WHL NOTEBOOK: McKercher settles in with Wheat Kings

Jake McKercher is a long way from home, and looking forward to getting even a little further away.

The 35-year-old Ottawa product joined the Brandon Wheat Kings as their new equipment manager in mid-July, and while he’s had a look at the Western Hockey League rinks in Regina and Moose Jaw so far, he’s eager to see more.

It will be a big change for McKercher, who got his start in the Ontario Hockey League.

“I think it’s cool,” McKercher said. “I’m a rink rat. I’m here way more than I probably need to be. I’m here way too early but I just like being at the rink. I’ve been to two rinks so far, and it’s just cool to see something new.

“I’ve seen the OHL rinks forever, so to walk into something new and the surroundings in the WHL where all of a sudden there’s a small city and there’s a rink and you’re right into it. “You go from flatland into a small city. It will be interesting.”

While McKercher never played the game at a high level, it’s always meant a lot to him. In fact, he doesn’t remember hockey ever not being important to him.

“For most kids growing up in Canada or in Ottawa, hockey is kind of life,” McKercher said. “You grow up loving it and watching it on Hockey Night In Canada every Saturday. You try and play as much hockey as you can as a kid. I didn’t play too, too much but played until I was 16, 17, and realized ‘You’re not that good, you can’t really play anymore.”

McKercher worked at Sport Chek, Pro Hockey Life and Best Buy selling televisions. As part of the Best Buy job, he was doing some work for former National Hockey League player Mike Eastwood, who was an assistant coach with the Ottawa 67s at the time.

The two began to chat as they waited for some stuff to arrive, and Eastwood asked him if he was interested in the coaching side of hockey.

“It was ‘No, not really, I love the equipment side just from working at Sport Check and Pro Hockey Life and those jobs,” McKercher said. “The conversation ended there, but an hour or two later he came back and said ‘I don’t know if there is a position or money in it, but I talked to Chris Hamilton, the equipment guy for the 67s, and you can meet him on Friday and have a conversation.”

They chatted for two or three hours, and after determining McKercher was a good guy to hang out with — a must for the long days behind-the-scenes hockey staff work — McKercher was invited to come out and lend a hand.

NEW PATH

McKercher quickly learned the scope of the job went well beyond anything he might have imagined from the outside.

“You really don’t understand what goes on behind the scenes as an equipment manager,” McKercher said. “If the Internet doesn’t work, it’s your fault. If there is not enough toilet paper, that’s on you, all those little things. A lot of people don’t understand how much laundry there actually is. It really opened my eyes to how much goes into it … It’s a crazy, crazy job.”

That initial taste eventually led to a position as a full-time assistant, with McKercher working at a golf course during the summer. He was still working as an assistant with the 67s when the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees fired their equipment manager.

They were scrambling to find someone, and their staff and the 67s staff knew each other. McKercher was asked if he wanted to go over, but he didn’t want to leave the OHL. The next day, he was very nicely told he had to do it, although he was still able to lend a hand with the 67s when he could.

He did half a year as head guy with the Gee-Gees and then returned to the OHL club. After seven years as an assistant, he took a job with the Guelph Storm as the equipment manager.

He applied in part because the jobs seldom open up unless a person is moving up, they don’t come open a lot. He was also comfortable with the logistics of everything and thought he could run his own team, although Hamilton still handled things like orders.

“Once jobs started to open up, I was confident in myself, and Chris was confident that I could do it,” McKercher said. “So I tried it.”

He said the move up to equipment manager involved another big learning curve, in part because anything that went wrong landed on his plate. He leaned heavily on Hamilton and other guys he knew in the OHL for their help on the small things like knowing how much tape or laces he needed to order.

McKercher spent three years in Guelph before a job came open with the Ottawa Charge of the Professional Women’s Hockey League. Just like with the Gee-Gees, the Charge got rid of their equipment manager mid-season, and since McKercher was an Ottawa guy, they knew him and quickly reached out.

