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| The Blades celebrate a 4-2 win over the Red Deer Rebels on Feb. 4. |
For the fourth straight year, the Saskatoon Blades will not
take part in the WHL playoffs, but this year’s post-season miss is more painful
than the previous three.
The Blades season game to an end last Saturday with a 5-1
setback to the archrival Raiders in Prince Albert. Saskatoon finished the
2016-17 campaign with a 28-35-7-2 record to sit five points behind the Calgary
Hitmen (30-32-8-2) for eighth overall in the WHL’s Eastern conference and the
conference’s second and final wildcard berth for the post-season.
Entering their fifth last game of the season, the Blades
were three points ahead of the Hitmen for the last playoff berth in the Eastern
Conference. The Blades won only one of their final five contests, while the
Hitmen went on a tear winning five of their final six outings.
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| Braylon Shmyr led the Blades in scoring with 66 points. |
When the WHL post-season began on Friday, the Blades were
again on the outside looking in.
Had maybe two or three more breaks gone the Blades way, they
may have very been participating in the post-season for the first time since
2013. The biggest obstacle the team faced was the injury bug, as a number of
the club’s top players spent lengthy stretches on the shelf with various
ailments.
The most noticeable absence was star centre Cameron Hebig,
who missed the entire campaign with an upper body injury. The local product was
the Blades second leading scorer in 2015-16 netting 26 goals and 43 assists in
59 regular season games. Had Hebig been available for all or parts of this past
season, the Blades likely would have sat comfortably in a playoff position.
On top of Hebig’s absence, Braylon Shmyr, who topped the
Blades in scoring with 35 goals and 31 assists in 66 appearances, missed time
due to a concussion. Overage centre Jesse Shynkaruk missed about 14 games with
an upper body injury. The local product still finished second in team scoring
with career highs in goals (31) and assists (25) appearing in 58 games.
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| Jesse Shynkaruk potted a career 31 goals with the Blades. |
Right-winger Mason McCarty was out for about 35 games with a
leg injury and he managed to record 21 goals and 16 assists in 45 appearances. That
just scratched the surface of the Blades injury woes for the campaign. Injuries
were a big factor in the Blades scoring the third fewest goals in the league at
190.
Big credit has to be given to head coach Dean Brockman and
assistant coaches Ryan Keller, Bryce Thoma and Jerome Engele for holding the
ship together. Still, Brockman has visions of bigger things.
“We fought through a lot of injuries and adversity, and we
never used that as an excuse, and I still don’t want to use it as an excuse,”
said Brockman. “I am proud of our team for what they accomplished.
“Did we get to where I want to get to? Every year I want to
win a championship to be honest with you. If you don’t do that I don’t find it
successful.
“Is a bit unbelievable to think that way all the time? You
have to have something to strive for.”
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| Logan Flodell was named a WHL second team Eastern Conference all-star. |
Brockman is taking the right approach. At the start of the
season, you want to have winning a championship as your goal, because it helps
give the team clarity of purpose. When teams work their hardest to achieve that
goal, it helps create conditions were players seem to achieve things beyond
their abilities.
Due to all the injuries, the Blades were constantly having
to place younger players higher on the depth chart and have them play roles
they weren’t expected have yet or in some cases maybe ever have. Players like
forwards Chase Wouters and Michael Farren, who were in their 16-year-old
seasons, performed beyond their limits and gained experiences that will help
them in the future.
The same goes for forwards Josh Paterson and Logan
Christensen and defenceman Jackson Caller, who all completed their 17-year-old
seasons.
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| Libor Hajek signed an NHL entry-level contract with Tampa Bay. |
Forward Kirby Dach impressed in his call ups from the Fort
Saskatchewan Boston Pizza Rangers midget AAA team netting six goals and four
assists in 19 contests with the Blades. The second overall selection in last
year’s WHL Bantam Draft will play his 16-year-old rookie season with the club
in the upcoming campaign.
As far as guiding the improvement was concerned, Blades
general manager Colin Priestner loved how Keller handled the skill development
and power play. Priestner applauded how Thoma handled the defence. On top of
everything, the general manager was impressed how calmly Brockman handled the
difficulties.
“He (Brockman) had adversity every day to deal with, and
didn’t make excuses,” said Priestner. “He really had that next man up
philosophy.
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| Chase Wouters is one of the Blades youngsters that has a bright future. |
“If we lose a player for a month, six months or whatever it
was, he wouldn’t show that despair to the players. He kept a very even keel
with the players and the coaches. I think that allowed us to be successful.”
The individuals that had the biggest success were goaltender
Logan Flodell and import defenceman Libor Hajek. Flodell established himself as
a legitimate number one starter during his 19-year-old campaign. The Regina
product was named a second team WHL Eastern Conference all-star posting a
22-20-4 record, a 2.81 goals against average, a .912 save percentage and three
shutouts.
Hajek signed an NHL entry-level contract with the Tampa Bay
Lightning after netting four goals and 22 assists in 65 games with the Blades
this past season in his 18-year-old campaign.
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| Jackson Caller logged a tonne of minutes as Blades rookie defenceman. |
The Lightning selected Hajek in
the second round and 37th overall in last year’s NHL Entry Draft. He
is currently with the Lightning’s American Hockey League affiliate the Syracuse
Crunch.
At the moment, the Blades have a glut of possible overagers
returning next season with six players battling for three spots. The potential returnees
include Flodell and fellow netminder Brock Hamm along with defenceman Evan
Fiala. Shmyr, McCarty and Hebig are also in that mix.
The obvious man out is likely Hamm due to the stellar
campaign Flodell had.
With that said, the Blades will return three really good
overagers next year. If they can find players or a way to generate more goals
next season, a post-season appearance has an extremely high likelihood of being
a reality.
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