Burzynski makes Manitoba memories

After his Western Hockey League drew to a close on April 2, Grayson Burzynski learned an important lesson about how time plays tricks on us all.

The 20-year-old Brandon Wheat Kings defenceman, who is headed to college next season, said it certainly doesn’t feel like five years ago that he earned a spot at age 16 with the Swift Current Broncos.

“Way too quick, to be honest,” Burzynski said of how fast those years passed by. “I was just thinking about that. I didn’t have a suit in Swift Current because I didn’t know you had to wear a suit to games. I remember the day before my first regular season game, I had to go buy a suit and it literally feels like yesterday that I went and did that.

“I played so many games and some of them stick out but a lot of them have blended together. I can’t believe it’s been five years.”

WILD ROAD

Burzynski’s path to Brandon has certainly had some detours.

He was born in Iowa City, Iowa when his physician father Jeff was in his residency. After time in Newfoundland, his family, including mother Jen and sisters Sidney and Piper, later moved to Victoria and eventually Winnipeg, where Burzynski grew up.

Burzynski didn’t know anything about the WHL draft until the 2019-20 season arrived, and found out because his coach scouted for the Edmonton Oil Kings.

“I was literally just there to have fun and hang out with my friends,” Burzynski said. “I had no idea this is what it was going to lead to. I can’t believe how naive I was with everything.”

The Broncos grabbed him with the 44th overall pick in 2020. He said the first massive influence on him was then-overage Broncos goalie Isaac Poulter of Winnipeg, who Burzynski said would have been captain if he played out.

“He was the best with everybody,” Burzynski said. “He was professional but he was always there when I needed something or anything.”

He said overage forward Cole Nagy showed him it was OK to have fun, and Sam McGinley and Raphael Pelletier were both great people.

The Broncos traded for Tyson Galloway when he was 18, and the former Calgary Hitmen defenceman was quickly named captain after the current captain, Owen Pickering, said it simply made sense.

Burzynski said the entire experience changed him.

“In every single way, it forced me to be way more mature,” Burzynski said. “I was 15 when I got drafted and I was just there to have fun. I was the goofiest guy — I’m still pretty goofy — but I had no focus, nothing. That was the first thing that changed when I was 16, realizing that this is what people work their whole lives for and I was just lucky enough to get there with my skill.”

Another lesson was that he had to get along with everybody on his team, whether he liked them or not, and said he is now able to put up with a lot more from people.

He said there is still a stigma about junior hockey and their players, and while he has met the occasional “rotten” person, the overwhelming majority have been good people.

He said the experience also forced him to deal with his mental health for the first time as he struggled with his confidence early on, with six, 12 and 13 points in his first three seasons.

“Some of the things I had to deal with mentally made me more mindful in my every-day life,” Burzynski said. “It’s just being grateful for the moment. Some of the really hard things I’ve gone through, just being away from home and missing my family and some other things made me a better person just because I went through them.”

BACK TO MANITOBA

After exploding for 11 goals and 36 assists last year in his 19-year-old season, Burzynski expected to be dealt from the rebuilding Broncos.

The deal came sooner than expected when Brandon and Swift Current engineered a blockbuster trade on May 7, 2025 after the Wheat Kings learned overage defenceman Quinn Mantei was heading to college and wouldn’t be returning.

Burzynski and Mistelbacher were acquired from Swift Current for the Wheat Kings’ own pick in the first round, 15th overall, plus 15-year-old prospect Alex Letourneau, a second-round pick in 2025 originally belonging to the Saskatoon Blades, third-round picks in 2027 and 2028 and a sixth-round pick in 2028.

Burzynski said when he lived in Swift Current, it felt like he was a long way from home. When he was moving home for good from Brandon to Winnipeg on the weekend, he was driving two hours on the Trans-Canada Highway and meeting his family for brunch.

He especially noticed it early on when Brandon had a heavy home schedule, because at least one of his parents was in the arena virtually every night.

In 59 games this season, he has 11 goals and 47 assists, with 58 penalty minutes and a plus-minus of 20.

“I’m happy with my season,” Burzynski said. “I would have liked one more point to get to that point-per-game but that’s nitpicking. I wish I didn’t get suspended for five games so I could have played a little bit more. Offensively I had a good season. I really thank the coaching staff for letting me play.

“It was a gruelling three years of having no confidence playing and it was really hard at 16, 17 and 18 in Swift Current. Last year I started getting that and this year the coaches gave me free rein, it felt like, and that was really nice to play free and make plays and do what I want on the ice but playing within our systems. I think I grew a lot as a player.”

For the first time in his career, the six-foot-four, 211-pound left shot served as an alternate captain. He certainly had some good influences in Swift Current to learn from, but also has his own outgoing personality to lean on.

“I don’t think I was ever going to be the serious pro type that Poulter was or have the grasp on the locker room like those guys did, but I think I had it in a different way,” Burzynski said. “If we really needed to be serious, my voice could kind of change. I think they listened when I talked, which I think was important. I took little things from what they did and how they held themselves to take control of the room and lead more by example.”

With the knowledge his days in the league were winding down, Burzynski took time to enjoy his final visits to arenas. Of course there was one big exception.

