WHL NOTEBOOK: White settles in with Wheat Kings

When the Brandon Wheat Kings hired local product Ryan White as an assistant coach, they knew he would bring the energy.

As it turns out, he brings the gratitude too.

“I’m excited to be back on the bench,” White said. “You take it for granted when I was coaching and all of a sudden it was not there anymore. The thing I’ve definitely realized since I’ve been back on the bench is how much I missed it and how much fun it is to be back at the rink and part of something.”

The 38-year-old White, a married father of three who retired from his playing career after the 2020-21 season, skated in 332 regular season and playoff National Hockey League games with the Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers, Arizona Coyotes and Minnesota Wild.

More recently, he served as a full-time assistant coach with the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Winkler Flyers for parts of two seasons and as a development coach at Western Canada Hockey Academy.

After Brandon chose not to renew the contracts of Mark Derlago and Del Pedrick in the off-season, White and Aaron Rome were brought in to join the staff of head coach and general manager Marty Murray.

“I’ve been learning lots,” White said. “It’s nice having Marty ease us into things and be there for some of the little things that we might forget as young coaches sometimes. He’s a guy who has been around for a while and seen a lot of things and knows how the day to day is supposed to go. I think that’s been a big part for us, having someone to lean on in these areas and making sure we’re coming along as coaches too.”

White played his minor hockey in Brandon and in 2003 was drafted by the Calgary Hitmen, where he suited up for 275 regular season WHL games and 59 playoff games with the Hitmen over four seasons. He signed with the National Hockey League’s Montreal Canadiens in 2008 and made his NHL debut on Nov. 5, 2009. After four seasons in the minors starting in 2017-18, he retired after spending the 2020-21 season in the ECHL.

The three coaches had very similar trajectories in their playing careers, with outstanding junior careers that took them to the NHL. White said that informs how they’re able to work as a unit.

“We’ve all seen how hard the game can be at the highest levels,” White said. “We all had successful junior careers and really believed that we could be players, and in a lot of rights we were, but once you get to that highest level, you understand how good some of those top-end guys are and how hard it is to be an every-day NHLer.

“That’s the common message that we have for these guys. We need more every day, and push every day to get better because the time these guys have to develop isn’t very long.”

A LOT OF TEACHING

The coaching staff has made it a point to stop practice and explain details to players. It’s been gratifying for White to see that understood, filed away and put into action.

“It’s huge seeing them have success,” White said. “It’s been kind of cool this year too, where guys turn around on the bench and say ‘Ya, that’s what you’re talking about Whitey.’ That’s been cool, they’re starting to really see what we’re talking about. From my standpoint, I always wanted to make things easier on myself.

“I wasn’t the fleetest of foot, I wasn’t the biggest, strongest guy, I actually had to find areas on the ice where I could be successful and that’s what we’re trying to translate to these guys.”

The common refrain is that today’s player is softer and more entitled than the ones from decades past — your answer to that question is the hockey equivalent of the Rorschach test and may hint at the year on your birth certificate — but White said there is a real positive with the youngsters.

“That’s one thing I’ll say about this new generation of players,” White said. “People can say whatever they want about them, but these guys want to learn and these guys want to get better. That’s one thing I realized they crave: The more I give them, they want more. That’s been a really good recipe for us right now.”

White said the staff has been able to introduce building blocks that will lead to more refined skills in the future and make the individuals and the team even better down the line.

There is no denying that coaching has changed to a kinder, gentler form of the fiery old-school disciplinarian of decades past. White said there is simply another way to go about it.

“These players still respond to the coach being loud and the coach being motivating,” White said. “That’s still part of it, but I think it’s trying to challenge them with the right things, like the things they can control.”

He uses the example of the team’s overtime victory in Kelowna on Saturday.

A big, physical Rockets squad ate the Wheat Kings’ lunches and threw their homework in a puddle in the first period, and Brandon simply didn’t respond. While it was a tired team playing the final game of its long trip, the coaches gave them a little taste of reality in the dressing room.

“The message in between periods was, if you want to play at the next level, this is what it is every night,” White said. “You want to play in college, this is what it is every Friday and Saturday night. If you want to play in the American League, this is it every single night. We have to go out there and find our courage and push back.

“One thing about our team that I really, really like is that they don’t have to go out there and run teams through the boards or get in three fights each. They have to go out there and not be pushed around and stand up for themselves and play physical and be willing to go first on pucks and take some hits.”

He added there are subtle ways the staff can ask them to play the right way, and they will respond. They certainly did in Kelowna, where the final 40 minutes and overtime were an entirely different game.

“At the end of the day, no one wants to be embarrassed and no one wants to let their team down,” White said. “When we challenge them on these things, they respond.”

TEAM THRIVES

The squad sits at 7-2-0-0 right now, atop the Western Hockey League, despite not playing a complete game until they were out on their trip through the B.C. Division. Instead, they were good enough in some key moments to win.

The team has come on recently as they built a five-game winning streak despite playing six games in nine nights.

“We’ve changed a lot of things, but I wouldn’t say we’ve changed everything,” White said. “Marty had some good systems in place last year and we’ve just added to them, a little more detail.

“We’re in a cool situation. Romer sees the game from being a defenceman, I see the game as a winger a lot and maybe a third-, fourth-line centre, and Marty sees the game as an elite, offensive-thinking mind. With the three of us combined, it’s formed into a system where we allow our guys to have some leash but also play into a system so we can be on the same page and play fast and play direct and be predictable to put teams on their heels.”

White noticed before the trip-opening loss in Prince George how the team camaraderie had developed, and as the wins piled up, that chemistry kept building. The team enjoys winning, and the job of the coaching staff is to explain why the success was possible.

