WHL NOTEBOOK: Change of scenery reinvigorates McCallum

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This article was published 28/01/2025 (234 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Ethan McCallum looks back at his rookie Western Hockey League season a year ago, the Saskatoon Blades goalie sees both the sacrifice and the reward.

The six-foot-four, 198-pound netminder from Brandon, who was selected 39th overall by the Medicine Hat Tigers in 2021 but traded to Saskatoon on Oct. 28, said the position makes the battle unique.

“On many levels it’s different than a player,” McCallum said. “The amount you have to work for your spot is beyond because there’s only two spots available on the team. At the start of the season last year there was actually three of us fighting for that spot, so it was a lot of work for sure, more than anyone can really imagine.

“You don’t think of it as being too tough, and I’m sure some guys may have it easier than others, but it was hard. I really enjoyed it because it changed my entire aspect on how I worked and how much I love the game.”

McCallum shared the crease with Zach Zahara and starter Evan May last season.

McCallum was pulled in his opening game and didn’t see action again for a month until he made 29 saves in a 4-1 victory over the Everett Silvertips at Co-op Place and was named first star and the WHL’s rookie of the week. He said that was a turning point for him.

“I’ve always had self-confidence,” McCallum said. “I’ve always been underrated my whole life so you need to have your own self-confidence and believe that you can be a goalie. After my second game there against Everett last year when I won, ever since then, I knew as long as I gave 100 per cent every day and didn’t cheat the game, the results were going to come, and they kept going from there.”

He ended up appearing in 23 games as a rookie, posting a 3.19 goals-against average and a .886 save percentage. All but four of his appearances came after Dec. 1.

The Tigers have used four goalies in each of the last two seasons, and this season they acquired overage starter Harrison Meneghin on Oct. 5.

They then traded Zach Zahara to the Wenatchee Wild on Oct. 16, and reacquired him on Dec. 12. Rookie Jordan Switzer has also seen extensive action this season.

FRESH START

In five appearances with the Tigers this season, McCallum was 1-1-0-0 with a 4.09 goals-against average and a .835 save percentage, but in late October the Blades acquired the 2006-born McCallum for Saskatoon’s fourth-round pick in 2027 and a conditional fourth-round pick in 2028.

The deal didn’t come as a surprise because McCallum had asked for it. Still, he admitted it was tough to leave some things behind.

“The only thing I probably truly miss there are the friends I made along the way,” McCallum said. “The people we had in that locker room were pretty fun to be around, and I had a lot of best friends around there. The bonds we had over the first couple of months and last year was awesome. You really felt like family.”

But it also gave him a chance to start over. McCallum said Saskatoon proved to be the perfect landing spot because the team is so close.

“Honestly I was just relieved to hear the news in general,” McCallum said. “I didn’t know where I was going but when I found out, I was excited when I was told it was Saskatoon. I know a couple of people who have played there and know what the organization is like, and I was told it’s an unbelievable place to be and I felt that as soon as I walked in the door, the way the staff were treating me and how the guys were treating me.

“It just felt like such a professional atmosphere that is so welcoming. It gave me a whole new sense of happiness and confidence.”

Since arriving in Saskatoon, he’s made 10 appearances, with a 3.16 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage, numbers that are close to those posted by starter Evan Gardner.

Gardner, a product of Fort St. John, B.C., who just turned 19 on Saturday, was grabbed in the second round of the National Hockey League draft last summer by the Columbus Blue Jackets.

McCallum and Gardner knew who each other were but had never met prior to the trade.

“He’s just an unbelievable guy,” McCallum said. “A really good leader and just a guy who can really calm things down. You can tell he has that love for the game and enjoys it, and it’s fun to be around. Especially with how great a goalie he is to compete with every day, it’s surreal.”

McCallum had skated a couple of times during the summer in Brandon with Blades captain Ben Saunderson of Carberry but had never really spoken to him. He was more familiar with Colten Worthington of Brandon despite the pair never playing together.

“I know Colten,” McCallum said. “Most of the ‘06 and ‘07 and ‘05 age groups, we know everyone. It’s a small enough town in the hockey world where you know everyone around that age.”

The same can’t be said of the Bridge City.

Saskatoon has grown dramatically in the last 20 years, with an estimated population near 280,000 people. While it’s a 30-minute drive to the rink in rush-hour traffic, he has a few teammates living close to him, including his next-door neighbour, forward William James of Calgary.

He raves about his new billet family.

“You never think you’re going to get traded in the league, and when it happens, you think it’s going to be kind of a gong show, but honestly it didn’t really feel like anything changed,” McCallum said. “The only things that changed were the rink I was going to and the house I’m staying at.

“The billets I have here are unbelievable, it’s unbelievable setup, the food is great. It’s a really good close family that it’s fun to go upstairs and talk to every night and have those funny conversations.”

McCallum graduated last spring and is taking a year off from school, although his family — dad Darren, mother Dana, brother Chase and sister Cassie — are encouraging him to take some university courses in the future.

It’s an incredible balancing act for younger players to manage hockey and academics, but McCallum said his time has already been committed elsewhere.

“I just love being at the rink,” McCallum said. “I’m usually at the rink from 7 to 2 o’clock anyway so it’s like a full day for me. It’s nice to come home, relax and find something to do or take a nap and then hang out with my billets. I really like that lifestyle, but for sure at some point I do have to get back and take some classes.”

