Whenever I reach out to someone on the hockey operations side for the Brandon Wheat Kings this time of year, whether to set up an interview or just to chat, I always ask how their summer is going, but I try never to ask them if they’re having a good offseason. Experience has taught me that for those tasked with building the team, offseason is a misnomer.
Case in point, one day after Canada Day, the CHL held its Import Draft, one of the most complicated selection processes of the year. It not only involves players of whom scouts have often had very few in-person viewings, it also involves all 161 teams in the CHL from coast to coast. And navigating this draft is something the top minds of every CHL team have to do at a time when it’s 30 degrees outside and the sun is shining until well after 9:00 in the evening. Offseason indeed.
The Import Draft, the NHL draft, development camps, Hockey Canada camps, player signings and trades, and now the added complication of players being able to leave for the NCAA mean those of us who cover the teams aren’t totally in offseason mode either. True enough, there are no games to report on, but the past two weeks have given me plenty to talk, think, and maybe even gripe about.
We are less than two months away from the start of Wheat Kings’ training camp, and the scouts and hockey operations staff have been, based on my conversations with them, very busy trying to make this camp the most competitive they’ve overseen. In a season where the team has lofty goals for itself, this camp is expected to be a tone setter.
I like summer just fine, but you can’t really call it an offseason.
- We begin with well earned congratulations for the three Wheat Kings selected in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, Roger McQueen, Carter Klippenstein, and Brady Turko. A huge moment in the hockey lives of all three young men, when I spoke to them they all used some variation of the words “dream come true” while still acknowledging that the hardest of the work is yet to come. It’s the second draft out of the last three the Wheat Kings have had a top-ten selection, and fourth draft out of the past six where multiple Wheat Kings have heard their names called, so this marked a big day for not only the players in question but the Wheat Kings organization as a whole.
- After rolling out the red carpet for Roger McQueen post-draft, the Anaheim Ducks put him through his paces at development camp, in which he was a full participant. Not only was this a good sign for his overall health, there were some excellent signs for his overall development as well. Watching him go toe-to-toe with last year’s third overall pick Beckett Sennecke was quite something. McQueen has been very public about the fact that right now it’s Anaheim or Brandon for him next season, and while he wants to make the Ducks of course (why wouldn’t he after the treatment they’ve given him and his family since the draft) he’s also been fairly open about what he wants from another season in Brandon: a Memorial Cup.
- After the combine, Carter Klippenstein told me he’d been looking forward to it all year because he knew he could make such a big impression on scouts there. Sure enough, he gets drafted and what is the first thing the Sportsnet/ESPN panel brings up? His combine scores. I believe the words “this guy is a beast” were used. We’ll never know for certain just how much those scores influenced the Minnesota Wild in selecting him but we know they can’t have hurt. So now Carter has his first NHL development camp under his belt, he has a full offseason to train up (in which he, like Roger, is fully recovered from his injury), and he’s got big expectations for the season ahead in Brandon. What is a veteran, energized Carter Klippenstein going to look like at training camp and once the season opens? It’s an exciting question.
- I get to have a bit of an “I told you so” moment with the Anaheim Ducks selecting Brady Turko. Entering the draft, Turko had not been ranked on NHL Central Scouting’s final list, but I knew from conversations with NHL scouts that he was firmly in the late-round plans of several teams. By the way, the scout who told me he expected Brady to “pop off” this coming season was NOT a scout for the Anaheim Ducks. The fact that multiple NHL teams seem to think there’s a leap forward coming for Brady is highly promising.
- Where I do not get an “I told you so” moment and where I get confused and maybe just a bit cantankerous is seeing the development camp rosters of the 32 NHL teams and not seeing (in my opinion) nearly enough of the undrafted Wheat Kings. Luke Shipley got a well-earned look at Nashville Predators camp, and Quinn Mantei was in Columbus with the Blue Jackets, but beyond that players that were on Central Scouting’s list (notably Luke Mistelbacher, Grayson Burzynski, and Joby Baumuller) didn’t seem to get much traction with NHL development camps. Now, I’m not taking anything away from some of the players that were invited as it’s a huge moment for them in their careers, but I saw some names I recognized from the WHL and couldn’t help compare them to the Wheat Kings who couldn’t get invites. I’m left scratching my head that certain guys can’t seem to get that foot in the door opportunity, and I hope it leaves them with a ton of motivation for the season ahead to prove all the teams that passed on them wrong.
- Now, to the Import Draft. The first pick the Wheat Kings made in the draft, Samu Alalauri, would seem to have a very high ceiling (Director of Hockey Operations Chris Moulton described him to me as an NHL prospect in his age group with professional upside) and has good size (6-foot-1 or 2 depending on which site you believe) and has already been prominent on the international stage for Finland. The problem is, the Wheat Kings aren’t certain he’s coming over this year. From comments Marty Murray made and from my chat with Chris, it almost sounds like this is a player the team is going to want for 2026-27 but they didn’t want to risk him not being available at their selection in the 2026 Import Draft. This is an interesting strategy but it’s one that has some precedent. The Regina Pats did something similar with Stanislav Svozil at the 2020 Import Draft but didn’t get him into the lineup until 2021-22, whereupon he had already been drafted by Columbus and proved to be well worth the wait. It’s way too early in Alalauri’s career to directly compare him to Svozil, but the strategy isn’t unheard of and has a recent success story. And if the Wheat Kings get Alalauri earlier than they’d planned on, then they’ll still be thrilled to get him.
