To me, referring to the time from the end of the playoffs to the end of May as the “offseason” is just a bit of a misnomer. Oh, there are no games to play (for most teams) and the news on the hockey front most definitely begins to dwindle. But ask any GM around the WHL and they’ll tell you the work doesn’t really stop. In some cases, it barely even slows down.
In the leadup to the WHL draft, various camps, tournaments, and even the TELUS Cup serve as one last primer for teams looking for insight on who to draft. For the players, the prospect of invites to the NHL combine and to Canada’s various summer camps is also on the table. And then, for eight teams in the WHL, it’s not even remotely the offseason yet and there still exists the hope that it won’t be until the end of May.
NHL Central Scouting also released their final rankings today, reminding us that there looms on the distant horizon another massive milestone in the offseason. And based on the freshly released ranking, the Wheat Kings could have a banner weekend at the end of June.
The impetus for this blog in particular comes largely from year-end chat with Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. We went through it all, from the goaltending situation next year to the rise of the 2008-born players, to the process of getting down to three 2005-born players, to the WHL draft that, one way or another, promises to be a big day for the Wheat Kings.
As a long-awaited vacation is ahead of me, this is one of the last chances I’ll have to chat Wheat Kings with you before the draft. And there are still some things from last season to unpack. Let’s dive in.
- Let’s start with the only thing on this outpouring of end of season thoughts that could reasonably be called news: NHL Central Scouting released their final rankings for the 2025 NHL Entry Draft this morning, and three Wheat Kings are on it. Roger McQueen seems not to have been too badly slowed down by an injury-riddled season as he arrives at number eight among North American skaters. Carter Klippenstein comes in at number 88 (incidentally this is one Wheat King I had a ton of positive conversations about with scouts this year; they love the mix of size, skill, and snarl but a few I’ve spoken to want to see him be even nastier). Joby Baumuller comes in at 167, and while there are always head scratchers in any given year this ranking, to me, is selling him short. But it’s a good sign that he’s on those NHL radars, and this bodes well for the Wheat Kings on draft day, or draft days as it were.
- A quick side note on Baumuller: his shot is a big weapon, and so is his speed, but one thing that always seems to make scouts sit up a little straighter when I talk to them about Joby is how well he fights. A few scouts I spoke to were surprised to go through his fight card and discover a list of tough customers that he’d squared up with and beaten. Of course the Wheat Kings would rather he played with his gloves on (winding through his highlights, it’s amazing how many of his goals come from shots that just look completely unstoppable) but like it or not, fighting is still something pro scouts take notice of.
- Speaking of drafts, the Wheat Kings have a delightful dilemma on their hands. Thanks to trades with Portland and Saskatoon, the Wheat Kings hold an extra first round pick and an extra second rounder in the coming draft, though with both the Winterhawks and Blades performing well above where I’d have guessed to start the season neither of those picks is going to be as good as previously thought. So here’s the dilemma: do the Wheat Kings use all four of those picks and open another window to win down the line (or rather, extend the window to win that their 2023 draft class seems to be promising) or do they move those picks for help right now in order to supplement their 2006-born players? The Wheat Kings have an exceptional collection of 2006-born talent, and since those players are going to rule the roost this season it makes this year a definite part of the window to win for Brandon. So, do they push all their chips in, or make use of the picks they’ve stockpiled? In many ways, there’s no wrong answer. Based on my conversations with Wheat Kings fans, a lot of them seem to want the team to really push all-in this season. I could get behind that; not only is the team entering their window to win, but a number of their eastern rivals are exiting theirs at the same time. So adding an impact player or two would be a viable strategy. There is, however, one major obstacle to that, and it’s one that’s sadly beyond the Wheat Kings’ control…
- If the Wheat Kings want to go big-game hunting this offseason, really swinging for the fences on a high-end trade piece, they’re going to have tough competition. The Kelowna Rockets are hosting the Memorial Cup in 2026, and consensus around the league is they’ve got a lot of pieces to add before they’re ready to host the nation’s finest. They’ve got the bargaining chips to do so, however, having added three first-round picks in the trades of Caden Price and Andrew Cristall. And as they proved last time they were slated to host the Memorial Cup, they’re willing to part with their own first rounders a long way down the line. Counting this year’s picks, I’d say the Rockets could have as many as seven first round picks in play when the time comes to start adding (and even that may be selling them short). Suppose they and the Wheat Kings both decide they have interest in the same player? Can the Wheat Kings reasonably win that bidding war? Brandon may have to be a little crafty with any moves it makes. Whether the Wheat Kings make moves or not, expect it to be an exceptionally busy offseason and start of the regular season in Kelowna.
