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Englot came in and made a huge impact, was a real differencemaker for us. We like where we’re at there. It might be some time before something arises that really makes sense.”
Clouston talks trades, overagers, Bedard
are we? How good do we think we can be with this group and what exactly do we need to make us better? We have to make sure everyone comes back from NHL camps. Is there somebody that’s able to step up into a role that we thought maybe we were miss ing? Guys have a couple of more games and the early part of the season to make those arguments.”
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Kamloops Blazers’ majority owner Tom Gaglardi said in July that his club would like to make a splash, but patience might be required before pulling the trigger on any major trades.
Said Clouston: “How good
Shaun Clouston, the team’s head coach and general manager, is in charge of determining how Kamloops uses its sizeable chest of cannon fodder, which includes six first-round WHL Prospects Draft picks (two in 2023, one in 2024, two in 2025 and one in 2026).So, has the club been close to making waves?
Let's bring the cup back home!
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“Every once in a while, maybe you get a player for just a pick,” Clouston said. “Most teams, if they’re willing or looking at poten tially moving higher-end players, they want players back and that’s always a challenge, too. You want to make sure you’ve got a definite upgrade. We really, really like our team. We like our culture. We like the players who have grown up here and have totally bought into what we are doing. We will be patient and open and evalu ate any potential opportunity to acquireClouston,players.”who is pleased with recent 19-year-old additions Kyle Masters on defence and Ashton Ferster up front, said it is not yet clear if one position group stands out in its need for upgrading.
Shaun Clouston has big decisions to make before the WHL trade dealine on Jan. 10.
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Kamloops is undergoing its own evaluation process.
“I think Regina is going to eval uate things,” Clouston said. “The information we have is they’re not trading him right now. They believe they have a generationaltype player and they’re going to try to “So,add.right now, that’s the direc tion they’re going and I guess time will tell if they’re able to get to a place where they feel confident kind of going all-in at some point with Connor Bedard as the cen trepiece or whether they change that mindset. But that, right now, from our understanding, is their mindset They’re looking to add right now.”
Kamloops Blazers’ head coach and general manager
“No, not really,” Clouston said. “We haven’t been and it’s not necessarily for lack of interest. It’s timing. If there are certain players we have interest in, but they’re currently not available for what ever reason, that’s just the way it goes. As far as a splash, there is a smaller number of players that would fit into that category. Until the teams have gone through their
process, evaluated where their team is at, made the decision that, OK, we are going to be sellers this year, then it’s just having some patience.”LateNovember is often when business picks up on the major transactions front, then again in the period that runs from after the World Junior Hockey Championship (world juniors players cannot be traded during the tournament) to the WHL trade deadline on Jan. 10.
The club’s GM was asked about the difficulty of determining when to make a move and how tough it is to part with assets that could end up being of value later on if a big fish becomes available.
WHL clubs have until early October to determine which three 20-year-old players remain on the roster.“We really like our overage guys,” Clouston said. “[Ethan] Brandwood and [Daylan] Kuefler have grown up here and have just been warriors for us. [Drew]
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As for the biggest fish of them all, 17-year-old Regina Pats’ sensation Connor Bedard, both Gaglardi and Clouston have expressed interest in acquiring him if the North Vancouver for ward is available.
After years of working toward healing and focusing on his own mental wellness, Wilkie sought to make a career out of help ing others, including athletes such as the Blazers.“Unfortunately, and we’ve seen it in the last several months, the culture of hockey isn’t always the safest place for young men,” Wilkie said. “That’s a lot of our focus, is get
ject of pressure was broached, with play ers and coaches alike expounding on the importance of staying in the here and now.
“It’s a solid plan put together for how they’re going to win the Memorial Cup. If we stick to the plan, ana lyze the plan and are doing all the things that are going to make us successful, the fact that we’re hosting, it’s just a nice perk that we get to win the cup in front of our homeCloustonteam.” told KTW during a post-season interview, not long after a gut-wrenching Western Conference final Game 7 loss to the Seattle Thunderbirds on home ice a few months ago, that his club needs to find an extra level of tenacity — a relentless will to win.He said it’s not normal for most teenag ers to be thrown into that type of cauldron. And it’s most certainly not easy to reach the pinnacle of junior hockey.