McCallum is buddies with Vancouver Giants goalie Burke Hood, another Brandonite who is finding success between the pipes. But when they take time to message each other, it’s seldom about hockey.

“When we do keep in touch, it’s more about the summer stuff like golf,” McCallum said. “We were golfing a lot in the summer so usually we’re just talking about the golf game. When I first got traded, we went right on the B.C. road trip so I got to visit with him in Vancouver.”

BIG CHANGES

Since that trip, Saskatoon is sporting a new look.

The Blades had the top spot in the Eastern Conference locked down for much of the season, but with the cupboards essentially bare of picks after a couple of years of being buyers, Saskatoon general manager Colin Priestner made the tough but necessary decision to recoup picks and younger players for his older stars.

Priestner traded top defenceman Tanner Molendyk and forwards Brandon Lisowsky and Ben Riche for nine draft picks plus overage forward Tanner Scott, 18-year-old forward Hunter Laing, 17-year-old forward Hayden Harsanyi, 17-year-old defenceman Jack Kachowski and 15-year-old defensive prospect Luke Dumas.

McCallum said the dressing room is doing just fine in the wake of the shakeup.

“We’re just really underrated from a fan and organization aspect and I think we are using that to our advantage honestly,” McCallum said. “We’re a very hard-working team and although we’ve had some struggles, we keep games very close and any given night, we’re making it competitive. It doesn’t matter the opponent, with leadership like Ben it’s pretty easy to play with because it calms everything down. Our coaches and all the guys come together and we know our jobs.

“In the past we were able to come back and battle through adversity and nothing has changed. You’re adding a couple of new guys and the new guys we’ve added are unbelievable people and hard working, so we’re not really too worried.”

On a personal level, McCallum wants to just keep building on his second chance. Thankfully, he considers Saskatoon the perfect place to do it.

“I just want to capitalize on my opportunity,” McCallum said. “Since the Christmas break, in the games I’ve been playing, I’m playing solid hockey. It’s only getting better with the practice and I’m grateful for the goalie coach (Jeff Harvey) we have here and to also have Gardner, who I personally think is the best of the best in our league.

“I think having him as a goalie partner is unbelievable. To battle against him every day and learn off his game on how I can get better is just something … I don’t even acknowledge how much I’m playing, I just love that I’m getting better.”

THIS AND THAT

• QUIZ — The Wheat Kings penalty killers have been around the top of the league for a while. This hasn’t been a traditional strength of the franchise, which statistically is more apt to finish in the bottom half of the WHL.

Here’s an over-under question. In the Internet era, has Brandon’s penalty kill finished in the top three more than three times?

• WEEKLY AWARDS — The player of the week is 19-year-old Brandon Wheat Kings captain Quinn Mantei of Weyburn, who had a goal and seven assists in three games. The last Wheat King to win the award was forward Roger McQueen on Sept. 23.

The goaltender of the week is Medicine Hat Tigers overage netminder Harrison Meneghin of South Surrey, B.C., who also won the award a week ago. He earned victories in both his appearances with a 1.50 goals-against average and a .941 save percentage as the Tigers began a U.S. Division road trip. He also won on Oct. 15.

The rookie of the week is 17-year-old Seattle Thunderbirds forward Matej Pekar of Prerov, Czechia, who had four goals in three games.

• SIN BIN — It was a quiet week around the league, with no suspensions.

• ALUMNI GLANCE — In his third pro season, 23-year-old Chad Nychuk of Rossburn has split the season between his current team, the American Hockey League’s Milwaukee Admirals (18gp, 0g, 3a, 12pim), and the ECHL’s Atlanta Gladiators (6gp, 1g, 0a, 0pim). Nychuk, who was listed by Brandon, played 206 regular season career WHL games — including three as a 16-year-old in 2017-18 — and posted 141 points over four full seasons between 2018 and 2022. As an overager in 2021-22, he led all WHL defencemen with 21 goals and posted 71 points overall, earning a spot on the East Division’s second all-star team.

• BIRTHDAY BOYS — The upcoming birthdays include Reid Duke (Jan. 28, 1996), Tanner Kaspick (Jan. 28, 1998), my late childhood buddy John Dzikowski (Jan. 28, 1966), Andrei Malyavin (Jan. 30, 2004), Garrett Sambrook (Jan. 30, 2000), Mark Dutiaume (Jan. 31, 1977), Wayne Ramsey (Jan. 31, 1957), Cole Reinhardt (Feb. 1, 2000), Bryan Kauk (Feb. 2, 1987), Jordin Tootoo (Feb. 2, 1983), Dustin Kohn (Feb. 2, 1987), Ben Thornton (Feb. 2, 2004) and Macoy Erkamps (Feb. 2, 1995).

• THE WEEK AHEAD — Brandon hosts the Red Deer Rebels on Wednesday at 7 p.m., and then returns to the road to visit the Moose Jaw Warriors on Friday at 7 p.m. and the Regina Pats on Saturday at 6 p.m. They have 25 games remaining in the regular season, with 13 at home and 12 on the road.

• ANSWER — Brandon has actually finished in the top three in the league four times since the 1996-97 season.

— 2019-20 (85.8 per cent, second);

— 2002-03 (85.9 per cent, third);

— 2001-02 (85.0 per cent, first);

— 1996-97 (80.5 per cent, second).