BWK CAMP: Overagers won’t bring much WHL experience

The Brandon Wheat Kings will set a dubious franchise record this season that involves the number 22 and reflects just how greatly the game has changed in the last two years.

That’s how many combined Western Hockey League regular season and playoff games their two 20-year-olds forwards Brett Wilson and Kristof Muissu, have going into this year.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said it’s a sign of the impact the NCAA rule change has had on major junior hockey.

“It’s shifted, there’s no question about it,” Murray said. “A lot of those guys, the Caleb Hadlands and Jordan Gavins of the world, who start at 16 and play until they’re 20 year olds, I don’t think there are going to be too many of those guys around anymore. That’s just the way it is, it’s the new landscape of junior hockey.

“You have to adjust to it. In the past, maybe your first-round NHL picks would lead the charge but right there with them were your 20 year olds who had an impact night in and night out.

“There will certainly be some around the league but it won’t be like it was in the past where everybody has three overage spots filled or three players who are at the top of the scoring or play on the top pair of the D corps. That’s shifted a little bit.”

It once appeared Brandon could have had their choice of eight overagers this season. Defender Merrek Arpin missed the entire season and is headed to Oklahoma State University, blue-liner Dylan Ronald was traded to the Edmonton Oil Kings and goalie Jayden Kraus was sent to the Victoria Royals.

The trades were made to give players the potential for more ice time in their final seasons. The Wheat Kings also lost a high-end group of potential overagers to the NCAA, including 2006-born forwards Hadland, Gavin, Carter Klippenstein, and defenceman Max Lavoie.

Brandon still has room for another overager but Murray doesn’t consider it a must-fill spot anymore.

“We’ll certainly have our ear to the ground if anything comes up but the landscape shifted here in regards to older players in the league, 20-year-olds, and we’ll ride it out and see how those two guys do and if there is a need or an opportunity to add another one, we’ll look at it,” Murray said. He knows what he’ll get from Wilson, a dependable workhorse who does all the little things right.

The five-foot-eight, 173-pound Wilson joined the injury-riddled Wheat Kings in February from the BCHL’s Okotoks Oilers. Normally, a move like this is illegal after the trade deadline, but since the BCHL is no longer sanctioned by Hockey Canada, its players are fair game.

In 22 regular season and playoff games in Brandon, the Okotoks captain had three goals, five assists, a +4 plus-minus rating and six penalty minutes.

“He’s an outstanding young man and I think he’ll really come out of his shell even more so this year,” Murray said. “Coming in at a weird time — it was even after the trade deadline with that loophole because he played in the BCHL — he was getting comfortable with his teammates last year. It will give him the confidence to come in and show the leadership qualities that he has.

“He’s been a captain throughout his career in hockey. You know what you get from him every night. He’s going to work his tail off. He’s undersized but he competes, he wins puck battles and he does those little things in a game that sometimes don’t show up on the scoresheet but they matter.

“He’s a real good teammate and a real good guy to have around the locker room.”

In 160 regular season and 14 playoff games in the Alberta Junior Hockey League and then the BCHL after the team moved, Wilson has 51 goals, 64 assists and 88 penalty minutes.

Muissu, who arrived in Brandon last Friday, is a different kind of player. The six-foot-three, 214-pound Muissu spent last season with Reaktor Nizhnekamsk in the Molodezhnaya Hokkeinaya Liga (MHL), where he had 34 goals and 35 assists in 57 games.

The 20-year-old winger skated in 18 KHL games with Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons.

While most imports can take some time to get adjusted, he has just one season to shine. And the hurdle includes the fact he’ll likely struggle with English early on as he adapts to his first taste of North American hockey.

Murray isn’t too worried.

“We hope that process can be a little quicker,” Murray said. “He’s played junior hockey, he’s played 18 games in the KHL, which might be the second best league in the world, so he has some experience. He’s produced at the highest junior level in Russia and scored in bunches. No question, it’s going to take some time and there’s going to be things we’ll have to work with him on and teach him and show him some video.

“One of the challenges will be the language barrier. We’ve had Europeans in the past who have spoken very good English and we’ve been able to communicate with them. Kris is a kid who is working on his English but it will be a little more challenging than players we’ve had in the past and that’s fine.”

Brandon acquired him with the 45th pick of the Canadian Hockey League import draft in July.

Murray anticipates it will be a lot of visual learning early on. Fortunately, he thinks his players will be a huge help.

“We have a good group of kids,” Murray said. “Even with Filip last year coming in last year from a foreign country and being a younger kid, our guys took him under their wing and that really helped him get comfortable and allowed him to have the success he did.”

In years past, an import had to be special to play as an overager because he was a so-called “two-spotter,” which meant he took up one of the three overage spots and one of the two import spots. But the league added a third import spot last season, and with the diminished overage crop, it’s become a less important factor.

The other imports are starting goalie Filip Ruzicka of Trinec, Czechia, who was easily Brandon’s best player in the playoffs last season, and 19-year-old defenceman Ilari Kapanen of Kuopio, Finland. Brandon nabbed him with the scheduled 106th pick of the CHL draft.

Kapanen’s father Kimmo was a goalie who enjoyed a long pro career, and his uncle Sami played 831 regular season games in the National Hockey League. Sami Kapanen and Murray actually played together with the Philadelphia Flyers, and Sami’s son Kasperi now skates with the Edmonton Oilers.

The five-foot-11, 161-pound blue-liner had four points in eight games with Timrå IK U20, and played five games with HIFK in the Liiga, the top professional league in Finland.

He also suited up for Finland’s U19 and U20 teams.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

 

OVERAGERS

2006-BORN (20-year-old season)

• Brett Wilson, L, F.

Brandon (WHL)

18gp, 3g, 5a, 8p, 4pim, -1 +/-

• Kristof Muissu, L, F.

Picked: 2026, 1st Rd.

Reaktor Nizhnekamsk (U20)

57gp, 34g, 35a, 69p, 14pim.

IMPORTS

2008-BORN (18-year-old season)

• Filip Ruzicka, L, G.

Brandon (WHL)

42gp, 3.19 gaa, .906 save %, 26-14-1-0 record.

2007-BORN (19-year-old season)

• Ilari Kapenen, L, D.

Picked: 2026, 2nd Rd.

Timrå IK (U20)

8gp, 1g, 3a, 4p, 10pim.

2006-BORN (20-year-old season)

• Kristof Muissu, L, F.

Picked: 2026, 1st Rd.

Reaktor Nizhnekamsk (U20)

57gp, 34g, 35a, 69p, 14pim.