WHL NOTEBOOK: Skvortsov fits in quickly with Wheat Kings

As it turns out, Daniil Skvortsov was always meant to be a member of the Brandon Wheat Kings.

The 18-year-old Russian defenceman was targeted by the Western Hockey League team in the 2024 Canadian Hockey League draft, but they watched helplessly as the Ontario Hockey League’s Guelph Storm nabbed him with the 27th overall pick. Brandon later took Czech defender Adam Belusko with the 41st pick.

On Nov. 6, they got their man anyway when they claimed him on waivers from Guelph.

Skvortsov knew he was on waivers because he asked for it, and was pleased to hear from Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray again.

“It was my decision,” Skvortsov said. “I wanted to change something and refresh. I talked to Marty two years ago before Guelph took me in the import draft, so I knew Marty a little bit. When he called me when I was on waivers, I was so happy. I said yes because I was so happy to be part of the team.”

Brandon’s move to claim Skvortsov came after 19-year-old Czech defender Adam Hlinsky went home to deal with a vexing lower-body injury that continued to cause him problems. He only suited up for two games in Brandon, and while he hasn’t been released, there is no timetable for a potential return.

They also lost 19-year-old defenceman Merrek Arpin in the pre-season to a long-term injury, so they were down to six defenders after Hlinsky left.

“We needed seven defencemen — you can’t go with six — and Adam was going through some personal stuff,” Murray said. “I’ll leave it at that. He decided to go home, and we needed a guy. Danny (Skvortsov) was a guy we talked about two years ago in the draft and a guy we were familiar with through his agency. We thought he would come in and fill a void.”

The club will have to make a decision on Hlinsky’s future at some point, in part because Brandon also has the rights to 17-year-old Finnish defenceman Samu Alalauri. Murray has been in touch with him and his agent, but there’s not much clarity on his future yet.

“We’re hoping to see him in a Wheat Kings uniform at some point, whether it’s Christmas, but that might be a stretch,” Murray said. “It’s probably next year.”

The Wheat Kings put the waiver claim in on Skvortsov on Wednesday, Nov. 5, and found out they were successful the next morning. That created a mad logistical rush to get him to Alberta to join the team during a road trip. He flew out of Toronto to Calgary later that evening.

“It was a big day,” Skvortsov said. “I woke up in the morning and Marty made a call to me and said, ‘Daniil, we took you from the waivers and you’re flying in the evening.’ I just packed my things and flew to Calgary and stayed overnight, and in the morning, Marty picked me up, and I was ready to play in the game in Lethbridge.”

Murray drove the 450-km round trip from Lethbridge, where the team had arrived on the bus the night before.

“I rented a car in Lethbridge and drove to the airport to pick him up,” Murray said. “It was a quick little turnaround for him too. My part was easy, but for him, finding out Thursday that we got him and then packing up and flying in during the evening on Thursday and staying overnight and picking him up early Friday morning was a quick introduction to our team, and then it was right into a game against Lethbridge.”

The left-shooting defenceman was in the lineup that night in a wild 8-7 loss to the Hurricanes.

Skvortsov is a native of Kaluga, Russia, a community of more than 330,000 people located 180 kilometres southwest of Moscow.

He came up through the CSKA Moscow system, playing with the under-16, U17, and U18 teams and later the famous Red Army junior team in the Krasnaya Armiya Moskva, Russia’s top junior league.

In addition, he was an alternate captain on the U16 and U17 Russian national teams in 2022-23 and 2023-24.

When Guelph selected him, they were excited about the pick.

“Daniil fills a very specific need for our hockey club,” Guelph general manager George Burnett said in a team release after selecting Skvortsov. “A left-shot defenceman who brings a combination of great size, puck-moving ability, and compete. Even as a young player, he played very successfully last season in the top Russian junior league.”

The big Russian defender admits it wasn’t an easy transition. He studied a little bit of English in school, but picked most of it up after he arrived in Ontario, and now speaks it really well.

“It was pretty hard,” Skvortsov said. “It was a new country for me, a new language, everything was new, new team, new hockey, new rink. After a little bit of time, maybe a few months, I began to feel better.”

The team didn’t do quite as well.

The Storm (21-38-5-4) finished last in the Midwest Division and posted the second-worst record in the 20-team league.

“It was a pretty good season, but we had a young team and we were the last team so it wasn’t great,” Skvortsov said. “We didn’t make the playoffs. This year Guelph played a little bit better, but I wanted to refresh and change my team so I’m here.”

Skvortsov, who had five goals and 13 assists in 59 games last season, was assigned a C rating on the National Hockey League’s Central Scouting’s players to watch list in October, 2024. He was listed 79th among North American skaters in the mid-term rankings and subsequently placed at 154th in the final report.

He also played in the Connor McDavid OHL top prospects game, but ultimately wasn’t drafted.

“It felt good, but I was a little bit frustrated after the draft,” Skvortsov said of being noticed by Central Scouting. “I still have two years and I’m working hard. I want to be drafted this year.”

Still, Skvortsov attended development camp with the Calgary Flames this fall.

“It was pretty good,” Skvortsov said. “I played one rookie game, which was pretty nice. I played pretty good I think. I got an assist, one point, and I played pretty good defence, but it’s a new level. The guys are older and heavier and faster, but it was a great experience for me.”