They are questions dealt with every season by major junior hockey players and ones that can be even more stressful to han dle in a Memorial Cup-hosting season.
Why am I going through a rough patch? Will I be drafted? Are we winners?
Bob Wilkie works in the shadows to ensure the Kamloops Blazers are braced for theShaunspotlight.Clouston was hired to be head coach of the Western Hockey League club in June of 2019 and immediately acquired the services of Wilkie, the team’s mentalperformance coach who lives in Calgary and runs I Got Mind, which offers social and emotional learning programs.
“It’s one of the most fulfilling things in the world,” he said. “As a young guy in their position, striving to be what they’re trying to be and knowing that I didn’t have the skills and didn’t have the people around me where I felt comfortable, it’s very rewarding to be able to be that sounding board and resource for the younger players of today.
“That helps,” Clouston continued. “Just knowing this is challenging and I am going to feel some things and they’re going to be a little bit uncomfortable, but we’re all going to work together to try to help each other out and if players need a bit of extra help, we’ll make sure they get that.”
The pandemic forced Wilkie into work ing with the Blazers mostly through Zoom, but in-person visits have resumed and he joined club staff and several leadership group players for a Sun Peaks retreat in August.“Bob is facilitating, instructing and ask ing the questions,” Clouston said. “That’s a real positive. It helps with the connec tion between players and staff. They’re in a situation where they’re learning together. Just talking about things, it normalizes it a little bit and it makes players realize that, wow, like all of us have been through that — coaches have been through that, players have been through that.
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“We’re normalizing the conversation around it,” said Wilkie, a former NHLer and second-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings in 1987. “We don’t want it to be the elephant in the room. Everybody knows the impor tance, but we’re not going to let it become a distraction. I just really look forward to win ning the Cup. Cluey and I have talked about it for years. We’ve worked really hard to get where we’re at together, making sure the kids are mentally and emotionally ready.”
KTW spoke to Wilkie on the eve of a sea son that will conclude with the Blazers play ing host to the Memorial Cup tournament, a campaign that promises to bring magnified pressure on the organization, from top to bottom.They know it, they’ve been preparing for it and they’re embracing the heat.
Wilkie trumpets the importance of togetherness and has been using SWOT analysis with the Blazers, a technique used to assess strengths, weaknesses, opportuni ties and threats.
Added Clouston: “It’s probably more challenging for some people than others. It’s a challenge in life, in general. There is only so much you can do about the future. You have to take care of today. We’ve tried to be veryWillprocess-driven.”Ibetraded?Am I a clutch player?
“A lot of times, that little bit more, it’s mental toughness,” Clouston said. “It’s pushing past places that we were a little bit too uncomfortable to push before. He can be part of that.”
Count Wilkie in.
“We’re excited to cap it all off with a ring this year.”
Wilkie part of plan for handling pressure
Kamloops Blazers’ mental performance coach Bob Wilkie runs I Got Mind, which offers social and emotional learning programs.
Wilkie was on the Swift Current Broncos’ bus that crashed in 1986, an accident that claimed the lives of four of his teammates and contributed to mental-wellness strug gles that were left unaddressed and impact ed his professional career, a period marred by severe depression, self-abuse and harm, substance abuse and thoughts of suicide.
Wilkie is part of the plan the Blazers feel is in place to make it possible.
“We’ve got a full season ahead for us to chip away at things,” Clouston said. “It doesn’t have to be solved right now, but there’s an awareness that what we are set ting out to do is challenging, that we’re going to support each other through this year and try to have a lot of fun doing it. A lot of times, people in general, and maybe young people, have a tendency to withdraw a little bit and not reach out to get some help. Right from Day 1 with Bob, we’ve dis cussed those things and encouraged players to reachAddedout.”Wilkie:
Interviews during training camp revealed a common theme when the sub
ting them comfortable in the environment, normalizing the fact that we all deal with different things throughout our careers and that when we can reach out, ask for help and learn some valuable things, what was a big issue once is now not.”
