Chastko chasing history with every goal

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This article was published 21/01/2022 (1520 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nolan Chastko is putting together a season to remember with the Brandon Wheat Kings under-18 AAA program.

Heading into a pair of home contests with the Interlake Lightning this weekend, the 16-year-old forward has scored 43 goals in 30 games to lead the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League.

He’s five goals from matching Mark Derlago’s single-season team record of 48 in 2002-03, and is seven markers away from becoming the league’s first 50-goal scorer since Michael St. Croix lit the lamp 56 times for the Winnipeg Wild in 2008-09.

“I obviously wanted to help out the team as much as I could this year, but I wasn’t thinking about having this many goals by this point of the season,” Chastko said after a 7-1 triumph over the Yellowhead Chiefs at the J&G Homes Arena on Wednesday.

“I can’t give myself all the credit though. If you watch the games on HockeyTV or in the rink, you can see all the amazing plays that my teammates are making. I’ve gotten some great feeds from them all season long and I’ve just been able to get myself into the perfect spot to finish the play.”

Chastko gives a lot of praise to his longtime linemate Carter Dittmer — whom he has been paired up with since U15 — and Callum Halls, who joined the duo this season.

“All three of us can create things on our own and we feed off each other pretty well,” Chastko said. 

“Carter and I have a ton of chemistry from our years of playing together and Callum is a big strong body that scores whenever he gets the puck in the right spot. It’s a pretty good mix of styles when we’re out there.”

While Chastko’s 65-point campaign — second only to Wheat Kings captain Braden Keeble’s 71 — might not have been easily predicted, head coach Curtis Brolund saw a glimpse of what the Brandonite could do last year.

During the COVID-19 shortened 2020-21 season, Chastko had seven goals and three assists during his first eight games at the U18 level.

“Even though it was a small sample size, we knew that Nolan was going to be a great player,” Brolund said. “Obviously, you never expect a guy to dominate things like he has this year, but he did a lot of work during the summer and you can see that with how determined he is on the ice.

“Nolan’s always working on something with his game. He’s already got a tremendous shot and he battles hard to get open ice and scoring opportunities.”

Chastko believes that his rookie season was also the perfect introduction to a higher level of hockey and gave him a better idea of what he needed to improve upon ahead of his sophomore campaign.

“It was such an eye-opener to be going up against those bigger-body players who were in their last seasons in U18 before they moved up to junior,” Chastko said. 

“The game is always evolving from year-to-year, especially when you move into a new league. The speed element is something that I think all of us spent a lot of time preparing for and I think we’ve done a good job as a team to get used to that before the season got underway.”

For all of his offensive contributions, the part of the game that Chastko feels like he’s made the most strides in has been in his own end.

“My defensive play is way better than what it was at the start of the season for sure,” Chastko said. “I might have been too focused on the offensive side of the puck early on, but I’ve really focused on tracking back into my own end lately and providing another option for the defencemen.

“I trust my legs can get me up into the offensive zone, but I need to keep working hard to get back into my own end and knowing what guys I need to pick up out there.”

Defensive play has been something the Wheat Kings have been striving to improve a lot lately, especially since coming back from the Christmas break.

While the team knew they could find the back of the net on a regular basis, their performances in their own end were something Chastko and his teammates wanted to fix, especially so that they could help out netminders KC Couckuyt and Mason Lobreau.

With the playoffs about a month away, the Wheat Kings are now looking to find a higher gear and a level of consistency that is expected in post-season play, especially as lower-seeded sides will be looking to spring an upset.

“As the number one team in the league, everyone’s coming at you with their best effort to try and beat you every night,” Chastko said. 

“Everyone in the room is excited to find that next level you need to be at to be successful in the playoffs, especially with how close the league has been this year. The top three teams (the Wheat Kings, Eastman Selects and Winnipeg Wild) are within a few points and fourth through ninth are all pretty close together. Nothing’s set in stone right now and it’s going to be pretty intense going forward.”

Chastko has to decide the next step in his hockey career soon, but that’s a task for the off-season as his priority is helping the Wheat Kings reclaim the title they won in 2019.

He got his first taste of junior hockey on Dec. 19 when he played for the Virden Oil Capitals, who selected him in the third round of the 2020 Manitoba Junior Hockey League draft.

“There were a lot of things I learned from that experience that I brought back to the Wheat Kings,” Chastko said.

“The game might seem a lot quicker, but you just need to trust your skill set and stay calm when the other team is applying pressure on you. A couple of guys told me that you have to trust your game out there. You are there for a reason and you just have to be yourself.”

ICINGS: With the Kenora Thistles being unable to take to the ice since the start of the new year due to Ontario’s public health restrictions, the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League has removed all games played by and against the Thistles from the league standings. As a result, the Wheat Kings record is now at 23-1-3 and they are two points back of the Eastman Selects, although they have five games in hand. Commissioner Levi Taylor said on Friday that if the Thistles have an appetite to play games in February as the restrictions are lifted, any games involving Kenora on the schedule will become exhibition contests … Wheat Kings forward Clarke Caswell, who is third in team scoring with 63 points, made his Western Hockey League debut with the Swift Current Broncos on Friday night.
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