Big picture vision key in assembling team

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/02/2021 (2101 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Darren Ritchie is a man with a plan, because he certainly has to be.

The Brandon Wheat Kings general manager and his hockey operations staff, which notably includes assistant general manager Doug Gasper and head scout Mark Johnston on the non-coaching side, is constantly working on a multi-dimensional plan to build this season’s hockey club while also balancing the needs of its Western Hockey League future.

“You’re worrying about your team this year, you’re worrying about your team next year and you’re worrying about it the year after that,” Ritchie said with a chuckle. “You’re always making sure you’re thinking about this year, and you try to give this year the most attention because it’s now and present, but you do in the back of your mind have to know who you have playing on your team next year and the years following.

“That’s where I have lots of conversations, myself and Doug and the coaches and we work at it.”

WHL clubs work within the parameters of a 50-player protected list that includes all of their active players and prospects, but there are a number of caveats.

Brandon is currently carrying 56 players but only 48 are on its official list.

The players in their 20-year-old season, commonly called overagers, don’t count until the opening day of the season. Six of Brandon’s signed forwards are overagers, and since they can only carry three, three of those players won’t last long once the 2021 season potentially begins. 

The two prospects chosen in the league’s special 2020 U.S. Draft, Zach Nehring and Ty Henricks, will eventually end up on the 50-man list but aren’t there yet, they’re on a special American draft list.

Any player who elected to go to college instead is excluded entirely. They are put on their own special list, with no cap on the number. 

“I think we’re in a real good spot,” Ritchie said of his list. “It’s going to push people in our organization and I think that’s what you want. You want internal competition, that’s how teams get better is having internal competition, I think we’ve started to build that and we’ll try to keep building it.”

There is no cap on how many of the players on its list a team can sign to a standard player contract, but common sense generally dictates teams carry a number somewhere in the thirties because that gives them the flexibility to both build their present team and plan for the future. 

“You’re comfortable if you’re in the mid-30s,” Ritchie said. “That gives you a really good base of players coming and some competitive battles coming down in the years to come as well.”

The Wheat Kings currently have three goalies, 12 defencemen and 21 forwards signed to standard player agreements, including the overagers. They generally carry around 23 players during the regular season.

Unsigned WHL prospects can be traded as young as 15, but signed players can’t be dealt without their permission until their 18-year-old season.

Another source of sleepless nights, however, comes as Ritchie, Gasper and the executive team decide who to sign and who not to sign. The fact that they put a priority on getting to know players and their families makes it even worse.

“It is really hard because you end up building relationships with the player and their family,” Ritchie said. “It’s not easy for sure because they are kids. Sometimes you just have to separate yourself and your decisions have to be what’s best for the organization.

“I learned that from (former owner) Kelly (McCrimmon). He always said you have to make hard decisions in this business but you have to do what you feel is the best for the organization. There are no easy decisions when you’re dealing with young men who have been in your organization since you drafted them.”

Whenever a player is dropped or added by a WHL team, they have to be contacted by the club to let them know it has happened.

Despite not staging either its spring prospects camp or its August rookies camp, the work continues.

Brandon signed three members of its 2020 draft crop soon after the May draft, and more recently, they also inked three 2019 picks, Westman defencemen Zach Turner of Boissevain and Owen Harris of Wawanesa, plus goalie Nick Jones of Calgary.

“In a normal year, you would have guys pencilled in who are very close and you watch them closely at training camp and then as camp goes along you probably want to keep them, have them practise and then talk with them and their families about giving them the opportunity to sign with our team,” Ritchie said. “There is always that kind of process and you always have it in the back of your head what it’s going to look like.

“Obviously this year not having camp, and not able to see our players in the springtime, our goal for Doug and I and our scouts, we talked about really paying attention to our guys early on (this season) and getting in there and watching our players play. We did that and that’s why we started to sign some guys here recently.”

The WHL draft began in 1990, and Brandon has selected at least 10 players every year since 1994, with a high of 14 in 2012. In 1994, 11 of the 12 players they picked appeared in at least one WHL game.