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“It’s really not that hard when you’re practising the skills to do it,” Wilkie said, noting work with leadership group players is key, as lessons filter down through them. “We’ve been instilling that since Shaun became part of the Blazers’ organization. During the pandemic, we were on calls every week. We really got to know each other and talk about a lot of things. It has been the focus and the mandate.”
Of course, dining on Italian delights was accompanied by strenuous workouts — and the clanging and banging in the gym has paid off.
The 19-year-old forward from Coquitlam — picked by the Dallas Stars in Round 6 of the draft in July — trained five or six times a week in the off-season and took shifts in the pit to earn some coin.
“He’s come into camp in terrific shape,” Clouston said. “Big legs. I’d have to check the numbers, but I think he came in at 192 pounds and he’s ripped. It’s muscle. He’s always been one of our hardest workers, a tenacious guy. He looks like he’s ready to have a really terrific season.”
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Gritty, but fun, is not a terrible way to
a much bigger hockey player than he was, especially at this time last year. He seems to have put in lots of work, appears to have more confidence with the puck and a little more strength that will help with that confidence. It looks like he’s ready to have a great season.”
Blazers’ head coach and general man ager Shaun Clouston, when given the chance to offer a thought on anything that jumped to mind from camp, spoke first of the beefed-up dishwasher.
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“I worked in a restaurant washing dish es,” said Seminoff, who had 26 goals and 57 points in 64 games last season. “Spacca Napoli in Port Moody. If anyone’s there, you should check it out. It was a little bit gritty, but it was fun.”
and I wanted to be stronger.”
NHL Draft pick status did not get to Seminoff’s head.
“I ate a lot more,” he said. ‘It was my first year at NHL camp
Blazers’ training camp standouts include
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Among camp standouts were bulkedup dishwasher Matthew Seminoff, Emmitt Finnie, who seems poised to take on a more prominent role in 2022-2023, Nathan Behm, a 15-year-old forward who looked at home skating with veteran WHLers, and recently acquired defenceman Kyle Masters, who may have more offensive upside than statistics suggest.
Finnie, a 17-year-old forward from Abbotsford, showed up to camp an inchand-a-half taller than he was a few months ago and his growth was not limited to physical stature.
describe Seminoff’s game — and work ing in a restaurant might have helped him achieve one of his summer goals.
Emmitt Finnie showed up to camp taller and appearing ready to take a big step forward in 2022-2023.
FINNIE
“It’s early on in camp, but it’s nice to see when it appears young guys have taken a really big step over summer,” Clouston said.“He’s
Kamloops Blazers’ training camp wrapped up on Sept. 5 at Sandman Centre.
SEMINOFF
Last month, the Blazers traded 18-yearold Mats Lindgren to the Red Deer Rebels in exchange for 19-year-old Masters and a first-round prospects draft pick, a swap
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and 11 points in four post-season contests.
Finnie, who is pushing six feet tall, aimed to get faster and stronger over the summer and has plans to improve on his point totals from last season — six assists in 48 regular-season games.
“He’s got a nice combination of size and skill,” said Sandland, who leads the Blazers at the prospects drafts. “He’s really effortless when he gets moving. Really good vision. He can turn nothing into something and, for a 15-year-old, he’s been really impressive. He can compete at this level right now. We’re really thrilled with where he’s at.”
of NHL-drafted defencemen that turned heads across the league.
Masters told KTW on Monday he was ready for a change of scenery.
Blazers’ forward Matthew Seminoff washed dishes and put on muscle during the off-season.
