Jake Poole finds immediate U Sports success with Dinos

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This article was published 30/04/2024 (769 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jake Poole had a little surprise waiting for him when he joined the U Sports men’s hockey ranks last fall.

The 21-year-old forward from McAuley, which is located 66 kilometres northwest of Virden near the Saskatchewan border, spent four Western Hockey League seasons with the Kelowna Rockets and Victoria Royals before he joined the University of Calgary Dinos.

“Coming from the Western League, U Sports just doesn’t get enough credit,” Poole said. “It’s really hard hockey. You only get 28 games in the regular season so it’s a lot different. Everyone is always ready to go for the games and it’s a lot more intense. Everyone has basically played in the Dub so they’re older players and it’s a lot more physical and hard.

“It’s a lot better league, faster for sure.”

Still, it proved a pretty successful season for the six-foot-two, 205-pound forward. In 28 games in the regular season, Poole scored 17 goals and added nine assists while playing all over the lineup with an assortment of linemates due to injuries throughout the roster.

“I was really happy,” Poole said. “In Calgary, I had a lot of opportunity to play and played with some really good players who helped me out a lot. I probably took a little off the start just to transition — I would say I was probably a little surprised too at how good a league it is and how hard it is to score and put up points — but once I figured it out … I obviously had a group of guys to show me the ropes so it was really good.”

His offensive numbers led Canada West newcomers, and last month he was named the rookie of the year.

“I wasn’t expecting that for sure,” Poole said. “I was pretty honoured to get that. I was really excited. It just shows how good a team we had, with the guys around me. It was awesome.”

After he graduated from the WHL in March 2023 when Victoria missed the playoffs, Poole was approached by a number of schools, and with the dual purpose of developing his game for the pro level while he was educated, he picked the Dinos.

“Calgary won last year and I talked to the coach (former Brandon Wheat Kings assistant Mark Howell) quite a bit and thought it would be a good fit with the players they had,” Poole said. “Obviously it was. I don’t regret it.”

Two other Westman players skate with the Dinos, former Wheat Kings Connor Gutenberg of Brandon and Zach Wytinck of Glenboro. He knew the latter from summer skates, but his father Dana and Gutenberg’s father Joe are friends, even though Jake didn’t know Connor well.

Poole played with Adam Kidd in Kelowna, so that was the one Dino he knew well. But he added it’s a lot different than stepping into a WHL dressing room as a rookie.

“There aren’t really any rookies or veterans,” Poole said. “More so everyone is a tight-knit group and everyone hangs out with each other so it’s a lot more fun that way.”

There is a shared experience among former WHLers, even if they played in different cities. Poole said the guys understand what kind of player everyone is from playing against them.

And needless to say, since only a couple of Dinos didn’t play in the WHL, lots of old tales are shared.

“It’s always fun telling stories,” Poole said. “We’ll travel places and it’s ‘Oh ya, I played here.’ It’s pretty cool just to hear different perspectives from other people playing in different cities.”

There was another major advantage to choosing Calgary. His uncle Jason and aunt Vicki Poole live two minutes from the university in the northwestern part of the city, and he bunked in with them.

“I’m not really into too much traffic, which is so nice,” Poole said. “Living there has been really good.”

He said it’s like being with billets again, although he has a lot more free rein than he used to have as a major junior player.

“They let me be an adult and do what I need to do,” Poole said. “It’s a lot nicer that way.”

After posting a record of 21-5-1-1 to finish the regular season in second place, the Dinos swept the Mount Royal Cougars in the first round. That set up a showdown in the best-of-three league final against Brandonite Ty Thorpe, former Wheat Kings defenceman Jonny Lambos and the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.

Calgary won 5-2 in Game 1 — Poole had an assist — but the next two games didn’t go as well.

UBC broke a 1-1 tie midway through the third period for a 2-1 victory in Game 2, and then scored a late empty netter to seal a 5-3 win in Game 3.

“We were pretty disappointed in the way the league final went,” Poole said. “We were trying to win back-to-back years but it was a tough series. UBC was a really good team.”

Despite the loss, Calgary earned a spot at nationals in Toronto in a new facility at Maple Leaf Gardens in March. They met the host Toronto Metropolitan University Bold — the school was Ryerson University until 2022 — and after former Wheat Kings forward Jaeger White scored on an assist by Gutenberg in the first period, the Bold responded.

The game went to double overtime before TMU’s Carson Gallagher sniped to end Calgary’s season.

“Nationals was a really fun experience,” Poole said. “It was pretty eye-opening as well. The teams there were all really good. There were a lot of people there playing the host team. It was a pretty fun atmosphere to be in a school environment. That was a tough loss for us in double overtime.”

Off the ice, the transition was jarring. He didn’t take any classes after he graduated high school while he was still in the WHL, so he had to readjust to being in the classroom.

“It took me a while for sure just to get in the habits of going to school again and studying and practising, too,” Poole said. “It kind of comes at you so you need to have some time management and pick your times to study. It was definitely an eye-opener at the start. I had to do a little more to get back into things and figure out what I was doing again.”

He said after players finish school in the WHL, they have a lot of time on their hands so he had to fine-tune his time management skills to be successful.

Poole is taking a broad variety of classes for an arts degree, mostly to see where his interests lie. He said economics or business may eventually be his path although he hasn’t made his final decision yet.

As a WHL graduate, Poole has a terrific advantage over most students because of the scholarship plan that pays for one year of tuition, books and fees for every season a player skated in the league. He said with the help of his teammates when he needed it, the plan was easy to access and he’s thankful to have it.

“It’s huge,” Poole said. “You don’t really have to be in debt too much when you come out of school, plus living with my auntie and uncle, it’s nicer too financial-wise.”

The right-handed shooting Poole came up through the Yellowhead Chiefs system and was drafted by Kelowna in the sixth round in 2017.

He debuted in the WHL in his 17-year-old season, 2019-20, as the Rockets prepared to host the Memorial Cup but the season was paused and eventually cancelled. At the start of his 20-year-old season, he was dealt to Victoria for an eighth-round pick in 2024.

In 171 games over four seasons with the Rockets and Royals, Poole posted 49 goals and 65 assists. That came despite the loss of much of the 2020-21 season due to the pandemic and having his appendix removed early in 2022.

While his major junior days are behind him for good, Poole said they had a profound impact on him.

“I became a more mature person and player,” Poole said. “Now I know what I need to do. When you come into the WHL, you’re a little starstruck and I should have probably taken more of what the coaches had to say. Now I know what the coaches need from me and how to be the player they want me to be and that I need to turn into.

“I matured a lot since I started. It’s crazy to think when you come in at 17 and are done at 20 that it can change you that much.”

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