WHL NOTEBOOK: Allan weathers tumultuous season

In 30 years, Kaden Allan might still be shaking his head over the 2025-26 season.

The 17-year-old Saskatoon Blades defenceman from Hamiota has faced a pair of injuries and a trade in his second Western Hockey League season, but he tries to find the good in everything.

“I battled through a couple of injuries but it was good,” Allan said. “I have nothing bad to say about Spokane, I loved it there. I’m just excited to be here in Saskatoon.”

Allan was drafted 24th overall by the Spokane Chiefs in 2023, and debuted last season. He posted five points in 44 regular season games and suited up in 19 playoff games as the Chiefs made it all the way to the league final before they lost in five games to the Medicine Hat Tigers.

While the six-foot-three, 182-pound left-handed shot was in and out of the lineup, which isn’t unusual for a 16-year-old defenceman, he benefited just from being there.

“Last year we went for a while so that a great experience that you can’t really get from anything else,” Allan said. “We had a lot of great players on that team and I was trying to pick their brains and be a sponge, even when you knew you weren’t going to be playing as much. I just tried to learn from those guys.”

If he was hoping to build on that experience this season, it came apart in his fourth game. On Oct. 3, the Chiefs were facing the Prince George Cougars when he blocked a shot by highly touted defenceman Carson Carels of Cypress River that broke his pinkie finger.

It was the first time he was ever injured.

“I was out for quite a bit just getting it back and making sure I could grip my stick enough,” Allan said.

Still, the National Hockey League’s Central Scouting assigned him a W grade in October as a watch player for consideration in the sixth and seventh rounds.

He returned to the lineup on Oct. 29, but on Dec. 9, Allan and 19-year-old forward Elias Pul of Germany were acquired by Saskatoon for a former Brandon Wheat King, 20-year-old centre Dominik Petr, and a fifth-round pick in 2029.

“I was super excited to see that it was Saskatoon and being somewhere closer to home,” Allan said, adding that didn’t make it any easier. “Especially getting drafted by Spokane and all those older guys brought me into the Western. I had most of my best friends on that team so it was obviously tough but Saskatoon was super welcoming and I love it here.”

On the Saskatoon website, Blades general manager and president Colin Priestner said it made sense for his club to bring in the promising defender.

“I felt over the last month our group was in need of a shakeup,” Priestner said. “With the significant long-term injuries we have on the blue-line, we thought it was a great opportunity to add a big 17-year-old defenceman that we feel has a great chance to be drafted to the NHL this summer.”

There are a lot behind-the-scenes things that have to happen after a trade, and one of them is a player getting his vehicle to his new city. It’s especially difficult if a player flies to join a team immediately.

But Allan was able to take care of it the old-fashioned way, by getting in behind the wheel for the 1,352-km drive. If he had any intentions of making good time, Mother Nature quickly dashed them, however.

“It was storming really bad so I was stuck in Medicine Hat for a couple of days,” Allan said. “It was a long trip to get there.”

He didn’t even have Pul’s company for the drive, since the forward flew to join Germany for the world juniors.

That also meant he had just one familiar face in the Blades dressing room when he arrived, former Chief Tyler Parr.

“It was a fresh open book,” Allan said. “I didn’t know what to expect.”

He said the fact he had changed teams when he was younger — from the Yellowhead Chiefs AAA system to the Rink Hockey Academy to Spokane — made the change a little easier.

“At the end of the day, everyone is a hockey player,” Allan said. “Everyone is kind of the same and they make it pretty easy.”

He made his Blades debut on Dec. 13 in a road game against the Moose Jaw Warriors, and played in three games before the Christmas break. In the first game after the break against the Regina Pats on Dec. 27, he suffered a lower body injury.

Allan returned for one game on Jan. 9 and had the same issue, so he shut it down until Feb. 13. When he played in a 3-2 loss to the Wheat Kings in Brandon on Monday afternoon, it was his third game back.

“I kind of beared down on the off-ice stuff so it’s feeling good now, but it’s only a couple of games in,” Allan said on Sunday. “We’ll have to see.”

In 27 games this season — 19 in Spokane and eight with Saskatoon — he has five assists, six penalty minutes and a plus-minus of +4.

Saskatoon head coach Dan DaSilva said the injury has been a setback for the young blue-liner.

“Kaden has come in and it’s been a bit of a rough start,” DaSilva said. “He comes in and plays a few games and gets injured and has been out for a long time. He just got back three games ago and it’s good to have him healthy.

“With all that time out, he’s still getting adjusted to systems and all that stuff. He definitely has a bright future in my opinion, and when he gets up to speed on systems, he’ll be play more freely and play the way he needs to play to have success.”