“To be able to go home and work in pro hockey, it was one of those leaps in career advancement,” McKercher said. “The bonus was to go home. I made that decision to move up in the world and spent the rest of the year there. It was amazing what they’re doing for women’s hockey.”

By coincidence, one of the players he got to know was Charge blue-liner Ashton Bell of Deloraine, who was subsequently claimed in the expansion draft this summer by the new team in Vancouver. McKercher said Bell was an easy person to work with during the season. “She was awesome,” McKercher said. “She’s super down to earth, very laid back. She knew what she wanted with her equipment, she was very adamant about what she wanted, but easy to talk to and always happy. She’s great.”

But that didn’t make everything easy. After the PWHL season ended, McKercher decided junior hockey was a better fit for him and applied for the Brandon job.

“Being a male in a female sport, especially on the female side of it, had its challenges,” McKercher said. “It was awesome for what it was. You’re not in the room, you’re not doing a lot of that stuff once the athletes show up. “I kind of knew once I was away from junior hockey that my calling is to be in junior hockey. I love the age group, I love the guys. They keep me young.”

McKercher spoke to Wheat Kings head coach and general manager Marty Murray, and had some people reach out on his behalf. He was officially hired in July, and made the 26-hour drive out from Ottawa about a week later.

McKercher chuckled when asked about the difference between working with predominantly teenage boys in junior hockey and adult women at the pro level.

“I don’t want to say maturity, but definitely maturity,” McKercher said. “I was dealing with married females with families and kids. They were very, very much professional. A lot of them were on Hockey Canada or Team USA, they were no joke. They were professional and legit. “Being in junior hockey before and now after, you see the difference. When the ladies came to the rink, they were professional. Obviously they had fun and had good teammates around them, but when you come here (to Brandon), my first couple of days with the true team after training camp, it was ‘Oh my goodness, these guys are so young.’

“These guys aren’t immature, but you have to remember they’re kids.”

TRAIL BLAZER

Brandon didn’t have a full-time equipment manager until Scott Hlady was given the role for the 2016-17 season, and he carefully built up his department through recent expansions and renovations. The team has its laundry room off the hallway to the north end of the Keystone Centre, while his office is just off the dressing room.

The meticulous Hlady then handed it over to his successor after he left to join the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League.

“It was left in great condition,” McKercher said. “Having the laundry room this size, having ample storage, the room was recently renovated and is beautiful, my office is right beside the locker room so everything is right there. We have brand new tools, a brand new sharpener, it was very easy to walk into. Also, the guys I have around me, the five or six guys who help out on game days and randomly during the week has been easy as well.”

McKercher spoke to Hlady after he got the job and met him in person when he popped by to see of the guys during camp.

Athletic therapist Zach Hartwick, who joined the club in August 2021, noted he and McKercher work closely together, so getting along is important. He likes what he’s seen.

“He’s been great so far,” Hartwick said. “He’s really easy to get along with, a pretty easy-going guy. We spend a lot of time together so that’s a huge part of being a partner in the job.”

Hartwick came on board after William Sadonick-Carriere took a job with the Moose and then subsequently made the jump to the National Hockey League’s Ottawa Senators as an assistant athletic therapist.

Since Hartwick, who is also from Ontario, had the benefit of working with the veteran Hlady, he is now paying that forward by doing what he can to ease McKercher’s transition.

“He’s caught on pretty quick on how things run and out his own tough on things too, which is good,” said Hartwick, who has also worked as an equipment manager in the past. “Scoots did things the same way for 10-plus years so you can’t expect it to be the exact same. “He’s been good with everything the coaches need, and the stuff I chip in and help out with. I like to sharpen skates every once in a while so he lets me on the sharpener.”

McKercher, who tries to be pretty laid back with the players, said it’s been nice to have Hartwick’s experience to draw on. That was especially the case when he was then thrown into training camp with 77 kids, which is far larger than the camps he’s accustomed to in the OHL.

