[{"id":88396,"date":"2026-04-09T09:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T16:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/?p=88396"},"modified":"2026-04-09T12:00:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:00:49","slug":"profile-undrafted-pyne-looks-bad-fondly-on-whl-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/article\/profile-undrafted-pyne-looks-bad-fondly-on-whl-career","title":{"rendered":"GRADUATING PROFILE: Undrafted Pyne Looks Back Fondly on WHL Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, the Vancouver Giants will look back on the junior careers of their three overage players with a written profile on each one. On Wednesday, we begun with defenceman Ethan Mittelsteadt.<\/a> Today, we look back on the WHL career of goaltender Kelton Pyne.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Langley, B.C. \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>When the 2020 WHL Draft came around, goaltender\u00a0Kelton Pyne<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>figures he was about 5-foot-9 and ‘soaking wet, probably about 120 lbs.’<\/p>\n

Like it or not, that just wasn’t big enough.<\/p>\n

So the native of White City, Saskatchewan \u2013 which is just outside Regina \u2013 did not get selected.<\/p>\n

But getting passed over did do something else: it motivated the hell out of him.<\/p>\n

“I think that kind of sparked a fire in my belly,” the now 20-year-old veteran of nearly 150 WHL appearances said. “I went into camp as a 16-year-old, just a listed kid. I don’t think anyone thought too much of me at the time, but I had a pretty good camp as I remember. The last couple days of camp, they said they were going to sign me. I was kind of in disbelief. Just a kid that went undrafted and came in and earned it.”<\/p>\n

He didn’t just earn it with any team: he earned it with his hometown WHL club, the Regina Pats. From 2021-25, Pyne played in 104 career regular season games for the Pats.<\/p>\n

And that, the 6-foot-1 netminder now says, was the biggest honour of his WHL career.<\/p>\n

“As a kid, it’s always a dream to play for your local WHL team when you’re older,” he said. “Lucky enough for me, I got to live out that dream for four years.”<\/p>\n

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Pyne in his rookie season with his hometown Pats (Keith Hershmiller Photography)<\/p><\/div>\n

Pyne had an incredibly unique start to his WHL career, one that he described at the time<\/a> as ‘the greatest experience ever.’<\/p>\n

Injuries with the Pats during his 16-year-old season forced a call-up in February of 2022, and eventually, a start. It was the tail end of an Alberta road trip for Regina, who tapped Pyne on the shoulder for the very first time against the reigning WHL champions: the Edmonton Oil Kings.<\/p>\n

Easy peasy, right?<\/p>\n

Well, not really. The Pats allowed 42 shots on goal and lost the game 6-3.<\/p>\n

It was what came next that was so incredible for the young goaltender and his teammates, which included future NHL draft picks Connor Bedard, Ryker Evans, Tanner Howe and Stanislav Svozil.<\/p>\n

Pyne started the team’s next game in front of family and friends at the Brandt Centre, on February 11, 2022 against the Calgary Hitmen.<\/p>\n

He didn’t allow a single goal in a 5-0 win, becoming the youngest Pats goaltender (16 years, 5 months, 8 days) to record a shutout in nearly 20 years.<\/p>\n

His next start came at home 11 days later against the Medicine Hat Tigers.<\/p>\n

Yet again, he was flawless, picking up a 2-0 win this time to record\u00a0back-to-back shutouts on home ice as a 16-year-old rookie.<\/p>\n

“That was probably the two coolest moments in my whole hockey career so far,” Pyne said. “The boys played in front of me for sure. It wasn’t much work those two nights. The shots were in the 20s. It was so cool having a bunch of family and a bunch of friends in attendance for those two games.”<\/p>\n

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Pyne shows off his ‘1st WHL Win’ puck on Feb. 11, 2022.<\/p><\/div>\n

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After bursting onto the scene in the 2021-22 season, Pyne only played in 11 games the following year, but it’s still a season he’ll never forget because it was teammate Connor Bedard’s draft year.<\/p>\n

“Obviously there’s hype around him like no other,” Pyne recalled. “When I was 17, after Christmas, every game we were at, home or away, was sold out. We sold out the Saddledome. It was unreal. Incredible.”<\/p>\n

Pyne believes having a teammate who can shoot the puck like Bedard helped his game.<\/p>\n

“I practiced a lot as a young guy \u2013 so taking those shots from the Bedards, the Suzdalevs, the Howes, the Svozils, those kind of guys, I think that helps you in practice,” he said. “Once I got older, I kind of settled down my game a bit. Kind of got more calm and comfortable in the net. Not kind of flopping around as much as I used to be. I think that’s probably one of the biggest things I’ve improved on.”<\/p>\n

Over the years with the Pats, he also improved his mobility and his conditioning, as he became the go-to guy in the 2023-24 season with 38 games played and then played 44 times in the 2024-25 season, when he was named the Pats Player of the Year.<\/p>\n

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Kelton Pyne shows us the best way to start a period!@WHLPats<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/V80G6V7aQC<\/a><\/p>\n

— Western Hockey League (@TheWHL) January 6, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n