Brandon-born Jacobson expected to get extended showing with Wheat Kings

Jaxon Jacobson understands just what junior hockey means to his hometown of Brandon, Manitoba.

After all, he basically grew up in Westoba place.

“It’s not a huge city but the team is really important to Brandon,” Jacobson said. “They help out a lot with younger teams. When I was younger they skated with me and I looked up to them a lot. It’s just really cool to be a part of the organization now.”

To an outsider, that image might not feel far off from the sight of a 14-year-old Jacobson pulling on the black and gold jersey for the first time and lining up alongside his new Wheat Kings teammates on December 8.

He’s believed to be the youngest player in franchise history, days shy of his 15th birthday, suiting up against much older teens and men.

“It’s weird thinking about it like that,” Jacobson admitted. “But I feel like when I’m on the ice I can play with those guys and I’m up to the speed they’re at and I fit in better than I thought I could. I kind of surprised myself a bit, too.”

Jacobson says he felt nervous initially as he sized up his opponents from Moose Jaw and looked up to the stands to see his family members in attendance. His entire U18AAA team was also there, as bad road conditions had canceled their game for the evening.

With Brandon trailing 2-1 in the third period, Jacobson picked off a Warriors breakout pass and fired home his first WHL goal.

“It was pretty crazy,” the 5-foot-8 forward added. “I didn’t know I was going to have so much room to shoot it. When it went in, I kind of blacked out. It was pretty cool.”

He’d add his second goal on the powerplay ten minutes later en route to a 5-4 shootout win for the Wheaties.

One person who wasn’t surprised by the feat? Brandon’s General Manager, Marty Murray.

“He’s one of those players that has that ‘it’ factor and when the chips are down he seems to come through,” Murray explained. “Even though he was young, he was 14 at the time, to say I was surprised… I wasn’t really.”

“You want to manage his ice time, put him in a position to succeed, and I just felt like as the game wore on, he became much more comfortable and looked like he could have some kind of impact on the game. We just kept rolling with it and  had him on the powerplay and he had a heck of a shot and gave us an opportunity to climb back into the game.”

Jacobson is hopeful his summer training with Wheat Kings Alternate Captain Quinn Mantei, Andrei Maliavin and Swift Current Broncos Clarke Caswell and Josh Fluker will help him find the same success in the WHL that he has in the Manitoba AAA U18 Hockey League, where he’s put up a blistering 16 goals and 28 assists for 44 points in 15 games.

Now fresh off his 15th birthday, he is expected to get a chance to continue his development after the WHL holiday break.

With Brandon Captain Nate Danielson in Sweden for the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship, Jacobson can compete for the shorthanded Wheat Kings without having it count against the five-game limit for underagers.

Brandon (16-12-4-1) returns from the break with a home tilt against the Regina Pats (13-16-2-2) on December 27 at 7:00 p.m. CST.