WHL NOTEBOOK: Wheat Kings flying into WHL history

The Brandon Wheat Kings are set to make Western Hockey League history on Wednesday.

The team will fly out of Winnipeg in the morning, endure a three-hour layover in Calgary and arrive in Prince George, B.C. around 3 p.m., less than eight hours after they left Brandon.

In years past, it was a nearly 1,900-km trip by bus, but all that changed in the off-season when the league gave teams permission to fly for games in the other conference for the first time. Brandon will be the first club to take advantage of the change.

Wheat Kings head coach and general manager Marty Murray certainly didn’t have that opportunity when he skated with the team in the early 1990s.

“It’s totally different,” Murray said. “In today’s world, the player experience is so big and it was presented by some ownership to have the option to do it. Not everybody has to do it, and frankly for some teams it probably doesn’t make a lot of sense — the Central teams and stuff — but for us, we’re a bookend team and it allows us the opportunity not to spend that many hours on the bus.

“In the past, we’ve been able to pick up an Alberta game on the way out and it breaks it up a little bit, but it’s a haul. And then at the end of the West Coast trip, whether you’re in the States or B.C., it’s a long haul back.”

Instead of spending another day on the road after their final game in Kelowna, they’ll hop on a plane, be back in Brandon the next day and have time to prepare before the Medicine Hat Tigers visit the following Saturday.

The process started on Sunday afternoon when the players loaded their suitcases, pillows and blankets on the bus, and it headed to Regina.

“It was a little weird,” fourth-year forward Joby Baumuller said on Sunday. “Normally we’re coming the day of when we leave and bringing all of our stuff. Having to pack last night was a bit hard but we’ve got more time to bring some extra stuff on the plane as well.”

The team practised for one last time on Monday morning at 7 o’clock, and then equipment manager Jake McKercher drove the gear to Regina to meet the bus because the plane was unable to accommodate the equipment.

The Wheat Kings have some off-ice stuff planned today.

“It’s obviously awesome for the players,” said second-year defenceman Cameron Allard of flying. “This is the one bus ride, especially playing in Brandon, that you dread all year. It’s obviously fun hanging out with the boys but when you’re on hour 22 on the way back, it gets to a point where you haven’t been able to sleep, you haven’t been able to stretch, you haven’t been able to move around for the last 22 hours and it gets long.

“Flying will help a lot and it will be fun hanging out with the guys on a plane instead of a bus.”

The Wheat Kings haven’t flown as a team since the 2016 WHL final, when they first shared a plane with the Seattle Thunderbirds to head west and then returned alone with the Ed Chynoweth Cup.

The bus will be in Prince George on Wednesday afternoon to pick them up at the airport and take them to CN Centre for a practice.

“We looked at renting one out there but the cost was pretty close to the same and then there’s a comfortability piece with your own bus,” Murray said. “It has less seats and more legroom.”

While they eliminated the 1,882-km drive to Prince George and the 1,722-km drive home from Kelowna, they’ll still have some time in the bus.

During the trip, the Wheat Kings meet the Prince George Cougars (Friday, 9 p.m.), Victoria Royals (Sunday, 6:05 p.m. CT), Vancouver Giants (Tuesday, Oct. 6, 9 p.m. CT), Kamloops Blazers (Wednesday, Oct. 7, 9 p.m. CT), Penticton Vees (Friday, Oct. 9, 9:05 p.m. CT) and Kelowna Rockets (Saturday, Oct. 10, 8:05 p.m. CT).

The team travels from Prince George to Victoria (877 km), then to Langley (127 km), Kamloops (317 km), Penticton (238 km) and Kelowna (62 km). That remains more than 1,600 km in nine days, with ferry rides on and off Vancouver Island thrown in.

While the decision to fly certainly makes sense, it’s the demise of a rite of passage for WHL players. The trip always forced a team to come together because they shared a confined space for so many hours.

“In my day, we didn’t have phones and Netflix on the bus,” Murray said. “It was cards and movies and it was probably a really good team builder. That’s something you lose for sure, that camaraderie on the bus.”

Baumuller said there are things the rookies simply won’t understand.

