An eight-year-old Josh McGregor, sporting a Nolan Patrick Brandon Wheat Kings jersey, would have been overjoyed to learn he would one day get to play for the Wheat Kings himself. As it turns out, 18-year-old McGregor was pretty happy too.
The 6-foot-3 Brandon-born defenseman will turn 19 in less than a week, and he got an early birthday present when he was traded to his hometown Wheat Kings on May 21. If you picture a rugged, prairie-raised defenseman being traded from Swift Current to Brandon in late May, chances are you imagine him being on a farm when he finds out. Sure enough, that’s just where McGregor was.
“I was at the farm in Waskada,” McGregor said. “I’d just gotten back from seeding and I was in my grandma’s house, sitting on the bed, when the GM of Swift Current called me and let me know.”
It was a wonderful full-circle moment for McGregor, who had lived out a childhood dream of playing a WHL game at Assiniboine Credit Union Place but who had done so as a member of the Swift Current Broncos. Now he’ll get a chance to do so as a Wheat King.
“You grow up watching the Wheat Kings, you always wanted to play for them,” said McGregor. “It’s nice that I’ll get the chance to play for them… I used to go to games in my Nolan Patrick jersey back in (2015-16) when they won. And (defenseman Ivan) Provorov, watching him play was unreal.”
McGregor already knows a lot of the current Wheat Kings well, both from his minor hockey days and from training in Brandon in the offseason. His training regimen was how he met Joby Baumuller, and not only has he known Jaxon Jacobson most of his life but he also won a championship with Jacobson and Brady Turko with the U18 AAA Wheat Kings in 2023-24.
“I played with Jaxon since I was about seven so it will be cool to play with him and Turks again,” he said. “It’ll be pretty cool.”
There are still two full months and most of a third left in the offseason and McGregor intends to make the most of the time. Last season, playing with the Carolina Hurricanes in their rookie tournament, he learned just how hard he’s going to have to work to get to the next level.
“I got to go down to Tampa for their rookie tournament, it was unreal,” said McGregor. “It was so much faster. Adjusting to the speed, and how they stay so tight to their systems, the main thing was adjusting to the speed.”
And if that weren’t incentive enough, McGregor is stepping into a team with some real promise behind it and some depth at all positions. And he already knows the thrill of winning a championship with a hometown team.
“I think we’re going to have a really strong season,” McGregor said. “The back end looks good, the forwards look good, the goalie, well, he (Filip Ruzicka) was unreal in that Virden series against Calgary. I think we’re going to be a good team.”
