McCrimmon found his way in Brandon

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This article was published 09/09/2020 (1877 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the 1980s, Kelly McCrimmon charted a very different life for himself and his family.

After two seasons as a player with the Brandon Wheat Kings, McCrimmon started at the University of Michigan in the 1980-81 season, the last year major junior players were eligible to play in the NCAA. He spent four years there, and graduated with a degree.

Remarkably, his ambition at the time laid back on the land owned by his parents Byron and Faye near Plenty, Sask., which is located between Swift Current and North Battleford.

“My intentions all along were to farm,” the 59-year-old McCrimmon said. “We had a big farm in Saskatchewan. Terry and I were married after my sophomore year and Chelsea was born right after I graduated and we went to farm. That’s what our plan had been for a long time.”

Kelly spent three seasons playing and coaching senior hockey after he moved home and then found a position in the SJHL as a head coach and general manager of the North Battleford North Stars before moving on to the Lloydminster Lancers.

Even when he took the job with the Wheat Kings in 1988, he headed home to work the land each summer with his older brother Brad, a National Hockey League player. 

“I’ve often said to players with the Wheat Kings ‘Don’t think you know exactly what’s going to happen in the future because things can change,’ and that’s what happened in my situation,” McCrimmon said. 

He didn’t commit to the land full-time until he purchased one-third of the club in 1992. (The news wasn’t announced until a year later.)

“It wasn’t really until then that I knew I was going to be in the hockey business in my career,” McCrimmon said. “… That’s the way it all unfolded. It was kind of interesting how it happened. It wasn’t for a long-term plan.”

It certainly turned out all right.

The Wheat Kings’ longtime owner sold the club to the J&G Group of Companies in a deal announced Tuesday. McCrimmon stepped back from his full-time role as head coach and general manager of the Wheat Kings in the summer of 2016 — two months after the club won the WHL title — after accepting a job as assistant manager of the Vegas Golden Knights. A year ago, he was promoted to Vegas’ general manager, and his team is now competing in the Western Conference final.

It’s a path he wouldn’t have imagined as a teenager.

McCrimmon played with the Prince Albert Raiders when he was 16 and 17 when the club was still in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. At 17, he was listed by Brandon, where his older brother Brad was patrolling the blue-line.

“It was a league higher and the quality of the team and the fact that Brad was there were a big part of it,” McCrimmon said. “I had never been to Brandon, Manitoba in my life until I went to training camp in my first year. It was just a great experience. I was extremely fortunate to be part of the ‘78-79 team, which still stands as the best one in Wheat King history and one of the better ones ever in WHL history.

“That was a great thrill, and playing with Brad was something that I appreciated a great deal at the time and then certainly more as time went on it became even more meaningful.”

Incredibly, the Raiders won SJHL titles both years he was there and the Wheat Kings won the WHL crown in his first season in Brandon.

“Brad, who played 18 years in the NHL, would always say — and I would tell our players this — that the best years of your career are in junior hockey,” McCrimmon said. “Personally as a player, the friendships, the experiences, the bus rides, all of the things that go with junior hockey. Playing for Dunc McCallum, it was an incredible experience for me for two years.”

When McCrimmon returned to Brandon, the Keystone Centre was operating the team, so his hybrid job was an assistant coach for the Wheat Kings and marketing director of the facility. In May 1989 he became the general manager.

“I’ve said so many times how fortunate I consider myself to play for the Wheat Kings, to have a chance to own the Wheat Kings, to have as long a run as we did and enjoy the success that the organization had and to have the footprint in Brandon and western Manitoba that we do is an incredible honour,” McCrimmon said. “We were extremely fortunate. 

“And then to have the opportunity after being in major junior hockey for 27 years to go to the National Hockey League with an organization as good as the Vegas Golden Knights and have the opportunities within that organization to become a general manager and work with the people I work with, I appreciate all of those opportunities every day.”

One of McCrimmon’s strengths in junior hockey was his ability to toe the line between a disciplinarian and knowing when a player needed something different.

McCrimmon said it was something he was always mindful of as he worked with teenagers. 

“When I started I was more like a big brother, and then I turned into their father and then probably by the end I was damn near their grandpa,” McCrimmon said.

“The players never change — it’s 16 to 20 — but I think we always held people to a high standard and held ourselves to a high standard as an organization. I think players have always accepted that and respected that and knew we would always be there to help if there were tough times or challenges that life gives young players. We were always willing to care about the players.

“We’re in the winning business when you operate a team in the Western Hockey League but the gratification more often comes from helping people join your organization as boys and leave as men. They become husbands and fathers, and in terms of gratification, that’s what I always loved about junior hockey.”

His work didn’t go unnoticed.

League commissioner Ron Robison said in a release that McCrimmon will be missed.

“Kelly McCrimmon has been synonymous with the Brandon Wheat Kings for as long as most WHL fans can remember,” Robison said. “During his long tenure as general manager and owner, Kelly not only built the Wheat Kings into a model franchise but also played an integral role in developing the WHL into the world class league it is today. His extensive knowledge of the game and strong business acumen have been a major asset to our member clubs and the league as a whole for many years.”

McCrimmon said neither the NHL nor the WHL was uncomfortable with his role in both leagues, and he never faced any pressure to divest the major junior team.

In terms of his professional life, McCrimmon said it wasn’t difficult to have a foot in both.

“I enjoy work,” McCrimmon said with a chuckle. “I’m extremely fortunate that my work never felt like work ever. It was a way of life and I loved what I was doing. It was certainly a different feeling when you weren’t there day to day.”

He watched games online as much as he could, and got home to see the team in action when possible. He also stayed in communication with Wheat Kings.

But if there was something that pushed him to sell the team, it was the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The work with Vegas couldn’t suffer and I don’t believe did suffer so I was able to manage that,” McCrimmon said. “This will be on less thing on my plate I guess. Being involved from a distance was different and a little bit challenging at times but then COVID to this. With the challenges that are going to come for junior hockey with the worldwide pandemic, it did concern me to not be there to help the team through this period of time. That also brought this decision to a head.”

Even so, McCrimmon said a lot of thought went into the decision. He’s pleased with how far the club has come in the last 30 years and the success it has enjoyed.

“I probably don’t reflect on things as much as you might expect but this decision forced you to look at your time here,” McCrimmon said.

“I think the Wheat Kings are one of the most highly respected franchises in the Canadian Hockey League. I think our record of success was extraordinary. Often times in what’s a very cyclical business we were always in a position where we were a team that had a chance to win or we building a team that had a chance to win.

“We were very rarely stuck in between, and there is a lot of gratification and satisfaction in either of those situations.” 

At some point it had to end, however, and the news became official on Tuesday.

McCrimmon said while work keeps him in Vegas, his family isn’t going anywhere. 

“We love Brandon and we love Manitoba,” McCrimmon said.

“We’ve been very fortunate to raise our family in one city, which often times in the hockey business you don’t get to do. It’s our home.”

 

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