- One player the Wheat Kings absolutely expect to have at camp this fall and have already had positive conversations with to that end is defenseman Adam Hlinsky. The 2006-born blueliner already speaks good English, has played numerous leadership roles, and has spent the past two seasons in the J20 ranks in Sweden, a circuit that is known to be about as close as you get in Europe to the CHL in terms of the style and calibre of play. The goal with Hlinsky, who has already represented Czechia internationally numerous times, is simple: come in and make an impact right away.
- One immediate impact Hlinsky is expected to have, and one Moulton is very excited about, is fostering internal competition on the back end. Moulton said he expects this fall’s training camp to be the most competitive he has overseen with the Wheat Kings and while the team’s depth at forward is well known, the competition on defense is now likely to be the stiffest it’s ever been. Not including Alalauri, whose presence at camp is not yet certain, the Wheat Kings plan on having at least nine defensemen in camp who could reasonably contend for a roster spot (more on that in a minute) and that’s not including a cast of 2009-born defensemen the team is increasingly bullish on but who might need another year of development before they’re ready for primetime.
- Expect similar competition between the pipes thanks to the pickup of goaltender Filip Ruzicka. Standing 6-foot-6 (Elite Prospects has him listed 6-foot-7), and boasting excellent numbers in U17 hockey in Czechia including a .943 save percentage, he’s expected to push for a spot when camp opens, and he’s expected to join a competition that features Dylan McFadyen (who has already played games for the Wheat Kings and has been strong in the U18 AAA ranks in Manitoba), Hudson Perry (who the team acquired in a deal with Edmonton and who, like McFadyen, already has WHL experience) and another name Moulton mentioned: young Urijah Moosetail. So far Moosetail has played mostly U17 hockey, and as a 2009-born goalie he’s the youngest of the bunch, but Moulton said he expects Moosetail to help push the pace at training camp. He also mentioned that right now the fight is for a spot behind Ethan Eskit, who has the starter’s reins for the moment and who has done plenty to earn them.
- One thing I’ve learned over the course of this blog: Wheat Kings fans are pretty plugged in, and they pay close attention to the team. Those same fans may have read “nine defensemen who could contend for a roster spot” and looked at the team’s prospects and returning players and thought, as the kids say, the math ain’t mathin’. According to Moulton, the team plans to invite several defenseman who played Junior A last season who are old and experienced enough to play their way onto the roster. I won’t drop any of the names I have (the Wheat Kings will reveal camp rosters in their own good time) but one thing a lot of these defensemen seem to have in common is size and snarl. And that’s putting them into the mix of a blueline that already shapes up to have plenty of both. One name not to be forgotten in the blueline competition: Merrek Arpin. The 6-foot-4 defenseman has been out of sight and out of mind due to injury, but a player with his size and skating ability can get back into sight and into mind very quickly. If he, like McQueen and Klippenstein, fully heals over the summer, he could be an x-factor come the start of the season.
- The forward corps isn’t escaping the infusion of competition either. Based on incoming prospects and returning guys, I thought I had the Wheat Kings’ forward depth chart more or less figured out. My conversation with Moulton told me I could have some re-evaluating to do. Like on defense, the Wheat Kings have a list of forwards experienced at other levels of hockey who are old enough to push for spots this season. And like on defense, there’s another x-factor here: Easton Odut. The former second round pick was consistently hard to play against all last season when healthy, but he was just starting to show his offensive potential when he got injured. Another big offseason is in the cards for him. If he can come to camp and remind the Wheat Kings of why he was a second round pick in the first place, he’ll add a delightful complication to their forward plans.
- Wheat Kings fans will no doubt have guessed part of the reason so many high-end junior A players are suddenly available for WHL camps is that the NCAA has ruled CHL players can play there beginning next season. The NCAA giveth, and the NCAA taketh away, however. This infusion of talent comes at a cost, and it’s fitting that I’m writing this today when Gavin McKenna, probably the best player in the country this past season, will announce his NCAA commitment for 2025-26. Cam Robinson reported yesterday it would be Penn State, and while there’s been no official confirmation, Cam has called his shot successfully many times by now. He called it weeks in advance with McKenna’s Tigers teammate Ryder Ritchie, who is off to Boston University next season, and got confirmation on Ritchie’s Instagram account earlier this week. And just this morning, I saw former Wheat King Teydon Trembecky has committed to Michigan Tech for next season, fresh off a 40-goal season with the Royals. So far (touch wood) the Wheat Kings have been relatively unscathed by the NCAA departures. They’ve lost captain Quinn Mantei, and that hurts, but Mantei was decent enough to let the team know well in advance and give them enough time to find a replacement (as much as anyone could replace Mantei’s contributions to the team). Certainly the Wheat Kings haven’t suffered like the Victoria Royals have, who with the departure of Trembecky have lost three massive pieces including Keaton Verhoef and Cole Reschny. I admit, the departures of Verhoef and McKenna sting a little extra for the league as a whole; those two could end up being the first and second overall picks in 2026. What a feather in the WHL’s cap that would’ve been. But both of them played so much hockey in the WHL that they can still be counted as proud alumni. It’s all part of a strange new hockey world we’re having to navigate.
Who would’ve thought the blogs would get longer at this time of year? Alas they will probably get less frequent over the next month and a half, but as late August rolls around, I’ll be in hockey mode again. And if the Wheat Kings are to be believed, there’s more reason than usual for excitement about training camp this fall.
Again, I like summer just fine. But I’m not against the calendar hurrying up to late August.