“I don’t want to pump his tires too much because I have to work with him every day, but honestly he’s been amazing,” McKercher said of Hartwick. “He’s been there since day one and helped me along with everything, ‘This is how we do it, this is how Marty wants it.’ That’s a big thing too, learning how the coaches want things.”

With the benefit of his work in two other leagues with four other teams — and the help of his new buddy Hartwick — McKercher is rapidly finding his way in Brandon. But after all, it is his calling.

“I’ve been in the CHL before so the transition isn’t anything too, too crazy,” McKercher said. “The travel is different but all the rules are the same with the regulations for what guys get and don’t get. It’s all the same I’ve dealt with so it helps with the transition of learning a whole new league.”

THIS AND THAT

• QUIZ — Brandon has already participated in its first overtime game of the season, the 5-4 loss to the Prince Albert Raiders on Saturday. When is the last time the Wheat Kings played in fewer than 10 overtimes in a full regular season? What’s the record for fewest in the Internet era? What’s your guess for the most OT games they’ve played in a season?

• NEW ARRIVAL — Czech goalie Filip Ruzicka finally arrived in Brandon on Monday after a standoff with his club back home ended. The 17-year-old netminder, who stands six-foot-six, was Brandon’s third pick in the most recent CHL import draft.

• ROSTER NEWS — Veteran forward Ben Binder Nord, 18, has been reassigned, although his destination hasn’t yet been decided. The team is now carrying three goalies, 14 forwards and seven defencemen. The latter number doesn’t include blue-liner Merrek Arpin, who is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury.

• WEEKLY AWARDS — The player of the week is 17-year-old Kamloops Blazers forward J.P. Hurlbert of Allen, Texas, who had three goals and three assists in two games. He is the current scoring leader in the league with six goals.

The goaltender of the week is 17-year-old Kamloops Blazers netminder Logan Edmonstone of Saskatoon, who posted a 38-save shutout in his lone appearance, a 6-0 win over the Seattle Thunderbirds on Saturday.

The rookie of the week is 16-year-old Wheat Kings forward Chase Surkan, who had two goals and one assist in his team’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Prince Albert Raiders. The youngster is tied for third in league scoring among rookies with seven points on four goals and three assists in three games.

“That’s unreal,” Surkan said after practice on Monday when informed of the honour. “I don’t even know what to say. I didn’t know won it until now.”

• SIN BIN — No suspensions have been announced since Sept. 22.

• TRADE FRONT — There have no deals since Sept. 22.

• ALUMNI GLANCE — Former Wheat Kings froward Zakhar Polshakov, 22, is suiting up this season with Kristall Saratov in the VHL, the second level of pro hockey in Russia. The Belarusian forward spent two seasons in Brandon, posting 50 points in 118 games as he was pressed into a defensive role with the club. Polshakov is serving as an alternate captain this season with Kristall Saratov, where he has an assist in eight games. He spent last season with the VHL’s Olimpiya Kirovo-Chepetsk, where he had a goal in 18 games. After Brandon didn’t bring him back for his overage season in 2023-24, he played with the NAHL’s Corpus Christi IceRays, posting 31 points in 53 games.

• THE WEEK AHEAD — Brandon hosts the Edmonton Oil Kings on Saturday evening at 6, and the Saskatoon Blades on Sunday afternoon at 4.

• ANSWER — You have to go all the way back to the 2015-16 season to find fewer than 10 regular season overtime games. They played in nine OT games that year, going 1-4 in overtime and 2-2 in shootouts. They saved the best for last, however, winning all four overtime games in the playoffs, including the first three games of the league final against the Seattle Thunderbirds.

Nine games is actually their record low in a full season, a mark they also achieved in 2009-10, 1997-98 and 1996-97. The franchise high for overtimes came when they played extra hockey 19 times in 2005-06 and 2016-17. The 2005-06 team, which included current Wheat Kings coaches Mark Derlago and Tyler Plante, went 4-6 in overtime and 5-4 in shootouts.

The 2016-17 squad went 4-7 in overtime and 5-3 in shootouts.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com