Lavoie lends big presence on back end

Max Lavoie’s hockey career has involved a steady climb upwards. Now the Brandon Wheat Kings are at the top of the mountain.

The 19-year-old defenceman from Victoria has gone from Junior B to Junior A in the last two years and is now targeting major junior.

“Stepping up a league every year in my junior career so far shows how much I’m willing to improve,” Lavoie said. “I think it’s just a testament to myself and the hard work I’ve put in over the years. It’s pretty cool that I’m close to the top now.”

The Wheat Kings were in action last night in a Western Hockey League pre-season game against the host Regina Pats that ended after the deadline.

Lavoie always played defence, with his father, Marc, putting him in pads once and firing shots at him. That quickly cured him of any inclinations of being in net.

But he sure didn’t stray far from the crease.

“A good night for me honestly is keeping the puck out of the net, asserting myself physically on the ice and making it hard for the other team to get to the net, and keeping them away from the puck,” Lavoie said. “And making that first good pass and getting the puck out of the zone and getting it up to our forwards, and being a physical presence out there.”

The left-shooting Lavoie came up through the Pacific Coast Academy, a prep school located in Victoria where Wheat Kings prospect Tristan Follick now plays.

After two seasons there — including the 2020-21 season mostly lost to COVID — he made the jump to the under-18 Island Wild in the Junior Prospects Hockey League in the 2022-23 campaign.

A year later, the big defenceman launched his junior career with the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League’s Saanich Predators, where he had 12 goals, 17 assists, and 59 penalty minutes in 41 games.

The Predators also won the Junior B championship, with Lavoie posting nine more points in 17 playoff games.

“With a year like that, it taught me a lot about winning and what it takes to win a championship,” Lavoie said. “That was my first year going through rounds of playoffs, going from minor hockey to junior like that. It taught me about the battle and the camaraderie it takes to win a championship.”

He jumped to the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Winkler Flyers last season on the advice of his advisor.

In 58 games, he had seven goals, 25 assists, and 37 penalty minutes, and added another goal in 10 playoff contests.

“I just heard so many great things about that place,” Lavoie said. “I talked to Coltyn Bates and Matt Melo, the coach there, and they’re two of my favourite guys. I just knew it would be a perfect fit right away when they called me. I had lots of opportunity there, and the Winkler Flyers’ play style fit my play style.

“It really helped me develop my big, physical game that I can bring here.”

The 28-year-old Brandon product Bates has since accepted a job as an assistant coach with the Coventry Blaze of the Elite Ice Hockey League after three years as a player and three as a coach in Winkler.

Even with the help of Bates and Melo, Lavoie admitted it was a stout jump in the level of competition.

“It was a pretty big step, to be honest,” Lavoie said. “The first few games, it was definitely challenging until I found my game. In the VI, I was more of a skilled defenceman, especially in Junior B. It really helped me find my game in the MJ, being that big physical D-man, and then it just suited me very well. The rest of the year was really good.”

Lavoie quickly found success at the new level, participating in the MJHL-SJHL Showdown in January and later being named to the league’s all-rookie team.

“That was so cool,” Lavoie said. “At the start of the season, I wasn’t thinking about the all-rookie team. It happened so quick.”

And so did the next thing.

Lavoie found out he had been listed by the Wheat Kings when he received a call on March 15 from Brandon’s director of hockey operations, Chris Moulton. Suddenly he had a new mountain to climb.

“That was my entire summer,” Lavoie said. “As soon as that phone call happened, that was my only goal, going to Brandon camp and making the team. My entire summer was based around making Brandon.”

In an age when fleet, puck-moving defenders have become all the rage, the six-foot-three, 206-pound blue-liner is a bit of a throwback. He’s unabashedly a defensive defenceman with some snarl in his game.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said it helps that Lavoie understands what makes him effective.

“He’s been real solid all camp,” Murray said. “We listed him last winter, and I know he’s been geared up all summer to come in and make our hockey club. He’s done a real good job. Now we’ll get him into some exhibition games, and he’ll get a real good look.

“I think we’re clear about what we need out of him. He needs to be a defensive defenceman and play with a little bit of an edge. He’s done that and shown really good leadership as well for a guy who is in his first few days here.”

Lavoie is one of 11 defencemen still around, although that includes 15-year-old Cruz Jim and a pair of 16-year-olds in Easton Turko and Ethan Young.

With five returning veterans in Gio Pantelas, Nigel Boehm, Dylan Ronald, Merrek Arpin, and the newly acquired Grayson Burzynski, he is also competing with Cameron Allard and Czech defender Adam Hlinsky for seven or eight jobs.

He’s fighting that battle as he once again becomes accustomed to a new level of the game.

“Everybody can make plays,” Lavoie said. “You give it to the forwards, and you know they’re going to be able to make a play. The speed is so fast out there, but it makes it a lot more fun when it’s fast like that. It’s been a blast out here.”

This is actually his third shot at the WHL after he attended camp with the Vancouver Giants at 16 and his hometown Victoria Royals at 18. This time he wants to stick.

“It’s my dream,” Lavoie said. “I’ve been dreaming since the draft when I didn’t get drafted. It’s been my goal ever since.

ICINGS: The Pats visit Assiniboine Credit Union Place tonight at 6 p.m. in a pre-season rematch. In a new look for home games this season, the Wheat Kings face off on Saturdays at 6 p.m., and 4 o’clock on Sundays. Week-night games still start at 7. The exceptions are 2:30 starts on Tuesday, Nov. 11, and Monday, Feb. 16, and 2 o’clock on Thursday, Jan. 1.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com