25th Anniversary Special – Top 25 Rebels in franchise history; No. 11 B.J. Young

Denis Beyak is currently the TV play-by-play announcer for the Winnipeg Jets and once upon a time he was the general manager of the Tri-City Americans.
As a TV broadcaster, he’s first-rate; as the Americans GM, he was clearly quite perceptive.
When the Americans acquired defenceman Byron Briske from the Red Deer Rebels in January of 1995 in exchange for promising 17-year-old forward B.J. Young, one WHL front-office type called it a steal for the Ams.
Beyak didn’t go that far, suggesting that Young could come back to haunt him in years to come, but said Briske “is a player we’ve been after for a while.
“I think he (Young) is going to be a scorer in this league, the Tri-City GM said, “but right now, Byron Briske is better for our hockey club than B.J. Young.”
Briske was 19 years of age at the time, an experienced WHL rearguard with good size, an offensive touch and a penchant for physical play. He certainly was a nice addition to the Tri-City blueline.
But Young, as Beyak predicted, evolved into a top-flight WHL sniper over two and a half years with the Rebels.
The Anchorage, Alaska, native appeared in 21 games with the Rebels in the ’94-95 season, scoring five goals and collecting 14 points.
He truly came of age the following season, firing 49 goals and recording 94 points in 67 games and adding four goals and 13 points in eight playoff contests.
Young then capped off a terrific major junior career in ’96-97 with 58 goals and 114 points during the regular season and eight goals and 22 points in 16 playoff outings as Red Deer advanced to the Eastern Conference final before falling to Lethbridge.
Young’s 58 goals still stands as a Rebels single-season record.
“He was a huge part of that team,” said former Rebels teammate Jesse Wallin, in reference to the ’96-97 squad. “He was an offensive catalyst for us. He just had that natural flare. He could make plays and score.”
Despite his modest five-foot-10, 175-pound frame, Young played with a physical edge, amassing 144 minutes in penalties in ’95-96 and 97 the following season.
“He had some grease to him,” said Wallin. “He wasn’t afraid to pay the price to score goals, to get to the tough areas, and he’d stick up for himself when he had to, as well.”
But more than anything, Young was a pure scorer.
“He had that move where he’d kind of rock. He’d come across on one foot and kind of open his stick up a couple of times,” said Wallin. “He had a lot of deception, goalies never knew when he was going to shoot the puck.
“He was really a tough guy to defend. He had a lot of deception in his game and he didn’t need two chances to score.”
Young was also know for his highlight-reel goals, one of which was viewed by a national audience during a TSN televised game at the Centrium.
“He made a couple of moves, got dragged down and shot the puck over the goaltender’s shoulder from his stomach,” Wallin remembered.
The skilled sniper wasn’t a loud and boisterous type. He possessed a somewhat unassuming personality but also a sly sense of humour.
“B.J. was a charismatic guy. He was a lot of fun to be around,” said Wallin. “We played together for three years in Red Deer, then we were apart for a year and played two more years together in the minors.
“We became pretty good friends over that time.”
Young was selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the sixth round of the 1997 WHL entry draft and moved on to the pro ranks that fall.
Wallin, meanwhile, played one more season with the Rebels and joined Detroit’s AHL team — the Adirondack Red Wings — with whom Young was also a member, for the ’98-99 season.
Young got into one NHL game with the Red Wings, in the 1999-00 season, then played five more years in the minors, with Cincinnati of the AHL, Manitoba of the IHL and his hometown Anchorage Aces of the WCHL and later the ECHL.
Wallin will never forget that awful November day in 2005 when he received news that Young had died in an automobile accident in Vancouver. Wallin was in his first season as a Rebels assistant coach when he learned of his friend’s demise.
“Any time you lose a friend and former teammate . . . we were young then, in our mid 20s. That’s a pretty young age to lose a life,” said Wallin.
“He left behind a six-year-old son. It was one of those really unfortunate things. It was too bad.”