Tigers give King a chance
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/07/2011 (5573 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Wheaton King is getting another Western Hockey League shot, but with a different team.
The Medicine Hat Tigers have invited the former Brandon Wheat King to their training camp next month.
The Wheat Kings cut King — an 18-year-old forward from Brandon — in January and dropped him from their protected list this spring.
“Actually, the very same day the Wheat Kings released me, Medicine Hat called me,” King said.
“That’s how I found out I was released. It was a good sign that (the Tigers) jumped on me right away. I’ve heard so many good things about the organization.
“I was very excited. I didn’t really know what would be my situation with the Wheat Kings. After I got that call (from the Tigers), I knew what I wanted to do. From that day on, I only viewed Medicine Hat.”
With the likes of Linden Vey, Emerson Etem and Tyler Pitlick potentially graduating to pro, the Tigers stand to lose key forwards and plenty of offence.
“He was kind of looking for an older forward, because they’re going to be younger, apparently, up front,” King said of his chat with Tigers general manager Brad McEwen.
“He said, ‘I’ll give you every chance. I’ll give you every opportunity to make the team.’ We’ll see what happens. Hopefully, it all happens for me and I can be a top-nine guy.
“This is going to be my last shot at it, so I’m going all out.”
King finished the past season in Junior A with the Kindersley Klippers of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. He played left wing on a line with older brother Sanfred — also a former Wheat King — and Spencer Braaten.
“I loved everything about Kindersley,” said King, who turns 19 next month. “It was a great team and I was actually playing, so that was a good thing to get my confidence back up.”
The 6-foot-3, 185-pound King had played a limited role with the Wheat Kings, who selected him in the seventh round of the 2007 WHL bantam draft and made headlines for picking the hometown kid with a fitting name.
He dressed for 10 WHL games in the 2009-10 season before returning to the Midget AAA Wheat Kings.
This past season, King had two goals and 11 points in 38 WHL games with Brandon and six goals and 15 points in 16 SJHL regular-season games with Kindersley.