Behm, a 6-foot, 182-pound forward from Calgary, racked up 28 goals and 57 points in 29 games last season for the Edge under-15 prep team. He added six goals
Behm, Finnie, Masters, ripped Seminoff
“It’s been awesome,” Behm said of his camp experience. “It was fun playing with guys like Semi [Seminoff] and [Ethan] Rowland. Those veteran guys helped out a lot. I’ve got to develop more, just develop this year, get a couple games in to get the
MASTERS
“Last year, being in and out of the line up, it was tough,” Finnie said. “This year, I’m looking to make more of an impact on the team and help the team win. Vibes are good. The boys are all rolling. The boys are excited.”
“It was a home run, honestly,” Masters said when asked about being dealt to a team that is hosting the Memorial Cup tourney.“It’sthe best it gets. I’m a competitive, two-way defender who likes to be involved all over the ice, whether that’s defend ing or playing with the puck offensively. I think I can do a lot of things in different ways.”Masters, picked by the Minnesota Wild in Round 4 of the 2021 NHL Draft, did not produce overwhelming offensive numbers last season, with three goals and 14 points in 65Cloustongames. sees potential for notable improvement in that category.
“Absolutely. With his skating and puckhandling skills, we think there’s lots more there,” Clouston said. “He’s got terrific speed. He sees the ice well. He’s not scared to join the rush and get on the attack. The other thing that’s nice to see is how well he’s fit in and mixed in with his teammates already. I’ve been really pleased with what we’ve seen.”
feel for it and play full-time next year.”
BEHM Blazers’ assistant GM Robbie Sandland is pleased to see the progress of the club’s first-round pick (13th overall) in the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft, Nathan Behm.
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“He’s got size, he’s got ability and he’s got a real good work ethic,” Blazers’ head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston said of Brunicke, who was nabbed by the club in
“I know I’ve got to be confident and use my skills to my advantage and I’ll be there.”Tait, picked by
“For Ashton, real hardworking guy, tenacious,” Clouston said. “Those are the things that stand out. A lot of courage, willing to go to the hard areas in the corner and in the front of theTait,net.”the right shot who tallied a goal and an assist in a pre-season game against the Rockets in Kelowna on Sept. 10, wants to get stronger and work on his foot speed.
Ashton Tait, a 16-year-old forward from Prince Albert, is pushing to crack the Blazers’ roster.
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Ashton Tait thinks he has the edge on Harrison Brunicke on the golf course.They should have years ahead of them in Kamloops to figure out if that claim is true.Both Kamloops16-year-oldBlazers— Tait a 5-foot-10, 160-pound forward from Prince Albert and Brunicke a 6-foot-2, 181-pound defenceman from Calgary — have made an impression on team brass and are pushing to stick on the roster for the 2022-2023 season.
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Kamloops in Round 2 (26th overall) of the 2021 draft, said he is a 200-foot player who uses his skill in the offensive and defensive zones to make plays.
“He shows a lot of promise, tremendous upside. Really exciting to watch him not only through camp and the start of the season, but for years to come.”Brunicke said he is an offensive defenceman who jumps up on the rush to make plays for his team mates.Defensive positioning is an area for improvement, he said.“Iknow I’ve got a lot of work to do still and have got to keep working hard and pushing the pace,” said Brunicke, the right shot who played in two regu lar season games for the Blazers last season.
Round 3 of the 2021 WHL Prospects Draft.
“I’ve just got to bring it every day, always improv ing, getting better and just listening to the coaches and those older guys because they’ve been in the league for a long time, so they know what they’re talking about,” Tait said.
TAIT, BRUNICKE IMPRESS
“The first thing they say is he’s a younger guy,” said De Palma, who along with son Bailey, the Blazers’ assistant goaltending coach, has worked with Sanche since he was about seven years old. “I don’t look at them with age at this stage of the year. Jesse’s excellent. He’s a good goalie. We have three good goalies. He’s going to get an opportunity in exhibition and he’s primed to show people what he can do.”
