From the very beginning of the season, and even prior to that, no one questioned the strength of the Brandon Wheat Kings forward corps. A young blue line wasn’t always afforded the same assumption of strength, but they’re changing a few minds about that with their play.
A defense corps that features four rookies, and has recently dressed as many as five, has shouldered their share of the load and then some for a Wheat Kings team right in the thick of battle for top spot in the East Division. Their youth was the first question mark some people had about the team when the season began, and they’ve not only quieted a lot of those questions but given the Wheat Kings a window into a strong future on defense.
“They’ve handled themselves pretty well,” said head coach and GM Marty Murray. “It’s been a grueling schedule and they’ve all been thrown right into the fire, they’ve all played against top players on other teams, and for the most part we’ve done a pretty good job.”
Luke Shipley, one of the two veterans on the back-end, recently missed eight games for the Wheat Kings after suffering a vicious hit to the head against the Wenatchee. With him out, affiliate player Cameron Allard was called up, making for five rookies on the back end. And on some nights, when Allard was back with the Estevan Bears of the Saskatchewan U18 AAA ranks, they only had five blueliners in total.
“We did really well out there in my opinion, especially with five rookies that’s really hard to do,” said defenseman Gio Pantelas. “I feel like we got the job done. We did what we had to do, we had to play defensively and didn’t have to jump up too much, and we did that well.”
Pantelas had a spotlight thrown on him during Shipley’s absence, as he was the only right-handed defenseman the Wheat Kings had and slotted into Shipley’s former spot in the lineup next to captain Quinn Mantei. The 16-year-old defenseman felt his confidence rose sharply because of the extra minutes, and it also allowed the Wheat Kings to ease Shipley back in a bit once he returned to the lineup.
“It’s been amazing having the extra ice time,” Pantelas said. “Being out there more, you get more of everything. I’ve noticed my stats go up, including shot blocks. More time with the puck, more time around the puck, everything goes up.”
The offensive numbers went up for Pantelas as well, as he posted two goals and an assist while Shipley was out and racked up a plus-10 rating. But he wasn’t the only young rearguard to see a statistical boost. 2006-born defenseman Dylan Ronald has amassed 23 points so far this season, just two of which have come on the power play.
“You root for the underdog, and here’s a kid that’s an 18-year-old rookie in our league, missed an entire calendar year of hockey due to a broken leg,” Murray said. “He’s come in and done a really good job for us and played in all situations.”
Though he’s one of the older rookie defenseman, arguably no one had a harder transition to the WHL than Adam Belusko, who not only had to learn how to play hockey in a new country and speak an unfamiliar language, he often had to play forward as well. He scored a goal and an assist in the win over the Edmonton Oil Kings, and Murray said aside from those points that was his best game in Black and Gold.
“Like many players coming from Europe it takes some time, but Adam has done a really good job here in the second half,” Murray added, “understanding what the Western Hockey League entails night in and night out, and understanding when to take risks and not get exposed defensively. He’s done a great job making those reads.”
Rounding out the younger crew on the back end is 2008-born Nigel Boehm, the youngest of the group and not eligible for the draft until 2027. He’s taking more than a few cues (or Qs if you prefer) from Mantei in his style of play, his skating ability, his willingness to aggressively shut down the rush, and even his offensive totals, which mirror those of Mantei’s rookie season to a startling degree.
“The thing we really like about Nigel is he knows what he is, he knows he’s a defense-first defenseman,” said Murray. “Those guys are getting harder and harder to find nowadays. He plays with that as part of his identity, and as a 16-year-old he’s done a really good job for us as well.”
At the start of the season, even the defensemen on the team, when asked, were quick to point to the forward group as the source of the team’s strength. Now, however, those same blue liners are carving a place for themselves on a team right in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Now, and in future, that bodes well for the Black and Gold.
