High Expectations For Overages, Imports For Wheat Kings
Article Courtesy Perry Bergson, Brandon Sun
The Brandon Wheat Kings appear to have their overage and import questions answered, at least for now.
The Western Hockey League team will have 20-year-old forwards Dawson Pasternak and Brett Hyland plus defenceman Kayden Sadhra-Kang. They will also have two imports, returning veteran defenceman Andrei Malyavin and a newcomer, Czech forward Dominik Petr.
Murray said the three overagers will need to be key contributors to any team success, just like last year’s duo, Nolan Ritchie and Calder Anderson.
“We’re trying to establish a culture and winning habits day in and day out, and that starts with our veteran players,” Murray said. “All our 20-year-olds are veteran players who have been around the block and we’re looking for them to lead the way. How to prepare yourself, how to practise and just teach the guys how much it means to be a Brandon Wheat King and how much it means to put the jersey on.”
But that doesn’t mean it’s a one-size-fits-all approach to success for the trio. Murray noted they are very different players.
“Twenty-year-olds typically get lots of opportunity and responsibility so along with that there are expectations as far as what we expect out of them,” Murray said. “Pasternak and Hyland, we count on them more on the offensive side, and Sadhra-Kang, we don’t really measure his success with the offensive part of his game. They just have to be what they are, and if they play at their best, we should be in good shape.”
Camp opens on Friday at Westoba Place, with the annual Black and Gold game set for Monday afternoon at J&G Homes Arena.
Hyland is the only long-term Wheat King in the bunch.
The team selected him 24th overall in 2018, nine picks after they took Jake Chiasson. After he was returned to U18 in his 16-year-old season, he debuted as a full-time player in the Regina hub. Since then, he has posted 29 points in 61 games in 2021-22, and jumped to 26 goals and 21 assists in 42 games last season.
After the alternate captain suffered a knee injury in mid-February, he missed the rest of the season and underwent offseason surgery. He returned to the ice on July 1.
While his points have been noticed, it’s his work ethic that stands out.
“He’s a beast,” Murray said. “That’s the best way to describe him. He’s a guy who is maximum effort all the time and a guy we uses as an example plenty of times in video with second and third efforts on pucks. He plays a relentless style of hockey and plays on a consistent basis.
“That’s how we want everybody to be. Just because he’s Brett Hyland, doesn’t mean the guy sitting beside him in the locker room can’t play the same. We want to have that same competitiveness with everybody, and if we adopt that style of hockey, we’ll be hard to play against.”
He was drafted by the Washington Capitals in the seventh round in June after being passed over twice. Since Hyland is old enough to be assigned to the American Hockey League or ECHL, that is a concern for Murray because he says Hyland is good enough to play there.
“Those are always a crap shoot,” Murray said. “I think with Brett’s injury — he finished the season having some surgery — maybe it delayed his ability to develop a little bit. He was having a terrific season for us.
“I’ve talked to the people in Washington and I’m confident we’re going to get him back, but at the same time, you never know. It’s a trickle-down effect: If somebody gets hurt in Washington at the NHL or AHL level, then the trickle-down effect takes place.
“We’re hoping to have him back. He’s a huge part of our team. You talk about the identity of the Brandon Wheat Kings, Brett is a guy we model our group after.”
The other two overagers were acquired in trades last season.
Pasternak was acquired from the Portland Winterhawks at the trade deadline, and found a home skating beside Brandon star Nate Danielson, and sliding into Chiasson’s spot on the top power-play unit when Chiasson was sent to Saskatoon.
The Winnipeg product had 10 goals and 12 assists in 27 games in Brandon. “He’s not very big, he’s undersized, but he competes hard,” Murray said.
“There are a lot of times the puck is in the corner and he’s going in with a big defenceman and he quite often comes out with the puck. He’s a competitive little guy. He’s got a lot of skill in his game too. I thought he and Danielson really complimented each other down the stretch.
“He came over to us and had close to a point a game as a Wheat King, and I think there’s another level to take it to this year. He’s battling some back stuff right now so hopefully that gets cleared up and he can get to being healthy and a key member of our hockey club, but there are some things he has to overcome in the next little bit.”
Sadhra-Kang quickly found a home with his third WHL club after he was acquired from the Swift Current Broncos for Mason Ward, playing on a strong pairing with Quinn Mantei.
He had a plus-minus of 13 last season, with a plus-6 in 30 games in Brandon. He isn’t physically dominant but his positional play and strong stick are key assets.
“He’s just a shutdown D,” Murray said. “I don’t think there’s anything flashy about him but he has a terrific stick and defends well. And he has some poise with the puck.
“There are times when he’s not easy on the eyes, but he always seems to get the job done, separating pucks from people and getting the puck moving north, and that’s all we ask out of our defencemen. I thought he did a tremendous job down the stretch with Mantei as a pair playing against the other team’s top line night in and night out.”
Fortunately for Brandon, if there is an issue that keeps one of the three out of Brandon’s lineup, there are plenty of options around the league. But Murray added teams around the league are in a bit of a holding pattern with their 2003-born talent.
“There are a lot of good players,” Murray said. “There are always going to be players available. A lot of teams are going through the same thing we are with Brett Hyland where we’re waiting to see if he sticks in the American League or gets sent back.
“I think maybe people are holding on a little bit to come players as insurance policies just to cover their bases if a certain player doesn’t come back.
“I think there are some good ’03s out there for sure. They’re a strong group as always, the 20-year-olds, and if we’re ever in a position where we have to acquire one, I think there are some options out there.”
Brandon had five potential overagers after last season, but dealt veteran defenceman Logen Hammett to the Vancouver Giants on May 18 and dropped Belarusian forward Zakhar Polshakov.
Part of the reason Polshakov is gone is because he is what is referred to as a “two-spotter,” a player who occupies both one of the three overage spots and one of the two import spots.
Brandon last had a two-spotter in starting goaltender Jiri Patera in 2019-20.
Instead, Brandon will have a new, younger forward in the lineup.
They added the six-foot-one, 177-pound Petr with the 18th overall pick in the most recent CHL import draft. The son of a longtime professional coach, Petr had four points in five games at the U18 world championship with Czechia.
Murray, who headed the other direction during his playing career, is mindful of the steep hill Petr has to climb.
“We feel like he’s going to fit in with our middle forward group,” Murray said. “Hopefully he surprises us and gets to those expectations sooner rather than later, but we understand that coming from a different country there is not only the difference of hockey style, there is also a different lifestyle and learning a new culture.
“I lived it going over to Europe too on the other side, and it takes some time to get used to everything. I know he’s really excited and really wanted to be drafted this summer. I know he’s coming in with a hunger to prove that he should be an NHL draft pick.”
The other import will be more familiar to local fans.
Malyavin, a five-foot-11, 177-pound Russian blue-liner, joined Brandon last season after he was claimed in the import draft. He came with Canadian Hockey League experience after a season with the Sarnia Sting at age 17, but they released him to pursue other players.
“I thought with Malyavin, he was really good out of the gate and cooled off after he had that concussion he suffered mid-season that kind of took a while to overcome, and then I thought he finished strong,” Murray said. “It’s his third year in the CHL — he played in the OHL before he came to the Wheat Kings — and we look to him be an upper-echelon defenceman in our league.
“He has the ability to do it.”
