WHL NOTEBOOK: Saunderson elevates game in WHL

Nolan Saunderson hasn’t forgotten how far he’s come, and how quickly.

The 17-year-old Carberry defenceman is in his rookie season in the Western Hockey League, patrolling the blue-line for the Spokane Chiefs.

“It’s kind of hard to even put into words,” Saunderson said. “I was a little kid going to (Brandon) Wheat Kings games not too long ago, and now I’m playing in the same league, so it’s been pretty crazy.”

The six-foot, 177-pound defenceman had ample opportunity to get to Wheat Kings games because he moved to the city from Carberry to attend the Western Canada Hockey Academy for the 2021-22 season. That also meant he moved out of Southwest Cougars territory into Wheat Kings territory, which was certainly fortuitous from a winning perspective.

He was part of a highly skilled team that won Brandon’s first U15 AAA provincial championship in 2021-22, and then was the only returnee to a hard-working Wheat Kings club that repeated the next season.

Then he moved to the U18 team that posted the most points in league history as it went 59-4-1-0 and ultimately fell in the Telus Cup final. That team included eight players who moved on to the WHL, including Jaxon Jacobson, Brady Turko, Easton Odut, Josh McGregor, Burke Hood, Colten Worthington and Kaeson Fisher, although the latter two are back in Junior A now.

Saunderson said being part of that team was important for his development.

“Definitely in practice getting to compete against future WHL players and NHL-drafted players,” Saunderson said. “I think that really helped me for sure. And in games, it was completely different. Our systems were basically WHL level. “We had Jaxon Jacobson and Brady Turko, who are playing at the highest level right now in the Western League. It definitely prepared me for what it would be like.”

He spent his 16-year-old season with the U18 Wheat Kings that won the regular season title but lost in the final to the Winnipeg Wild, and was determined to make the jump to the WHL this fall.

Last summer, he skated with the WHL group that included his U18 teammates and others, and redoubled his efforts to prepare for Spokane’s camp.

“I knew this was a big year,” Saunderson said. “In your 17-year-old year, you always want to get a spot. I pushed all my chips in this summer. I think I worked probably as hard as I’ve ever worked in my life at the track, with the workouts, at the skates. “My eating was a big one this summer. I thought I locked in on that, which really helped me.”

It apparently worked. It was his third camp in Spokane, and he said each time he returned he felt a little more comfortable and the task got a little bit easier.

The Chiefs took 12 defencemen into the pre-season with Saunderson emerging as one of two rookies to make the cut.

“I thought I had a really good camp,” Saunderson said. “Coming in, I thought I did what I worked on in the summer really well. One thing I was really working on was my offence, and I think I did really well at that in camp. I had a good pre-season and cracked the roster.”

It wasn’t a matter of being called into a room and told he was staying. Instead, the guys he was competing with for a job gradually disappeared.

“As guys were leaving, it was ‘OK, I have a shot at this,’” Saunderson said. “Guys kept leaving and eventually it got down to the roster.”

While he played on some very good teams in Brandon, he was still making a massive jump. Saunderson played two regular season games with the Chiefs to start last season before returning home, and had also suited up in three pre-season games, but playing every night against major junior guys was an eye-opener.

“It’s a completely different game than playing U18,” Saunderson said. “You have guys who are six-four who can skate and make plays and score. They were the best players on their U18 teams coming up. Even the worst players are guys I’ve never really played against who are really good.”

Naturally, that’s meant his game has been forced to evolve. The biggest change is how he computes the game.

“You have to make quicker decisions for sure,” Saunderson said. “You have to make decisions in a split second, or else you have someone coming to take the puck off you. I also think it’s been more physical, and using your body as an advantage really helps you make those plays for sure.”

Saunderson has suited up in 11 of his team’s 22 games — they’re carrying seven defencemen — and has two goals, no assists, and no penalty minutes. He has a plus-minus of +1.

He’s played the most with Hamiota’s Kaden Allan, another 17-year-old who Spokane grabbed in the 2023 draft. Allan went in the second round, 22nd overall, while Saunderson was grabbed in the fifth round, 90th overall.

The two previously played on Team Manitoba together, but the former AAA Wheat King and Yellowhead Chiefs blue-liners spent more time skating against each other. They have mutual friends and were always kind of acquainted, however.

This year is different, and Saunderson said it’s nice to have another small-town Manitoban on the team.

“He’s someone who gets me for sure,” Saunderson said. “The one thing we joke about is the mountains here and that in Manitoba it’s a little bit different scenery.”

Spokane, which is located 175 kilometres south of the border straight south of Golden, B.C., is a major city of about 600,000 people in the metro area that lies between the Selkirk Mountains and the Rocky Mountain foothills.

“It’s different for sure,” Saunderson said. “I’ve really noticed the driving. I live outside the city, and getting on the freeway my first couple of times was pretty scary. “It’s completely different growing up in a small town, I knew everybody, I knew all my neighbours, and this, I’ve never seen anything like it, really.”

On a good day with light traffic, he can get to the rink in about 15 minutes. On a bad day, the trip might take twice that.

Happily, several other Chiefs also live in their area.

He’s especially pleased about billeting with fellow 17-year-old defenceman Rhett Sather, who is from Cochrane, Alta.