“That’s a big thing for our players,” White said. “They’re starting to believe in it and as we keep moving forward here as a group, that has to be the goal, understanding why we’re having the success and not wavering too much from the program.”

They’ve certainly displayed a work ethic and willingness to battle that wasn’t always evident throughout the group last season.

To be fair to Murray and his former assistants Derlago and Pedrick, many of the messages have been hammered home before, but for whatever reason, didn’t appear to take root. With a pair of new messengers in White and Rome, the team appears to be battling harder and more competitive.

White said it’s been a fun group to coach, and he’s excited about their prospects of future success. He said that starts with the goaltending tandem of Filip Ruzicka and Ryley Budd, includes the acquisition of Brandonite Cole Slobodian to stabilize the defensive corps and a deep, skilled forward group.

“We’ve been able to roll four lines and six D, and guys are fighting to get into the lineup,” White said. “We’re not having to look for guys to play, we’re trying to share the ice time right now, which is a good problem.”

There will be a lot of firsts for White this season, and that started when the team headed out west.

MEMORY LANE

It gave Rome and White their first chance to step back into the buildings in Prince George, Kamloops and Kelowna they played in two decades ago.

“I said to Romer when we were leaving Prince George, ‘Well, I never thought I would be back here, but here we are,’” White said with a laugh.

He said the Prince George rink hasn’t changed that much, and gave the players a little bit of old-school colour when they were in Kelowna.

“I said to the boys, the last time I was in this rink in Kelowna, my coaches flipped the table over after the second period,” White said. “You definitely have those memories, and there were some good nights and some bad nights. It’s special being back. There are some pretty good hockey communities out there.”

For the record, the Hitmen suffered a 5-0 loss that night at the hands of the Rockets on Oct. 10, 2007. White had four penalty minutes but wasn’t on the ice for any goals.

The big games for White will certainly be in Calgary on Jan. 29 and March 14, when they visit the Hitmen. The Saddledome is being demolished next summer, with Scotia Place set to open in the fall of 2027.

He got to play in the Saddledome during his NHL career after he graduated from the WHL, but this will be different.

“To be back there for a Hitmen game will be pretty cool,” White said. “I still keep tabs on the team, and they’ve obviously had some success in the past couple of years. I think we owe them a little something from last year in the playoffs so I’m sure it will be exciting when we get out there.

“It will be fun. I’m sure I’ll see some familiar faces. I know they have a good following of junior hockey fans who have been there for the long haul.”

THIS AND THAT

• QUIZ — The biggest crowd Brandon played in front of during its West Coast swing was 4,437 people in Kelowna on Saturday. Historically for Brandon’s trips to the Western Conference, how does that rate for a largest attendance?

• ROSTER MOVE — The Wheat Kings have reassigned 16-year-old forward Ahmad Fayad to the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Virden Oil Capitals. That leaves Brandon with 14 forwards, eight defencemen and two goalies.

• WEEKLY AWARDS — The player of the week is 17-year-old Tri-City Americans forward Eli McKamey of Cowichan Bay, B.C., who had two goals and five assists in four games.

The goaltender of the week is 18-year-old Tri-City Americans netminder Xavier Wendt of Plymouth, Minn., who won both his appearances with a 1.00 goals-against average, .953 save percentage and a shutout.

The rookie of the week is 18-year-old Lethbridge Hurricanes forward Logan Stuart, who had three goals and three assists in three games.

• TRADE FRONT — After a quiet start to the season, there were five deals in the last week.

— On Monday, the Kamloops Blazers sent 19-year-old forward Ty Coupland of North Vancouver, B.C., to the Wenatchee Wild for a sixth-round pick in 2027.

— Last Friday, the Medicine Hat Tigers sent overage forward Cameron Parr of LaSalle to the Vancouver Giants for a fifth-round pick in 2027 and a fourth-round pick in 2030.

— Last Thursday, the Victoria Royals sent 18-year-old forward Jake Banicevic of Port Moody, B.C., to the Red Deer Rebels for a fifth-round pick in 2028.

— Last Thursday, the Everett Silvertips sent 18-year-old defenceman Bode Laylin of St. Michael, Minn., to the Calgary Hitmen for 18-year-old forward Caine Wilke of Saskatoon and a fourth-round pick in 2028.

— Last Thursday, the Regina Pats sent overage defenceman Kolten Bridgeman of Regina to the Prince George Cougars for a third-round pick in 2030 and a conditional sixth-round pick in 2030.

• SIN BIN — Calgary overage forward Charlie Kresl received one game for a boarding major and game misconduct at Red Deer on Friday.

• ALUMNI GLANCE — Roger McQueen, 20, has made the jump to the American Hockey League’s San Diego Gulls, where he has three goals in four games. The Saskatoon product, who Brandon drafted fourth overall in 2021, played 127 games over three seasons, a number reduced by an injury that restricted him to 17 games in his 18-year-old campaign. The Anaheim Ducks first rounder in 2025 posted 86 points in the WHL, and made a jump to Providence College last season, where he had 27 points in 36 games.

• THE WEEK AHEAD — After playing six games in nine days in the B.C. Division, Brandon is enjoying a lighter week, with a pair of home games at Assiniboine Credit Union Place. The Medicine Hat Tigers visit on Saturday at 6 p.m., and the Prince Albert Raiders on Sunday at 4 p.m.

• ANSWER — The question itself was probably a big hint.

While the Kelowna crowd was a good one for a club that averaged 4,664 last season, it was the lowest high mark out west for Brandon in quite a while.

The only time in the Internet era it was lower was a crowd of 4,406 in Portland in 2011: All the other crowds on that trip were under 3,700.

Last year, Brandon played in front of a crowd of 8,759 in Spokane, and two crowds over 6,400.

The last time Brandon went to B.C., it played in front of two crowds that were a few dozen under 5,000.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com