Fraser On The Move to Wenatchee For 2023-24
WENATCHEE, Wash. – After growing up within 30 miles of the Canadian border, forward Ty Fraser is set to play for a team on the other side of it for the first time when the Wenatchee Wild take to the ice in September.
Fraser hails from the town of Raymond, Alberta, just a stone’s throw from the city of Lethbridge. He didn’t have far to go to get his first looks from Western Hockey League teams, playing his U15 hockey for the Lethbridge Golden Hawks during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons. However, it wasn’t the nearby Lethbridge Hurricanes who picked him up in the 2020 Western Hockey League Bantam Draft – it was the Winnipeg ICE who nabbed him that spring with a fifth-round selection.
Before making the move east from Alberta, though, Fraser remained in Lethbridge to polish his game, playing with the Hurricanes’ U18 team in the Alberta Elite Hockey League. His two points in five games in 2020-21 came in a year where COVID shutdowns forced many talented players back to the U18 ranks, including five teammates who had been taken in the 2019 and 2020 WHL Bantam Drafts. In fact, he’s likely to run into old Golden Hawks teammate John Szabo again when the Wild square off against the Edmonton Oil Kings in late February.
He notched more than a point a game in Lethbridge the following year, picking up 27 points in 25 appearances for his U18 squad, and made three appearances in an ICE uniform before being recalled for one more outing in early March. Last year, he staked his claim on a Winnipeg roster spot for good, playing in 52 games and scoring a dozen points.
“I’ve been enjoying my offseason spending time with family and friends, and I’ve been training as much as I can to prepare for the upcoming season,” said Fraser. “I enjoyed my year last year with the team because we had a great group and we were a very dominant team. I’m looking forward to having a bigger role on the team and I am hoping to be more of an impactful player on the ice this year, whether that is my defensive game or offensively.”
Fraser will head into the fall looking to add to a two-goal haul in his first WHL campaign, with both goals coming in a 10-1 triumph over Edmonton this past February – he was also awarded a Second Star honor for his efforts that night. With a good offseason of hard work and development, there’s no reason to believe that he won’t quickly become a star in the States with the Wild.