Kelowna is listed as Sanche’s hometown on the Blazers’ website and that is where he resides, but the netminder lived in Kamloops for about four years prior to relo
“Being a 16-year-old playing in the Memorial Cup would be just a huge achievement,” said Sanche, who was picked by Kamloops in Round 2 of the 2021 WHL Prospects Draft in December. “It’s a big year and it’s a little bit more pressure, but I love pressure, so I’m just going to try and use that to myOddsadvantage.”areagainst goaltenders of Sanche’s age earning the No. 1 gig in any season, never mind one of this magnitude — but there is striking precedent right here in the River City.
“I was fortunate enough to get the ball and ran with it,” Petruk told KTW. “I was just a 16-yearold, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed kid who got the opportunity and didn’t know any better.”
The reality for Blazers’ brass is they have to be confident in who is in the crease come the stretch drive toward the post-season, the
Blazers’ goaltending coach Dan De Palma will do his best to make sure all of the club’s goal tenders are focused not on the end goal, but on the here and now, a strategy championed by mental performance coach Bob Wilkie.But the goalie guru did bristle at the the idea of Sanche being an afterthought in the grand scheme.
Don Hay, now an associate coach for the Blazers, was head coach during the 1994-1995 sea son, when 16-year-old Randy Petruk stole the crease during the national championship tourna ment in Kamloops and helped the
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team hoist the Cup on home ice.
Nomadic netminder Sanche — a 6-foot-1, left-catching netminder who weighs about 175 pounds — is familiar with board bounces on Mark Recchi Way.
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Kamloops Blazers’ goaltender Jesse Sanche is aiming to prove he can hang in the league at 16 years old.
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cating to the Little Apple in time for his first-year bantam season, the 2019-2020 campaign.
2 record, .900 save percentage and 2.95 goals-against average for the Blazers in 2021-2022. He has com petition in Sanche and 18-yearold Michael Schnattinger, whom the Blazers nabbed 115th overall at the CHL Import Draft in July.
“So far, he’s probably had the best showing out of our three goaltenders,” Clouston said. “Again, a real small sample size, a real good half a game in Kelowna. He was solid. Good structure. Good positioning. Real good com pete level. Looked confident.
Sanche finding motivation in feeling overlooked
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push that follows the trade dead line in HeadJanuary.coach and general man ager Shaun Clouston is quick to point out the minuscule sample size, but Sanche is in his good books after limited exhibition action.Sanche started between the pipes against the hometown Rockets on Sept. 10 and stopped 18 of 19 shots that came his way.
Do not overlook Jesse Sanche, the 16-year-old goaltender who wishes not to be judged by his age.“Obviously, it’s a battle for that spot,” Sanche said. “Being the younger guy, I kind of feel like I might be written off a little bit, but I feel like if I come out here and I battle and do everything I know I can, compete, I’ll have good chance of making the team, for sure.”Sanche said he feels like an afterthought to some. Is he using the perceived slight as motiva tion?“Yeah, totally,” Sanche said. “ForThesure.”Blazers will play host to the Memorial Cup this season and their situation in the crease is unresolved, with 20-year-old Dylan Garand — one of the best in franchise history — having moved on to the professional ranks.Dylan Ernst, 18, posted a 14-8-
“He’s off to a great start.”
Sanche was born in Thompson, Man., and lived in Penticton before moving to Kamloops, where he now aims to find a home in the Blazers’ crease.
Dylan Garand celebrates winning gold at the World Junior Hockey Championship last month in Edmonton with father Loren (left) and grandfather Marcel. Garand is expected to play professional hockey this season.
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and for us to come back down and score … the building just erupted. It’s something I wish I could go back to in time and kind of experience that feeling again of Kent putting that puck in the net. The celebration was just unbe lievable.”
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Logan Stankoven and Dylan Garand were busy catching up on text messages and media requests on Aug. 22, both still riding high after winning gold for Canada three days earlier at the 2022 World Junior Hockey Championship in Edmonton.