Like Brandon, Saskatoon is battling a rash of injuries and illnesses, with impactful veterans Jordan Martin and Derek Thurston both out long term. As a result, the other seven blue-liners have been bouncing around and he hasn’t established a regular partner.

While suffering a second unrelated injury is certainly some bad luck, Allan is philosophical about the situation.

“It’s tough,” Allan said. “You always want to be out there battling with the boys and trying to win games with them. At the end of the day, you just have to control what you can control and do what you can do.”

The sixth-place Blades currently sit fifth in the Eastern Conference, five points back of the fifth-place Wheat Kings after Monday afternoon’s loss, and nine points in arrears of the fourth-place Calgary Hitmen.

Allan said the team’s goal is obviously to move up if they can, and he would like to help give the team’s overagers one last playoff run.

At the same time, he continues to settle in and has high hopes for the final dozen games of the Blades season. “I’ve missed quite a few games so I’m just getting back to my game and playing how I can do it,” Allan said. “I’m starting to contribute.”

And that will be music to the ears of his head coach, who thinks the organization potentially has an impactful player in the Hamiota product.

“He’s big and can move and needs to be a guy who is hard to play against in the defensive zone, boxing out, that type of stuff, and then making a good first pass and keeping it simple,” DaSilva said. “He does have offensive talent I’ve seen that we’ll get to see more of as he gets established with us.”

THIS AND THAT

• QUIZ — Does Brandon have a winning record this season when games go to overtime or a shootout?

• WEEKLY AWARDS — The player of the week is 16-year-old Everett Silvertips defenceman Landon DuPont of Calgary, who had three goals and five assists in four victories. DuPont was the first defenceman in WHL history to be granted exceptional player status, and debuted last season at 15.

The goaltender of the week is 18-year-old Seattle Thunderbirds netminder Grayson Malinoski of Saskatoon, who won both his starts with a 1.00 goals-against average and .960 save percentage.

The rookie of the week is 17-year-old Prince Albert Raiders forward Jonah Sivertson, who had three goals and three assists in three games.

• SIN BIN — Prince Albert Raiders defenceman Matyas Man has reportedly received four games for a game misconduct he took after a fight against Brandon’s Joby Baumuller when he slew footed him. Baumuller was removed from the ice on a stretcher and remains out of Brandon;’s lineup with an upper-body injury.

Seattle Thunderbirds forward Antonio Martorana received a one-game suspension for a game misconduct he took in Portland on Feb. 7. Spokane forward Nathan Mayes received one game for a boarding major and game misconduct he took at Portland last Friday.

• ALUMNI GLANCE — Former Wheat Kings defenceman Rylan Thiessen, 25, is in his fourth U Sports season with the Brock Badgers. He has three goals and six assists in 22 games this season. Thiessen made his WHL debut in 2018-19 with the Lethbridge Hurricanes and was acquired by his hometown Wheat Kings on Dec. 4, 2019.

He played 31 games for Brandon over two seasons — one of which was in the Regina hub during the shortened COVID year — and was traded to the Swift Current Broncos prior to his overage season. After he was released by the Broncos, he joined the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Flin Flon Bombers and played in the Centennial Cup. In his U Sports career, he has 20 points in 92 games.

• THE WEEK AHEAD — The Wheat Kings, who have 13 games left in their 68-game regular season, continue a six-game home stand against top opponents, with the expansion Penticton Vees visiting for the first time on Friday at 7 p.m., and the Edmonton Oil Kings on Saturday at 6 p.m.

• ANSWER — The Wheat Kings have been very good in overtime and shootouts this season, with a record of 6-1. Here’s a look at their games this season that went beyond 60 minutes. The home team is in capital letters. The time is when the goal scored and the player is who scored it.

• Sept. 27, 2025: Prince Albert 5, BRANDON 4 (OT).

— 0:57, Aiden Oiring.

• Oct. 29, 2025: BRANDON 3, Regina 2 (SO).

— 1-0 Bdn: Gavin goal, Johnson miss. (Goalie: Filip Ruzicka, 3-3).

• Nov. 15, 2025: BRANDON 6, Medicine 5 (OT).

— 1:36, Jaxon Jacobson.

• Dec. 19, 2025: Brandon 3, CALGARY 2 (OT).

— 2:25, Joby Baumuller.

• Jan. 24, 2026: Brandon 3, PORTLAND 2 (OT).

— 0:24, Luke Mistelbacher.

• Feb. 10, 2026: Brandon 4, MOOSE JAW 3 (OT).

— 0:50, Jaxon Jacobson.

• Feb. 14, 2026: Brandon 4, SWIFT CURRENT 3 (SO)

— 1-0 Bdn: Mistelbacher goal, Jacobson miss, Gavin miss. (Goalie: Filip Ruzicka, 3-3).