RISING STARS

RISING STARS RISING STARS

CALGARY HOCKEY MAGAZINE PAST FEATURED PLAYERS SHOW THEIR TALENT

By Jeremy Freeborn

Over the last decade, I have had the unbelievable privilege and honour of working for the Calgary Hockey Magazine. One of the perks of the position is the opportunity to interview rising stars from Calgary at the junior hockey level. We try to feature the players before they make the big time.

Cale Makar

In the summer of 2017, I caught up with Cale Makar, the offensiveminded phenom defenseman who was practicing with Team Canada for the World Junior Summer Showcase tournament in Plymouth, Michigan. Makar had just been drafted in the first round, fourth overall, by the Avalanche, and his name was just becoming known. The mild obscurity was because of the path Makar chose to success. He bypassed the Western Hockey League and instead played with the Brooks Bandits in the Alberta Junior Hockey League. After two years at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Makar made his NHL debut with the Colorado Avalanche in the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs.His first NHL game came against the Calgary Flames on April 15, 2019, in game three of the first round. Makar was an instant difference maker. With the Avalanche leading 2-0 in the game, Makar scored the game winning goal from Nathan MacKinnon and Alexander Kerfoot at 16:02 of the first period. The Avalanche smoked the Flames 6-2 and won the series four games to one. In 2019-20, Makar played his first full season for Colorado. In a year with talented rookies, Makar beat out Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes and Chicago Blackhawks forward Dominik Kuablik to win the Calder Trophy. In a neat moment, it was Wayne Gretzky, who controversially never won the Calder Trophy in his prestigious NHL career, who announced virtually that Makar was the 2020 Calder Trophy recipient. In 57 games in 2019-20, Makar had 12 goals and 38 assists for 50 points. He was also a +12 with 12 penalty minutes, 19 power play points, four game winning goals, 121 shots on goal, 47 blocked shots, 45 hits, 34 takeaways and 40 giveaways. Furthermore, Makar finished ninth in Norris Trophy voting. So far in 2020-21, Makar, like Point, is averaging close to a point per game. He has one goal and 13 assists for 14 points.

photo by Michael Martin colorado avalanche

Brayden Point

On Nov. 17, 2013, I attended a game in the Western Hockey League between the Calgary Hitmen and Moose Jaw Warriors. The reason was simple. It was to have the chance to interview Warriors centre Brayden Point of Calgary. Despite being a star in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League, no other local media had an interest in interviewing him that night. I was the only one. Was I missing something? As Point was 5’9”, 160 pounds at the time, I suspect most teams did not expect him to develop into anything special. Despite 91 points in 72 games in 2013-14 with the Warriors, he was only drafted in the third round, 79th overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. After a 92-point season in 2018-19 (which was 12th in the NHL), Point had 64 points in an abbreviated 66-game 2019-20 regular season. It was in the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs where Point was able to shine. In 23 games, he had 14 goals and 19 assists for 33 points, in the Toronto and Edmonton bubbles. It was Point who scored the magical game winning goal for Tampa Bay in quintuple overtime in their historic 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets in game one of their first round series. He then notched a second overtime marker against Columbus to help Tampa Bay close out the series in five games. However, the Lightning had great success in acquiring another small player for the 2000-01 season when they picked up former Flames forward Martin St. Louis. At 5’8”, 175 pounds, all St. Louis was able to accomplish was win the 2004 Stanley Cup, the 2004 Hart Trophy, three Lady Byng trophies, and two Art Ross trophies in a Hockey Hall of Fame career. We cannot at this time put Point and St. Louis in the same sentence. However, we can make the claim that Point has turned out to be an NHL star in his own right. Point’s 14 goals led all players in the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs and his 33 points were second to his teammate Nikita Kucherov’s 34 points. More importantly, Point was able to accomplish something that St. Louis did in 2004: win the Stanley Cup. So far this season Point has continued to average his pointper-game pace. He has 27 points in his first 28 games. Point is putting up respectable numbers this season without playing alongside Kucherov, who is out this season with hip surgery.

Ozzy Wiesblatt

At the 2020 National Hockey League Entry Draft, Ozzy Wiesblatt was selected in the first round, 31st overall, by the San Jose Sharks. We had featured Ozzy, along with his siblings Orca, Ocean and Oasiz, in the 2020 spring issue of Hockey Magazine Calgary. What made Ozzy’s draft selection announcement so memorable was that Doug Wilson Jr., the Sharks Director of Amateur Scouting, used sign language. This was done so Ozzy’s mother Kim, who is deaf, could understand.

The story of Kim as a single mother and the financial challenges faced by the Wiesblatt family over the years has been widely told. Now with Ozzy having signed a three-year contract worth $2.775 million that should help the family significantly. In 2019-20, Wiesblatt, who plays right wing, had 25 goals and 45 assists for 70 points in 64 games with the Prince Albert Raiders. He made significant progress after only recording 39 points in 64 games in 2018-19. The 31-point increase in the same number of Western Hockey League games exemplified Wiesblatt’s overall improvement.

There is no doubt that the careers of 24 year-old Brayden Point, 21-year-old Cale Makar and 18-yearold Ozzy Wiesblatt are just getting started. Over the next decade all three will continue to be regular household hockey names with a common link — THE TRIO CAME FROM CALGARY.

photo by lucas chudleigh Apollo multimedia