- A little bit buried in the buzz surrounding the WHL Prospects Draft, the Wheat Kings will select first overall in the U.S. Priority Selection for the first time ever. The history of the U.S. draft is, at the moment, brief, but previous first overall picks have included Blake Fiddler, Gracyn Sawchyn, and Brody Gillespie who’ve all made the jump to the league. In a swing-for-the-fences moment, Macklin Celebrini was also once the first overall pick in the U.S. draft (by Seattle in 2021, and can you just imagine if that 2022-23 T-Birds squad had brought him in on top of everyone else?). While he was not a first overall pick, Matteo Michels is also a pretty great example of a U.S. draft pick working out well. With the NCAA rule change, I expect we’ll see far, far more success stories out of the United States going forward. But even if whoever the Wheat Kings select won’t sign here, they can still move him for a valuable piece (as they did with Reed Brown to acquire Marcus Nguyen). This will be the first year teams draft under the newly changed landscape in which WHL players can go to the NCAA, so it will be interesting to see just how much this draft actually changes.
- I mentioned the Wheat Kings have an enviable group of 2006-born forwards, and it’s only gotten more enviable with the addition of Jordan Gavin. Teams loaded with 19-year-olds tend to have the best success in the WHL, and the Wheat Kings, as of now, have eight of them on the roster for next year. McQueen remains the headliner (as befits a soon-to-be NHL first-round draft pick) but that supporting cast is downright scary. Caleb Hadland, Gavin, and Klippenstein give the Wheat Kings both depth and versatility up front, with each guy playing and excelling at a very different style of game. Dylan Ronald was arguably the feel-good story of the year for the Wheat Kings, going from barely playing the previous year due to injury to putting up 24 points as a rookie. Adam Belusko came into his own wonderfully during the season, and even put together some good point streaks in the second half. I can’t wait to see what a fully healthy Merrek Arpin does for the team as well. It feels like we barely got to see what the 6-foot-4 rearguard could bring to the table as he ran into an astonishingly bad bit of injury luck. Rounding out the cast (for now) is Ethan Eskit, who proved down the stretch that he’s ready for more responsibility. Throw in what’s sure to be a highly competitive group of 20-year-olds, and you’ve got the makings of an excellent group of veterans.
- Speaking of those 20-year-olds, the Wheat Kings came to camp with four of them to start last season, and I wonder if they would do so again. Marty said in our season-ending chat that while it had fostered competition, it also fostered stress. On the other hand, it worked out beautifully for the Wheat Kings (the 20s they kept were their top-three scorers, the one they traded netted them a second and fifth round pick) so maybe they would revisit that strategy. They may not have much choice. Quinn Mantei, your three-time reigning defenseman of the year and captain, seems a lock, but how do you chose between Matteo Michels, Dominik Petr, and Nicholas Johnson? Each guy plays, and again, excels at, a very different sort of game, and each has a defining skill that’s immediately noticeable. Petr brings his smarts (Roger McQueen once called him the smartest player he’s ever played with) and the ability to put the puck on anyone’s tape at seemingly any time. Johnson brings a heavy shot, and sheer strength which he uses to win battles in the corners and frequently send anyone who tries to hit him flying. Michels has a lot of good elements to his game (Marty has referred to him as a Swiss Army Knife more than once) but the x-factor there is his speed, which almost no one in the WHL seems to be able to match. Last season’s decision was tough, and this season’s promises to be even more so.
The next time we’ve got Wheat Kings news that we know for sure is coming will be in early May, when the team runs through the expansion draft, the U.S. draft, and the prospect’s draft in quick succession. But those are just the ones we can point to on the calendar. In an offseason that came sooner than the Wheat Kings wanted, it pays to be prepared for anything.