“It’s been unbelievable, going from playing in the gold medal game and the atmosphere and the fans and just how loud it was and the crazy sequence there in overtime to win the gold medal on home soil,” said Stankoven, the 19-year-old forward from Kamloops.“It’ssuch a great feeling and experience for myself, Dylan and the rest of our team. It’s been a crazy last couple days and some thing I’ll remember for the rest of myStankoven,life.” who will toil for his hometown Blazers this sea son, racked up four goals and 10 points to finish third in team scor ing and tied for fourth in tourna
“It was crazy,” said Garand, who was in the backup role when Canada won silver at the 2021 world juniors. “It was kind of like a pass. I think it went off a guy’s skate and up and over me and I just remember watching the puck go by me. I turn around and I see McTavish scraping it off the goal line.“After the game, I was on Twitter. I didn’t realize he actu ally batted it out of mid-air. What a save. I’ve honestly never seen a better save in a better moment, in the gold medal game in overtime. It will definitely, in my opinion, go down as probably the save of the tournament’s history.”
Garand, the 20-year-old goaltender from Victoria, said McTavish’s goal-line heroics might just constitute the greatest save in world juniors history.
Stankoven, Garand reflect on gold medal
ment scoring — and he saved a magic moment for the Golden Goal.The toe-drag assist on Kent Johnson’s overtime winner in a 3-2 win over Finland will be seen on highlight reels for decades to come, in part because it followed
one of the most improbable saves in tournament history.
“I’ve seen it a few times now,” Stankoven said. “It’s one of those things you dream of, just being a part of that moment. For [Mason] McTavish to knock that puck out of mid-air and off the goal line
Garand, the former Blazers’ netminder who is expected to play this season in the New York Rangers’ organization, had an outstanding world juniors, post ing a 6-0 record and .925 save percentage.
“It’s definitely different playing on that stage, too. There’s tons of pressure. You feel that and learn to deal with that throughout the tournament. I felt I got better and better as each game went on.”
Attendance and TV ratings
ALLEN DOUGLAS/KTW
“There was definitely a little summer rust,” said Garand, who turned aside 29 shots in the final.
The golden moment doubled as a 58th birthday present for Garand’s father, Loren, who was in the crowd and living vicari ously through his son.
play by Logan to make that pass over to Johnson and to bury the gold-medal-winning goal, I just couldn’t stop screaming and yell ing and Canadacheering.”posted a 7-0 mark for a record-extending 19th world
“I’m going, geez, we’re not going to win,” Loren said. “This is not going happen again. We’re maybe going to lose the gold medal. But that play by McTavish was just unbelievable. It was so exciting. And then with that great
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“There was quite a bit of media,” Garand said. “It didn’t feel like it was underviewed, It was good. For us, we are just focused on hockey. We got the chance to go back and finish the tournament, so we wanted to get the job Stankovendone.”
“Well, it’s tough to describe because you’re overwhelmed with pride and joy for his accom plishments,” Loren said.
The event was originally scheduled for last December and January in Red Deer and Edmonton, but was postponed due to rising COVID-19 cases.
win at world junior hockey championship
Logan Stankoven is the reigning CHL David Branch Player of the Year Award winner. The Kamloops product enters his 19-year-old season aiming to build on a 2021-2022 campaign that saw him rack up 45 goals and 104 points in 59 games.
“To have it on my birthday, just to make it even more of a special occasion to win gold, with the crowd and a lot people know ing it was my birthday, wishing me luck and Dylan luck, it was so surreal and overwhelming. The pride oozed out of me, for sure, thatLorenday.”
for the summer tournament took a hit, with high ticket prices, a Hockey Canada sexual assault scandal and the absence of perennial contender Russia among likely contributing fac tors.More than 13,000 fans were at Rogers Place for the title tilt.
is the third Kamloopsian to win gold at the world juniors, following in the footsteps of Joe Hicketts (2015) and Mark Recchi (1988).
was fearing the worst when the Finns roared back from two goals down in the third peri od to tie the game at 2-2.
junior hockey title.
“Not very often does a kid from Kamloops or even just a kid from B.C. get the chance to represent their country on the national stage and at world juniors,” he said. “To bring home a gold medal to the City of Kamloops and friends and family back home, it’s amazing.”
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