It’s amazing how differently one game can make you view a stretch of hockey.
The game in question, the most recent one for the Wheat Kings, had the potential to put them in a remarkable position at the quarter mark of the season. A win over the Swift Current Broncos would have put the Wheat Kings up to 12-5-0 on the campaign, four points up on the Broncos for first in the East Division, and given them a 4-2-0 finish to a challenging stretch of six games in nine days.
The 7-2 loss didn’t completely spoil things of course. A record of 11-6-0, tied for first in the division, is still nothing to sneeze at. But losing 7-2 to a division rival in your own building has a way of souring the mood.
Head coach and GM Marty Murray used the word “embarrassed” more than once in our post-game interview that night. Returning forward Gunnar Gleasman used the term “pissed off” to describe the way the team was feeling at practice this week. No one seemed happy with that result.
Relentless optimist that I am, if I were to read into this I’d see a team that sits 11-6-0 on the campaign and is still demanding more of itself. That’s a good sign. There’s no complacency there, and no one is resting on any laurels.
Yet the injury bug is not going any easier on the team and neither is the schedule maker as the Wheat Kings have five games in another nine day stretch beginning this Friday, including the seemingly annual day trip to Prince Albert, the presence of which on the schedule never fails to make me roll my eyes.
As ever, the work continues.
- With five goals in his last four games, Kris Muissu is starting to make good on the promise he showed in the preseason, and it’s a mark of how much talent he has that it does feel like that laudable pace is still only starting to make good. With a powerful frame, excellent puck protection skills, and a pro caliber shot, it feels like “Moose” could score forty goals for fun. Of course he’s on pace to score 44 right now, but even that feels like it’s selling him short. A lot can happen in a hockey season but when you’ve got Marty Murray saying “I don’t think an NHL goalie is stopping those shots” after your two-goal game in Moose Jaw, you’ve got something special building. Muissu’s presence on NHL Central Scouting’s first list of the season is evidence that the Wheat Kings aren’t the only ones seeing high end potential here.
- On the note of Central Scouting’s first list of the season, there were some surprises there for me (there always are) and among the two biggest surprises were names that I did not see on the list. Personally, I thought his start of over a point-per-game on a first place team (as the Wheat Kings were at the time of the list’s release) would’ve earned Chase Surkan a little more respect. But the goal he scored in Prince Albert after the list came out, a beautiful backhand-forehand deke on a breakaway of his own making, showed he’s not letting the snub slow him down. On the note of snubs, I was also surprised not to see Nigel Boehm’s name on the list. He and Surkan play almost polar opposite styles (Boehm is all about shutdown defense) but given his commitment to his own zone, and how many times I’ve heard scouts lament how few players share his commitment, I’d have thought to see his name on the first list of the season. He left his own stamp on the game in Prince Albert incidentally, with three straight shot blocks on one-timers on the penalty kill. And there’s still plenty of time left for he and other Wheat Kings to play their way onto or further up the list.
- The biggest news of the day today in the WHL, news that I was repeatedly assured by people in the know was just a matter of time, was the awarding of an expansion franchise to Chilliwack. The ownership group is comprised of both businessmen and former NHLers including Jeremy Colliton (who will serve as Governor, General Manager, and Head Coach of the new team) and Mason Raymond. The league has said this will mean another expansion draft in the spring of 2027, though they aren’t yet ready to announce the name under which the new team will play. The Wheat Kings handled the last expansion draft quite well in hindsight; Isaac Davies, the player the Penticton Vees selected in 2025, hasn’t played since he last suited up for the Wheat Kings that same spring. And again I play the optimist when I say that the league being confident enough in its product to expand is a good sign. I am left with two other thoughts: one, that I’m slightly jealous of the Kelowna Rockets, who have added two new divisional opponents in the last two years, both of whom are geographically closer to them than the Wheat Kings’ closest foe. Two, this leaves the conferences rather out of balance, perhaps opening a door for an eastern expansion team if the league’s stability holds. Somewhere, former Brandon Sun scribe Lucas Punkari will be most upset if I do not mention the Billings Bighorns, who once played in the league despite their closest modern opponent being just under six hours away. Meanwhile, many people I know in both Saskatchewan and Alberta like the idea of bringing Lloydminster into the league due to a nice modern rink and some natural rivalries on either side of them. As for me, well, I can’t help but look at that beautiful new rink in Steinbach and wonder if one day it might not be home to someone besides the MJHL’s Pistons.
- Speaking of the MJHL, whenever a player is sent “down” so to speak, coaches can only hope the player takes that reassignment in the proper spirit. Since the start of the season, the Wheat Kings have reassigned Ahmad Fayad to Virden of the MJHL and Carson Park to the SJHL’s Nipawin Hawks, and both have evidently taken it in exactly the intended manner. Park has an impressive 18 points in 12 games for the Hawks in a league that is extremely tough on young players, while Fayad, despite being just 16 years old, has 13 points in eight games with Virden. Both were also asked to represent their respective leagues in the U18 showcase games being played between the two leagues this week. Park scored in the SJHL’s 8-6 win today in Martensville.
- Goalscoring is not the be-all-end-all of success for a defenseman, but when you score seven goals as a rookie as Cam Allard did, you don’t want to stay off the scoresheet for too terribly long. With points in five of his last seven outings, it seems like the dam has burst for the Yorkton native. He got his first goal of the season in the loss to the Everett Silvertips, then snapped home an OT winner against the Lethbridge Hurricanes less than a week later. At a time where the Wheat Kings are besieged by absences on the blue line (Cruz Jim is away at the U17s, Josh McGregor is out, and Ilari Kapanen is still working back from an injury suffered in the second game of the season), Allard stepping up is not only nice to see, it borders on critical. He also added six shots on goal in the win over Lethbridge for good measure.
- On the note of shots on goal (and an odd note it is) the Wheat Kings have outshot their opponents the last four games in a row after doing so just once in the first 13 games. Yet they were only 2-2-0 in those four games and now sit 2-3-0 when outshooting an opponent this season. This is not to suggest that being constantly outshot is a key to success. It’s just an odd little note in a sport that is invariably full of those throughout a season.
I watched the entirety of the Winnipeg Jets and Montreal Canadiens last night and was mentally preparing myself for a tenth straight Jets loss when they went down 4-0. I thought Tyrel Bauer’s first NHL goal would merely be a nice footnote in the defeat, and when he got an assist moments later to make it his first Gordie Howe Hat Trick, I thought that was a nice storyline for the team to build around going forward. But while I certainly did not predict them scoring four goals in 2:06 and setting an NHL record for latest four-goal comeback before winning in overtime, I most definitely enjoyed it.
That’s a good lesson to keep in mind for the Wheat Kings, playing as they do at a level where leads are even more volatile. You’re never truly out of it, and neither is your opponent. It’s part of what makes the sport so much fun.