He had one point in six games with Guelph this season and had been a healthy scratch for seven games when the Storm put him on waivers. His arrival gave the Wheat Kings their only 2007-born, 18-year-old defenceman after none of the four blue-liners they drafted in 2022 stuck with the club.

In four games in Brandon since his arrival, he has an assist, two penalty minutes and a plus-minus of -1.

“We’ve been happy with what we’ve seen out of him,” Murray said. “He’s a presence out there. He’s a big body and added some size on the back end. One area we lacked on our depth chart was ‘07 defencemen so he fills a void there. I think he’s going to be a strong, every-day player for us for a couple of years here. “He’s getting acclimated to everything but he’s done a real good job of fitting in.”

With the quick move to the WHL, the support of the players was fundamental to his success, and Skvortsov said his new teammates have been great as he finds his way.

“All the guys were good,” Skvortsov said. “Everyone on defence was very good. They tried to help me the first time and tried to support me. It was a new structure for me. It’s a little bit new hockey. It’s different than the OHL, but I just tried to do my best.”

He said there is more defensive structure in the WHL, and it’s heavier hockey with more hitting, which he likes.

The six-foot-four, 200-pound Skvortsov, who describes himself as a two-way defenceman, has a game built more on his speed, positional play and anticipation than punishing physical play.

The other big transition is from Guelph, a city of 120,000 located 70 kilometres from Toronto, to a smaller city on the Prairies. But his first impression has been a good one.

“I love it,” Skvortsov said. “I like Brandon as a city, I like the team and we have a pretty nice dressing room. I just hang out with the guys.”

And that helps a lot. His new coach said the personality of the defenceman — he seems to have a perpetual grin on his face — has made the move to Brandon much, much easier.

“He’s a really eager kid and happy,” Murray said. “He’s always got a smile on his face, he’s fit right in with the guys. He has a little bit of character to him. He’s happy to be a Wheat King, and we’re certainly happy to have him here.”

Skvortsov’s goal now is simple. He wants his offensively gifted club to make the playoffs, something he thinks will happen when they tighten up their defensive play. He noted they have a talented group of defencemen and the improvement should happen with some hard work.

On a more personal note, he’s eager to contribute whatever he can.

“It’s a little bit hard because it’s a transition,” Skvortsov said. “Everything happened really fast for me, but I’m here to play and show my best.”

THIS AND THAT

• QUIZ — The Wheat Kings are currently averaging five goals per game, which in a 68-game season works out to 340. When did they last score that many goals? How many times has it happened in Brandon’s 58-year history in the WHL prior to this season?

• WEEKLY AWARDS — The player of the week is 17-year-old Medicine Hat Tigers forward Liam Ruck of Osoyoos, B.C., who had three goals and three assists in two games.

The goaltender of the week is 19-year-old Everett Silvertips netminder Anders Miller of Anchorage, Alaska, who went 2-0-0-0 with a shutout, a 1.00 goals-against average and a .955 save percentage in his two appearances.

The rookie of the week is 16-year-old Seattle Thunderbirds forward Brock England of Red Deer, Alta., who had two goals and four assists in a pair of games.

• TRADE FRONT — The Wenatchee Wild made a pair of deals last week, acquiring 19-year-old forward Nolan Caffey of Belmont, Calif., from the Everett Silvertips on Wednesday for an eighth-round pick in 2029, and 17-year-old forward Zane Torre of Ladera Ranch, Calif., from the Red Deer Rebels on Thursday for a fifth-round pick in 2028.

On Friday, the Everett Silvertips shipped overage defenceman Rylan Pearce to the Regina Pats for a fifth-round pick in 2028.

• SIN BIN — There have been no player suspensions since Nov. 8, but Lethbridge Hurricanes general manager Peter Anholt and Swift Current Broncos coach Dean DeSilva were both disciplined and their teams fined for breaches of the WHL’s standard of conduct. In both cases, it involved inappropriate treatment of players.

• ALUMNI GLANCE — Macoy Erkamps is with the Iserlohn Roosters of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), the top league in Germany, after two-and-a-half seasons in Sweden. He has an assist in 19 games this season.

The 30-year-old defensive defenceman from Delta, B.C., spent the first six years of his pro career split between the American Hockey League and the ECHL before heading to Europe in 2022-23.

He was acquired by the Wheat Kings on Sept. 30, 2014, with forward Reid Duke and prospect Tak Anholt for Ryley Lindgren, Brett Kitt and Kord Pankewicz, and played 180 regular season and playoff games with Brandon. He was named captain for the 2015-16 season as the team won the league title. Over five WHL seasons, he played 341 regular season games and 40 playoff games.

• THE WEEK AHEAD — The Wheat Kings head out on the road this week, getting the Moose Jaw Warriors tonight, the Prince Albert Raiders on Friday, and the Saskatoon Blades on Saturday.

• ANSWER — The last time the Wheat Kings scored 340 goals or more was when they hit exactly 340 in the 2014-15 campaign as they won the regular season title and then lost in the final to the Kelowna Rockets.

It’s happened 11 times overall in the franchise’s WHL history.

The other 10 years they’ve scored that many are 1995-96 (369), 1992-93 (347), 1987-88 (348), 1983-84 (463), 1981-82 (372), 1980-81 (342), 1978-79 (491), 1977-78 (424), 1976-77 (447), and 1975-76 (341).

It’s worth noting the league went to a 68-game season in 2018-19 after previously playing 72 games.