“I didn’t really know what to expect coming here my first year living with a billet, but it’s been nice to have another teammate, especially who’s been through it the last year,” Saunderson said. “He’s showing me around and what to do. It’s been good.”

While Saunderson is in Grade 12, he does his work online in a classroom provided by the team. He also took extra courses last year, which has cut his workload this season.

The defenceman considers himself a good student, which is even more important now that the NCAA is open to major junior players.

“That’s a thing we just went over with my parents and our academic advisor,” Saunderson said. “We just went through all my schooling to make sure I was on pace to go NCAA. That’s definitely cool.”

His brother Ben, the former Saskatoon Blades captain who graduated after last season, had committed to Quinnipiac University last December but changed his mind and headed to the University of Saskatchewan instead. The two talk when they can, although both are busy with hockey and school.

The younger Saunderson has certainly had some news to share when they chatted.

In his sixth game this season — and the eighth of his WHL career — Saunderson potted his first WHL goal at Numerica Veterans Arena on Oct. 26. The Chiefs were trailing the Everett Silvertips 2-0 early in the second period when Chiefs forward Brody Gillespie sent a pass back along the boards.

Saunderson picked up the puck and fired a wrist shot at the net that went through a maze of bodies and past Silvertips goalie Raiden LeGall of Morden, a former member of the U15 and U18 Pembina Valley Hawks.

The goal came at the 2:09 mark of the second period, with Cohen Harris also drawing an assist.

“It wasn’t a great game for us, but I just got the puck up the wall and shoot it on net and it went in,” Saunderson said. “I actually thought it got tipped at the time, which it didn’t. It was pretty cool to get my first goal.”

Spokane was projected to be a top club this season, but it sure didn’t help when their best player, 19-year-old forward Berkly Catton, made the Seattle Kraken roster and is now playing in the National Hockey League instead.

Still, the Chiefs are 12-10-0-0 and sitting in sixth place in the Western Conference in a logjam of eight teams that are within six points of each other.

Saunderson is thrilled to be right in the middle of it.

“It’s a big adjustment for sure, but I’ve been happy with the way I’ve been playing,” Saunderson said. “I fit right in with the guys who have been here for three or four years already. It’s definitely a learning experience, but I keep building my game to where I want it to be.”

But that doesn’t mean he’s satisfied.

“You want to get comfortable with playing in the league, but also you want to push yourself to keep climbing up in the lineup and making an impact.”

THIS AND THAT

• QUIZ — The Wheat Kings are 1-0 in shootouts this season. Since the shootout began in the 2005-06 season, is Brandon more likely to win or lose when the game goes past overtime into the skills competition?

• WEEKLY AWARDS — The player of the week is 17-year-old Kamloops Blazers forward JP Hurlbert of Allen, Texas, who had four goals and two assists in three games.

The goaltender of the week is 17-year-old Kelowna Rockets netminder Harrison Boettiger of Wheat Ridge, Colo., who won both his starts with a 1.53 goals-against average and a .955 save percentage.

The rookie of the week is 16-year-old Moose Jaw Warriors defenceman Colt Carter of Drayton Valley, Alta., who posted five assists in two games, with three of them coming in a loss to the Wheat Kings.

• TRADE FRONT — No deals have been made since Nov. 14.

• SIN BIN — Kelowna was fined $750 for a multiple-fight situation and instigator versus the Portland Winterhawks on Saturday, while Portland was fined $500. There hasn’t been a player suspension since Nov. 8.

• ALUMNI GLANCE — Here’s a quick look at last year’s Wheat Kings who are playing in the NCAA this winter.

— Marcus Nguyen, University of Nebraska-Omaha, 12 games played, three goals, four assists, 24 penalty minutes.

— Luke Shipley, UMass-Lowell, 12gp, 0g, 3a, 3p, 4pim.

— Nolan Flamand, Merrimack College, 11gp, 1g, 3a, 4p, 6pim.

— Quinn Mantei, Providence College, 13gp, 1g, 3a, 4p, 8pim.

— Roger McQueen, Providence College, 13gp, 4g, 7a, 11p, 27pim.

— Matteo Michels, University of Vermont, 11gp, 0g, 2a, 2p, 4pim.

• THE WEEK AHEAD — The Wheat Kings have a light week, playing just once when the Prince Albert Raiders come to town on Friday at 7 p.m.

• ANSWER — Perhaps one of the weirdest stats in the history of the Wheat Kings — a team usually built around fleet forwards — is they aren’t great at shootouts. In the 20 seasons the shootout has been staged, Brandon has had a winning record just five times, in 2023-24 (2-1), 2016-17 (5-3), 2008-09 (5-2), 2007-08 (4-3), and 2005-06 (5-4).

They had an even record in five seasons and lost the other 10. They are 48-63 overall.

In 2010-11, they went an incredible 0-8. That was part of a six-year span when they lost every year.

Last year Brandon went 1-3.

If there is one shining moment for the team, it was when they went 3-for-3 on Nov. 11, 2022, with Brett Hyland, Nolan Ritchie, and Jake Chiasson all sniping, while Carson Bjarnason made two of three saves in a 3-2 victory over the Red Deer Rebels.