Ritchie said the organization understands its areas of need on its list, but doesn’t necessarily draft based on that single criteria.

“It’s not the end-all, be-all,” Ritchie said. “You have to be aware of it but you have your draft list and you’re going off that. You’re taking the best available player at that time. Obviously, if you’ve picked two forwards already and with your third pick if there’s a forward and a defenceman and you feel they are in the same category, you would probably lean towards the defenceman. 

“You have those conversations as you go along and you have players in your draft who you look at and keep an eye on as you go along as you’re picking players.”

The extensive scouting also pays long-term dividends in another way.

Players are watched so closely now that every team has a pretty good sense of where the clubs around them stand, and what they might look like in the future.

“Usually you have a pretty good understanding of where teams are at and who’s going to have good seasons and who’s going to be rebuilding,” Ritchie said. “You’re always paying attention. I think that’s a part of the job as well. You’re not just worrying about this year and the years following with your team, you’re worrying about other teams, especially teams in you division, who’s going to be good. 

“That’s an ongoing process you always have to be aware of, of teams and players in our league because of trades. When players come available, you need to make sure you know not just the teams but also the players really, really well.”

Ritchie admitted the pandemic has created a difficult year for everyone, from the players to the executives who built the club but haven’t seen them together on the ice yet more than four months after the season normally begins.

“You’re in this business because you love working in hockey and you love watching hockey,” Ritchie said. “Unfortunately, out of our control, that’s been taken away from us. You just deal with it. It’s been going on here since March and it’s just unfortunate. 

“Out of all this, you feel bad for everybody but I feel terrible for the kids. This is what all they want to do, is play hockey, and I try to put myself in their shoes. If it was me, I would be real disappointed too. 

“… As management and coaches, all we want to do is be at the rink trying to help our players get better. This what we signed up for. We didn’t sign up for sitting around doing paperwork, that’s for sure. You just have to put things in perspective and understand that things are going to get back to normal and we are going to play hockey and try to get ready.”

 

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson

 

RECENT DRAFTS

2020 — (2005s)

(Round selected in, position, name, WHL status, 2020-21 team)

1. — D — Quinn Mantei — SIGNED — Moose Jaw, U18

2. — F — Trae Johnson — SIGNED — PA, U18

3. — F — Teydon Trembecky — SIGNED — NAIT, U18

4. — D — Eastyn Mannix — NOT SIGNED — NAIT, U16

5. — G — Carter Capton — NOT SIGNED — Yale, U17

7. — D — Oakley McIlwain — NOT SIGNED — Lloydminster, U16

7. — F — Hayden Chaloner — NOT SIGNED — Wpg Thrashers, U18

8. — F — Jeter Korte — NOT SIGNED — Warman, U18

9. — F — Evan Groening — NOT SIGNED — Rink, prep

9. — F — Noah Asmundson — NOT SIGNED — Regina, U18

10. — D — Thomas Stewart — NOT SIGNED — Rink, prep

 

2020 AMERICAN DRAFT — (2005s)

1. — F — Zach Nehring — NOT SIGNED — Shattuck St. Mary’s 15U AAA

2. — F — Ty Henricks — NOT SIGNED — Shattuck St. Mary’s 16U AAA

 

2019 — (2004s)

1. — F — Nate Danielson — SIGNED — Red Deer, U18

1. — F — Tyson Zimmer — SIGNED — Wayway, MJHL

1. — F — Rylen Roersma — SIGNED — Lethbridge, U18

2. — D — Zach Turner — SIGNED — Southwest, U18

3. — F — Jesiah Bennett — SIGNED — Wpg Wild, U18

3. — D — Owen Harris — SIGNED — Swan Valley, MJHL

4. — F — Liam Watkins — COLLEGE — Okotoks, U18

5. — G — Nicholas Jones — SIGNED — Calgary, U18

5. — D — Kaiden Ellertson — NOT SIGNED — Blackfalds, AJHL

5. — D — Cyle Clayton — NOT SIGNED — Drumheller, AJHL

 

2018 — (2003s)

