the puck in along the ice between the post and the pad of American goaltender Patrick Quinlan.

“I jumped up once I saw him getting that breakaway. I kind of already knew it was going into the back of the net from how skilled a player he is,” Temple said. “Once I saw that puck go in, it didn’t feel real for sure. It was a blank in my head because I couldn’t believe it. “I grew up watching Canada win gold and how cool that is for the team and how excited and happy they are after they win. It was definitely a really special moment.”

Temple can’t even imagine playing in the event without the experience he has gained in the WHL skating against older, bigger and stronger guys. But he noted it was no ordinary group of 16-year-olds.

“I thought it was really good,” Temple said. “It was really fun, especially going from playing against 20-year-olds all the way down to my own age, although everyone was so skilled at such a young age that it didn’t really feel like I was playing 16-year-olds.”

He’s hopeful the experience he gained there can transfer back to Regina. Temple hasn’t had regular linemates with the Pats very often this season, although he has played the last two games with newly acquired forward Tony Wilson, who arrived from the Brandon Wheat Kings last week in a deal for Matteo Michels.

Ultimately, he’s keeping his aspirations for his rookie season very simple.

“I don’t know if I had too many goals set for myself,” Temple said. “I just want to prove myself out there and try my best every game and put some pucks in the net and help the team win.”

THIS AND THAT

• QUIZ — Name the last playoff series Brandon participated in, and what was the last one they won?

• WEEKLY AWARDS — The player of the week is Prince George Cougars forward Koehn Ziemmer of Mayerthorpe, Alta., after he scored four goals and added five assists in four games. Ziemmer, 18, signed with the Los Angeles Kings last Friday.

The goaltender of the week is 19-year-old Rhett Stoesser of the Red Deer Rebels after the product of Carstairs, Alta., stopped 40 shots in 3-1 win over the Calgary Hitmen and then made 26 saves in a 3-2 victory the next night against the Hitmen.

The rookie of the week is 19-year-old Moose Jaw Warriors forward Dakota MacIntosh of Winnipeg, who had two goals and three assists in three games. He joined the team on Nov. 3 after lighting up the Alberta Junior Hockey League.

• ON THE MOVE — The Edmonton Oil Kings acquired 19-year-old defenceman Matthew Gallant from the Moose Jaw Warriors on Monday for a third-round pick in the 2026 draft. On Sunday, the Swift Current Broncos acquired 19-year-old goaltender Matthew Kieper of Winnipeg from the Kamloops Blazers for a third-round pick in 2024 and a ninth-round pick in 2026.

• SIN BIN — Forward Thomas Tien of the Tri-City Americans, 19, received a two-game suspension for a boarding major and game misconduct he earned on Nov. 11 against the Prince Albert Raiders. It’s worth noting he only has 26 penalty minutes in 66 career WHL games.

• ALUMNI GLANCE — It’s hard to believe Landon Roberts only played 55 games with the Wheat Kings because the big farm kid made a terrific impression on and off the ice. Roberts was acquired in a trade from the Tri-City Americans on Oct. 31, 2021 after playing parts of three seasons there. The 19-year-old heavy hitter had seven goals and four assists as a Wheat King. He was waived over the summer of 2022 by Brandon as he entered his overage season, picked up by the Swift Current Broncos for two games and then reassigned to the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Steinbach Pistons, where he had 30 points in 38 games and attended the Centennial Cup. The big winger is now attending Carleton University in Ottawa, where he has been held without a point in his first 10 games.

• THE WEEK AHEAD — The Wheat Kings head out on the road on a four-game stretch that suggests schedule makers might need a globe. Brandon plays the Edmonton Oil Kings on Wednesday, the Red Deer Rebels on Friday, the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday and the Prince Albert Raiders early Sunday evening. That night, they’ll get off the ice around 10:30 p.m. CT, hop on the bus for a six-hour bus ride and meet the Raiders the next day at 6 p.m. Brandon’s next home game is on Dec. 1 when the Regina Pats visit.

• ANSWER — With the COVID cancellations of two playoffs and Brandon missing the post-season in 2018-19 and 2022-23, the answers are more difficult to remember than they might normally be. Brandon fell 4-2 to the Red Deer Rebels in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals in the 2022 post-season in what proved to be the final games for Ridly Greig, Chad Nychuk, Ethan Kruger and Marcus Kallionkieli.

The last series they won was over the Medicine Hat Tigers way back in the 2018 playoffs. Brandon was crushed by a combined score of 14-5 in the first two games in Medicine Hat, and then rallied to win the next four, with Linden McCorrister sniping in overtime in Game 6 in Dauphin to win the series. They lost 4-1 to the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the next round.