Dylan Ronald had what most people would consider a fairly eventful offseason. He worked on the family farm, rode horses with his family in the mountains, and traveled up to Whitehorse. Yet for him, this was more like a normal offseason than the one before it.
The previous offseason, Ronald was still recovering from a debilitating knee injury that had cost him most of the season prior and part of the season before that. So this summer, given a clean bill of health, he had a more “normal” offseason than he’s had in years.
“That was what gave me the chance to kind of figure out my body post-injury and see what it needs now that my knee or another injury isn’t the focus,” said Ronald. “I was able to learn a lot more outside of the injury perspective, because when I went through that injury I was more interested in learning about the body and how it moves. This summer, instead of learning about my knee it was about my whole body and how it translated to the ice.”
So with a healthy lower body to work with this time, Ronald turned that interest in biomechanics into a methodical breakdown of his skating. In addition to building strength, he focused on his stride and honed in on little areas of improvement to make himself faster.
“In the gym, my focus was to get more power and speed,” Ronald said. “That definitely translated into my power skating. This summer, I was really able to correlate how the two walk hand in hand, and with my acceleration and speed. I was able to make that connection. So getting that into my brain helped a little more and with that I also focused on my posture, which came from pushing my hips through.”
If it seems like Ronald’s approach to his training was highly analytical, that’s a running theme of the way he observes his game and his season. His moment-to-moment memory of plays is remarkable, and informed one of his biggest goals for the season ahead.
“I remember last year in the playoffs, we were playing in the playoffs in Virden and I was playing on the power play because (Luke) Shipley was out,” he explained. “I missed a pass and it ended up being an icing. (Nolan) Flamand came over to me and just said, ‘Hey, Ron, we’re good.’ He didn’t yell at me, he wasn’t upset by any means. I want to bring that aspect of calmness to the team. And trusting my abilities and my IQ and seeing the ice, and I think my skating will carry me a long way this year.”
Some of that calmness is already present in Ronald’s approach. When he remembered how he felt going into camp last season, a year of experience has already made a world of difference.
“Last year, going into camp, I really wanted to make it and that was my focus,” Ronald said. “There was maybe a little panic in myself. This year, I know what to expect. I’m able to trust my skating and my IQ and see where that takes me.”
The 2006-born defenseman said his comfort level in the WHL really sank in after Christmas, and his statistics bore that out. Four of his five goals and 15 of his 24 points (22 of which came either at even strength or shorthanded) were in the post-Christmas schedule. Like many young players, he wants to turn that post-Christmas offensive outburst into a full season of bigger numbers. And with openings on the back end for an offensive defenseman, he’s keen to be one of the players who seizes those opportunities.
“A big part of being more comfortable is being able to see those kinds of opportunities,” said Ronald. “To be able to drive the dot lane with one of our forwards on the half wall or see that their winger is maybe sleeping a little bit, being able to see those things and kind of take a step back in a sense and see the game happening rather than being in panic mode, that will definitely come along this year.”
The former NAX star sees a similar upward trend for the team’s blueline as a whole, especially with so many of them returning from last season. While the forward corps will get much of the attention for this season’s Wheat Kings, Ronald thinks the defense group is going to turn some heads as well.
“We’ll be experienced,” he said. “We lost a couple of guys but we brought in (Grayson) Burzynski. And then Gio (Pantelas) playing at the Hlinka Gretzky is obviously a huge accomplishment for him. I think we’ll be very solid back there.”
Ronald added a big goal for the team was to make it farther in the playoffs, and he felt it was an attainable goal for the group.