“Some of the buildings I was nostalgic,” Burzynski said. “I can tell you right now the Art Hauser (Centre in Prince Albert), I was very excited to never go back to. Obviously my last game in the iPlex in Swift Current was a big game for me.

“I didn’t get to play my last game in Brandon (because the playoffs were in Virden), but even if I was on an away team, that would have been a game marked on my calendar because Brandon felt like my hometown team. It’s always been special to me.

“It’s pretty cool playing in those NHL buildings and the Saddledome is getting torn down and a lot of those buildings I’m never going to be in again. Most buildings I was pretty nostalgic about but there were definitely some that stood out more than others.”

COLLEGE BOUND

After the NCAA changed its eligibility rules for major junior players, Burzynski had a pretty good sense of where his future would be.

Burzynski was talking to a number of schools when Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) reached out to him for the first time around Halloween. After he did a Zoom call with his parents and the RPI staff and spoke to head coach Eric Lang, he was sold.

“He’s so down to earth,” Burzynski said. “I loved how hands on he was.”

Some other head coaches he dealt with were essentially put on a pedestal, and he was made to feel like it was a privilege for him to even interact with him. As a player, he was expected to deal with the assistant coaches instead.

“I just thought it was so weird,” Burzynski said.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is located in Troy, N.Y., just north of the state capital Albany, and about 250 kilometres north of New York City. RPI was founded in 1824, and is the oldest technological university in the United States.

The Engineers hockey team is one of 12 Division I programs that play in ECAC Hockey, including the six Ivy league schools. RPI, which was ninth last season with a conference record of 8-13-1, hasn’t won a title since 1984-85.

Burzynski wont be headed down alone, however. His current Wheat Kings teammates Caleb Hadland and Jordan Gavin are also going.

The trio plan to make their first trip down to Troy together in the spring to look around.

“It’s going to be pretty awesome,” Burzynski said. “September-October-November, we hung out a lot, the three of us and Joby (Baumuller, who is Hadland’s roommate). The three of us were kind of always on board with trying to go somewhere together and it really just happened to work out like that, and I can’t believe it. We’re just trying to find a fourth right now to live with, but there are two of the best guys.”

When asked if he was going to reach out to Harrison Lodewyk, the Calgary Hitmen forward who is also heading to RPI, Burzynski said with a chuckle he can make that after the Hitmen swept them out of the playoffs.

FOND FAREWELLS

The first person with ties to the Wheat Kings that Burzynski spoke to was general manager and head coach Marty Murray. They built a quick rapport that day that lasted, and came to include assistant coaches Mark (Billy) Derlago and Del Pedrick.

“Marty put together a really good roster and everybody could see that,” Burzynski said. “We had an excellent team. I think it was better people too, it wasn’t just players on the ice, it was the people off the ice that were important …

“I had a really good relationship with Billy, he really let me play and the others guys felt like that with Billy. He was low stress, which was really nice for some guys, especially the young guys, because you can relax and just play. It can be stressful getting yelled after you make a mistake as a 16 or 17 year old, it’s hard.

“I love Del, he’s a great human. He’s really easy to talk to. They were good in different ways.”

He also became fond of Wheat Kings athletic therapist Zach Hartwick and equipment manager Jake McKercher.

“Everybody loves those two,” Burzynski said. “Jake is the best Wheat King pickup in recent modern history. He’s awesome. There’s not a soul who doesn’t like Jake. “Zach, it’s the same thing. He’s really low key and nice to have. He was always there to help.”

Off the ice, Burzynski lived with the Terri and Calvin Andres for all four years in Swift Current, and remains indebted to them. Since he wasn’t expected to stay at 16, he was “temporarily” billeted with them in a spare room.

The other player they had quit the team, and since Burzynski had quickly made a good impression on the couple, he moved into the former player’s bedroom and never left.

“They’re my second set of parents now, along with my Brandon billets,” Burzynski said. “They were always there for me. They knew how hard that first year or two years were for me. My billet mom is an awesome cook, she baked way too many cookies. They were awesome. My billet dad was always there to have a chat or have a whiskey with. They’re two awesome people.”

In Brandon, he lived with Tony, Linda and Riley Strickland, who had previously billeted another top Wheat Kings defenceman, Mantei.

“I was their third son for the season — Quinn Mantei was there before me so I’ll take third spot — but just how much love and care they shared with me for only being there for one season was pretty special,” Burzynski said. “It felt like I had always lived there, which was a really nice feeling. As soon as I moved in, they were ‘You don’t have to worry about anything, this is your house.’ “It was nice and casual and there was no stress involved at all.”

When Burzynski thinks about Brandon, it’s the people he says he’ll miss. That’s also true of Swift Current for the kid who didn’t know much about the WHL when he was drafted and went on to play five years in the league.

“Every year, it’s a different kind of vibe, and I recall different signs from each year,” Burzynski said. “This year, I’m just going to remember how much we hung out in the room and the lounge and shooting the s… or just hanging out in the room or the gym. We had a movie group and watched a ton of movies together and played a bunch of board games. We did stuff like that outside of the rink.

“Obviously I’ll remember the on-ice stuff but a lot of it from even the years before, it was just spending time with people outside the rink, the people I’m really close with. It’s a lot of hanging out and doing nothing, and enjoying every second of it, which is what I’m going to remember.”

pbergson@brandonsun.com