Shorthanded Wheaties soldier on

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This article was published 20/09/2021 (1478 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With just 13 skaters and two goalies at practice on Monday and the start to the Western Hockey League season looming, Brandon Wheat Kings head coach Don MacGillivray could be forgiven for feeling a little frustrated.

Instead, with almost half his team at pro camps, the veteran coach sees it differently.

“What we’re trying to do is get some teaching done with the younger guys,” MacGillivray said. “We’re trying to implement a little bit of our systems as we move along here and as guys filter back they already understand what we’re trying to do. It should be OK.

“In a lot of ways, it might be a blessing in disguise. We get these guys lots of reps early and we’ll see how it pans out.”

On Monday, the team had seven forwards, six defencemen and two goalies on the ice, with seven rookies in the mix. Brandon faces its next pre-season challenge on Thursday when the Winnipeg Ice visit, with the season set to begin on Oct. 2.

The Wheat Kings are also without rookie defenceman Owen Harris, who is nursing an upper-body injury suffered in camp, and Belarusian forward Zakhar Polshakov, whose visa still hasn’t been approved.

Brandon’s 2020 first-rounder, defenceman Quinn Mantei, is one of the beneficiaries of the extra repetitions in practice. The smooth-skating, 16-year-old Saskatchewan product said he’s enjoying the extra opportunities.

“Lots of guys are gone, but we’ve been putting the work in for sure,” Mantei said. “It’s pretty tiring with all the skating, but it’s good to get more reps in and get ready for the season.”

Brandon’s long list of players attending pro camps includes drafted players Ridly Greig (Ottawa Senators), Vincent Iorio (Washington Capitals), Jake Chiasson (Edmonton Oilers) and Marcus Kallionkieli (Vegas Golden Knights), plus free agent camp invitees Brett Hyland (Los Angeles Kings), Nolan Ritchie (Philadelphia Flyers), Mason Ward (Detroit Red Wings), Riley Ginnell (St. Louis Blues) and Ethan Kruger (Edmonton).

That means MacGillivray is preparing for the regular season without nine players he’ll have in the lineup, if Kallionkieli earns one of the three overager spots.

The good news from his standpoint is that players at pro camps should begin trickling back to Brandon this week.

“Those guys are getting really good experience,” MacGillivray said. “They’re getting to play against top-calibre junior or college players or in some cases pro players.”

Even with the shortage of bodies, the team has already sent home three players in time for their seasons to begin. 

After signing Evan Groening, Hayden Chaloner and Eastyn Mannix last week, the trio was reassigned. Groening will join the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Virden Oil Capitals, while Chaloner heads to the under-18 Winnipeg Thrashers and Mannix rejoins the powerful NAX prep team in Alberta.

This year’s lack of numbers stems from National Hockey League camps starting a bit later, creating something MacGillivray calls an “unusual” situation for teams around the league.

Instead of operating normally, his goals have changed as a result.

“Your expectations are to try and get a real good read on the young guys,” MacGillivray said. “The concern I would have is the pace of practice. It’s not as high as it would be if you have those guys. We really need our guys from last year to up their practice habits and up their game a little bit so the pace of practice is what it should be. That for me is the biggest concern.”

Another way practice is affected is that the team’s drills, which appear daunting for the rookies to initially pick up, don’t have as many veterans to lead the way.

Defenceman Chad Nychuk, who is battling for one of the team’s three overage spots, chuckled when asked about the shortage of bodies on the ice.

“In Rossburn, we used to have eight kids, but that doesn’t happen often,” Nychuk said. “This is nothing.”

He added with half the players on the ice in their rookie seasons, there is an expectation among the older players that they will lead.

“All the young guys are really good,” Nychuk said. “They pick things up really quick but at the same time it’s on the older guys to really help out and make them feel welcome. The only thing that will do is make our team better.”

The coaching staff has also revamped its approach to training so that it doesn’t wear out the players who are here. MacGillivray said that manifests itself in a variety of ways.

“With our numbers, it limits what you can do,” MacGillivray said. “You also have to be cognizant of how much battling you do in practice, how much skating you do, conditioning, all those types of things are different. We’re trying to balance that, do a little bit of teaching, do a little bit of system work and conditioning, pace of practice, making sure we’re not going too long, that type of thing.”

MacGillivray recognizes it has set back what the staff’s expectations would normally be at this point. But in a season set to end on April 2, there’s plenty of time to get things worked out.

“We’re not really too worried about it,” MacGillivray said. “We’ll deal with the hand we’re dealt and look at that as a blessing rather than a curse. There could be some benefits of it. Time will tell.

“Maybe we don’t get out of the gates the way we want but at the same time, it’s a long year. We play 68 games. We’re going to get our guys back. It’s just a matter of when.”

 

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson