When the Brandon Wheat Kings bid for the Memorial Cup hosting position last season, they were adamant they were going to be in the tournament one way or another. In other words, they’ve always had a high standard set for themselves in 2025-26.
That promised season is now just over 24 hours away, and soon it will be up to them to live up to the promise. While the roster doesn’t look exactly like they envisioned it when they first began piecing it together, they still have high expectations internally.
“Like every year, it’s going to be highly competitive in our conference and around the league, but we really feel good about this group,” Murray said. “We’ve talked about this year for two or three years. Obviously some things have changed a bit with personnel but that said, we feel really good about where we are at the start of the season. But it’s going to be the same old Western Hockey League where you can’t afford to take a night off.”
After a preseason in which they went 3-1, and with four players freshly returned from NHL rookie camps, the Wheat Kings are well-positioned to start this pivotal year on the right foot. And just like last season, they’ll open on home ice against the Moose Jaw Warriors.
Forward Thinking
Part of what drives the expectations surrounding this group is their cast of forwards. Even with Carter Klippenstein and Brady Turko away with the Minnesota Wild and Anaheim Ducks respectively, this is a deep, talented forward corps, and it could be downright scary when those two return. In fact, even without Klippenstein, Turko, Caleb Hadland, and Luke Mistelbacher, the team piled up 18 goals in four preseason contests.
“We want to be a team that can play in all three zones,” said Murray. “But there’s no question that in our forward group we feel we’re pretty deep. We feel like we can match up really well against anybody in the league.”
Some forwards will be relied on to take big steps forward, especially with several key departures from last season’s team up front. Mistelbacher, however, is already a well-established sniper, the leading returning goal scorer in the WHL with 42 last season, and a key component of the Wheat Kings’ attack.
“He’ll be surrounded by good players here just like he was in Swift Current and hopefully that production can continue,” Murray said. “Not only that, we want to take it to another level as far as his play away from the puck, maybe even protecting a lead in the last minute of a game, can he handle those responsibilities? I want to try to round out his complete game, and hopefully can have a big, big year for us and be ready to play pro hockey.”
So far, Mistelbacher has been skating with Jaxon Jacobson and Jordan Gavin, and what a line that could turn out to be. Jacobson and Gavin both put up three straight multi-point games in the preseason, and Gavin, as a 19-year-old and former second overall pick, will have expectations to produce, and every opportunity to meet them.
“First and foremost, he had a really good summer,” said Murray. “You can see that he put in the work, and I have a feeling he’s going to get rewarded. He’s a guy that has high, high end hockey IQ. He’d be fun to play with, to be honest with you. You match that with Jacobson and Mistelbacher, they can be a really high end line in the league this year.”
It will be an experienced forward group in general, with veterans like Hadland, Joby Baumuller, and 20-year-old Nicholas Johnson all returning from last year’s team and ready for opening night. As the oldest player on the roster, and having set career highs with 16 goals and 42 points in 53 games last season, Johnson will be another forward the team trusts to put up points.
“Hopefully he can have an injury-free season, that would be the first priority, and if he does he has the ability to be a really good player,” said Murray. “We have really good depth up front and we expect him to be one of those guys that is a consistent producer for us.”
The roster will feature its share of skill, but there’s more than flash to this forward group, and to this team in general. Hadland has always been renowned for his thunderous bodychecks, Baumuller showed a good physical edge in the preseason, and a pair of newcomers have added both size and snarl to the team.
“That game against Swift Current, they had some older guys that finish their checks hard,” said Murray. “You need to have that pushback, and I thought Gunnar (Gleasman) and Max Lavoie, their presence, they provide that pushback that we need. We don’t need our skilled players getting hit a lot, so to have those two in the mix and in the lineup gives us that edge.”
The Defense Rests
While the Wheat Kings’ blue line is younger than their forward group, it’s not exactly an inexperienced group either as four players return from last season’s team. A fifth, Grayson Burzynski, is the true voice of experience with 233 career WHL games. After posting 11 goals and 47 points last season, the 6-foot-4 blueliner seems the prime candidate for power play quarterback.
“He can make plays, he can thread the needle a bit, but he’s also just smart moving the puck,” Murray said. “We’ll rely on four forwards on our (power play) unit and I think he has a really good head for the game for the power play, and the ability to put the puck in the net as well.”
Burzynski is the lone blueliner of this group to have NHL camp experience, having gotten his first taste of it with the Boston Bruins this year, but he’s unlikely to be the last. Gio Pantelas, a first-round pick by the Wheat Kings in 2023 and a member of Canada’s Hlinka Gretzky Cup team this summer, stands 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds and skates extremely well. He can expect to have NHL eyes on him this season.
“He’s created a lot of noise for himself,” said Murray. “It started last year, steadily improving and being a key part of our back end down the stretch and into the playoffs. Gio is a guy that’s very appealing (to NHL scouts) because he can play physically, he’s strong, and he’s got some sneaky offensive ability in his game. For Gio, staying within himself and recognizing what he is as a player is going to be important, as well as trying to round out his game and maybe trying to provide a little more offense this year.”
Pantelas, despite his impressive size, almost blends in on this Wheat Kings’ blue line in that regard. Adam Hlinsky and Dylan Ronald are both 5-foot-11 but no other Wheat Kings’ blueliner is under 6-foot-1. The team expects the size of their blueline to help play into the hard-to-play-against identity they’re trying to create for themselves.
“You look at our size and we’re pretty big back there, but we’ve got to play big,” Murray said. “We have some guys that, like Burzynski, can take it to another level physically. We don’t want to be taking penalties all night, but we’ve got to have that edge, we’ve got to play with a little bit of grit around the net. At times in the preseason we got outmuscled around the blue paint. We need to have the buy-in from our D-corps and the forward down low that we’re going to win those battles.”
Who Were Those Masked Men?
The team’s goaltending battle proved to be highly competitive just as they’d planned, but there was one fewer participant in that battle than they’d hoped as towering Czech goaltender Filip Ruzicka’s arrival is being held up by his former team back in Czechia. His most recent appeal to the IIHF was denied, but neither the Wheat Kings nor Ruzicka are giving up.
“A hundred percent, he wants to be here,” said Murray. “You feel bad for him in this situation, it’s brutal. His transfer is something that I think nobody has really seen before. We’re looking into what can be done.”
In the meantime, the Wheat Kings have reason to be confident in the tandem they have. Jayden Kraus, acquired in the offseason from Victoria, is fresh off an NHL rookie camp with the Colorado Avalanche after he posted 25-8-9 record and a .908 save percentage with the Royals last season, while Hudson Perry played his way onto the team with his strong camp and preseason after getting some seasoning in the AJHL last year.
“We feel really comfortable with either guy,” Murray said. “Kraus, in our minds, is a legit number one and Hudson Perry really came in, pushed for a spot, and earned this opportunity. I thought he was exceptional in Virden last weekend, he made some huge saves. We feel really good about our goaltending. You need two really good goaltenders in this league.”
Wheat Kings fans will get to see that tandem and every other part of their new lineup at the home opener tomorrow night when they host the Warriors. Game time is 7:00. The pregame show on Q Country 91.5 will start at 6:30.