1. — F — Jake Chiasson — SIGNED — Wheat Kings, WHL

2. — F — Brett Hyland — SIGNED — CAC, U18

2. — F — Dylan James — COLLEGE — Okotoks, AJHL

2. — D — Jacob Hoffrogge — SIGNED — Saskatoon, U18

3. — F — Cabrel LaBossiere — NOT SIGNED — Eastman, U18

5. — F — Owen Weihs — NOT SIGNED — Steinbach, MJHL

5. — D — Logen Hammett — SIGNED — Regina, U18

5. — F — Jaxon Dube — SIGNED — St. Albert, U18

6. — D — Tyler Teasdale — NOT SIGNED — Virden, MJHL

6. — D — Charles Larsen — NOT SIGNED — Colorado, 18U

 

2017 — (2002s)

1. — F — Ridly Greig — SIGNED — Wheat Kings, WHL

2. — D — Vincent Iorio — SIGNED — Wheat Kings, WHL

2. — D — Anthony Kehrer — COLLEGE — Wisconsin

3. — F — Nolan Ritchie — SIGNED — Wheat Kings, WHL

4. — D — Jack Zayat — SIGNED — Released

5. — F — Cameron MacDonald — TRADED — Tanner Kaspick deal

7. — F — Braden Fischer — RELEASED — Salmon Arm, BCHL 

8. — F — Bode Hagan — SIGNED — Swift Current, WHL

8. — F — William Highet — RELEASED — Neepawa, MJHL

9. — D — Owen Gallatin — COLLEGE — Fargo, USHL

 

50-MAN LIST

GOAL (7)

VETERANS (1)

2001 — Ethan Kruger. 

SIGNED PROSPECTS (2)

2002 — Connor Ungar.

2004 — Nick Jones. 

UNSIGNED (3)

2003 — Cole Plowman, Jackson Fellner.

2005 — Carter Capton, Carson Bjarnson.

COLLEGE (0)

None.

 

DEFENCEMEN (19)

VETERANS (6)

2001 — Braden Schneider, Chad Nychuk, Neithan Salame, Jonny Lambos, Rylan Thiessen.

2002 — Vinny Iorio.

SIGNED PROSPECTS (6)

2003 — Jacob Hoffrogge, Logen Hammett, Yaroslav Busygin.

2004 — Zach Turner, Owen Harris.

2005 — Quinn Mantei.

UNSIGNED (7)

2003 — Tyler Teasdale, Charles Larsen.

2004 — Kaiden Ellertson, Cyle Clayton.

2005 — Eastyn Mannix, Oakley McIlwain, Thomas Stewart.

COLLEGE (2)

2002 — Anthony Kehrer, Owen Gallatin.

 

FORWARDS (30)

VETERANS (13)

2000 — Cole Reinhardt, Luka Burzan, Lynden McCallum, Reid Perepeluk, Marcus Sekundiak, Duncan Pierce.

2001 — Marcus Kallionkieli, Ben McCartney.

2002 — Ridly Greig, Ty Thorpe, Nolan Ritchie, Riley Ginnell.

2003 — Jake Chiasson.

SIGNED PROSPECTS (8)

2003 — Brett Hyland, Jaxon Dube.

2004 — Nate Danielson, Tyson Zimmer, Rylen Roersma, Jesiah Bennett.

2005 — Trae Johnson, Teydon Trembecky.

UNSIGNED (9)

2002 — None.

2003 — Cabrel LaBossiere, Owen Weihs, Hunter Wallace.

2004 — None.

2005 — Hayden Chaloner, Jeter Korte, Evan Groening, Noah Asmundson, Zach Nehring, Ty Henricks.

COLLEGE (6)

2000 — Braden Costello, Matthew Osadick.

2001 — Kyle Bettens.

2002 — Grant Slukynsky.

2003 — Dylan James.

2004 — Liam Watkins.

 

• NOTES — College players do not count against the 50-man list nor do the two U.S. Draft prospects, Zach Nehring and Ty Henricks … 2000-born players are in their 20-year-old seasons. 2001-born (19), 2002-born (18), 2003-born (17), 2004-born (16), 2005-born (15, and ineligible to play more than five games under normal circumstances).