“Just the memories you make on the bus,” Baumuller said. “To me, it’s a long bus ride and everybody is there jam packed together and it honestly brings the guys a lot closer. You’re with each other every day and having fun on the bus, either watching movies, playing cards or just playing games. The one thing we’ll be missing is the memories you make on the bus on these kind of trips.”

For Allard, that involved Chase Surkan, Jimmy Egan and Gunnar Gleasman, who were all rookies together on last year’s team.

“I had Surkan as my seatmate and Jimmy and Gleaser were across from us,” Allard said. “We probably talked most of the time. There wasn’t much sleep going on. It was lots of fun. I’m close to those guys and I think I got closer during that trip.

“Overall, guys are always playing cards in the back, and you never know, maybe you get in there for a card game and it brings the whole team together. At some point, you get a little sick of each other too when you’re on the bus that long.”

BIG MAN IS BACK

Goaltender Filip Ruzicka returned from National Hockey League camp with the Minnesota Wild on Saturday when the team was in Moose Jaw, and saw everyone on Sunday afternoon.

“It was really cool,” Ruzicka said of the experience. “I enjoyed it every time. It was long but I’m excited to play some games here and I’m excited to be back with the boys and get going on the season.”

He started out skating against the AHL guys, but after the prospects game he went to main camp. He said their ability to shoot the puck and their hockey IQs were at another level. “It was my dream to be with the big boys and see what they are doing before games or before practice,” Ruzicka said. “That was fun.”

At the same time, Ruzicka returned to Brandon with an idea of what he needs to do to get better. “I need to still improve some things,” Ruzicka said. “I have to keep pushing hard and keep working.”

While he enjoyed the opportunity, Ruzicka didn’t forget the team he was returning to after he was reassigned. He watched all the Wheat Kings games online when he was away, and is eager to join them on the trip.

“I’m excited,” Ruzicka said. “It will be my first time going to B.C. I hope we win some games and enjoy it with the boys.”

THIS AND THAT

• QUIZ — Here’s a simple 50-50 question, based on the premise that the West Coast trip gets harder as it goes on due to travel combined with lots of games in a short time.

In the Internet era, does Brandon have a winning record in the first game of their trips out west?

• WEEKLY AWARDS — The player of the week is 18-year-old Red Deer Rebels forward Beckett Hamilton of Saskatoon, who had four goals and an assist in two wins. He is a prospect of the Colorado Avalanche.

The goaltender of the week is 19-year-old Seattle Thunderbirds netminder Grayson Malinoski of Saskatoon, who won the award for a second week in a row after posting a 32-save shutout in his only appearance.

The rookie of the week is 17-year-old Calgary Hitmen forward Artem Katsuro of Moscow, Russia, who had two goals and an assist in his team’s sole outing.

• TRADE FRONT — There have still been no trades since Sept. 15.

• SIN BIN — There have been fines and suspensions from early season nastiness around the league.

Derek Thurston received one game for a kneeing major and game misconduct he took against Kelowna on Sept. 19, and Vancouver and Kelowna were each fined $500 for a multi-fight situation.

Prince Albert and Swift Current also had a multi-fight situation on Sept. 19 but were tagged with $1,500 fines.

On Monday, Medicine Hat Tigers forward Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll was suspended for one game for a checking-to-the-head major and game misconduct against Red Deer on Saturday.

• ALUMNI GLANCE — Overage defenceman Adam Belusko is entering this freshman season with Lake Superior State University. The defenceman from Kosice, Slovakia, who also played up front in Brandon as needed, spent the 2024-25 season with the Wheat Kings, posting three goals, 14 assists and 36 penalty minutes in 53 games. After he was released, he spent last season with the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks, where he had 21 points in 55 games.

He was Brandon’s top pick, 41st overall, in the 2024 CHL import draft.

• THE WEEK AHEAD — The team opens its swing through the B.C. Division on Friday against Prince George on Friday and Victoria on Sunday.

• ANSWER — If you’ve been watching junior hockey for a long time, your immediate guess is that they lose the first game of their West Coast road trip more often than you win. And you would be right, but I bet it’s a lot closer than you think.

In the last 30 years, with no inter-conference play in two of them due to COVID, Brandon has 11 wins, 15 losses and two ties. They’ve won three of the last four, and would be over .500 if not for a five-game losing streak from 2009 to 2013.