Blazers’ Zary earns all-star and NHL Central Scouting accolades

Connor Zary is one of the WHL’s top players.

    Connor Zary had a great week when it came to collecting accolades.

    The skilled 18-year-old centre had a stellar 2019-20 WHL campaign with the Kamloops Blazers piling up 38 goals, 48 assists and a plus-30 rating in the plus-minus department in 57 regular season games.

    On Tuesday, Zary was named a WHL Western Conference first team all-star. On Wednesday, Zary was rated 15^th among North American skaters in the final ranking released by NHL Central Scouting, which means the Saskatoon product could potentially be a late first round selection in the NHL Entry Draft.

    Zary, who stands 6-feet and weighs 180 pounds, is eligible for this year’s NHL Entry due to his late September birthday. The NHL Entry Draft was originally slated to be held June 26-27 in Montreal, Quebec, but it has been postponed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to a date that has yet to be announced.

    Back in the 2016 WHL Bantam Draft, the Blazers selected Zary in the second round and 37^th overall. He played his 15-year-old season in 2016-17 with the Saskatoon Contacts in the midget AAA ranks piling up 27 goals and 18 assists in 36 regular season games.

Connor Zary had 86 points in 57 games with the Blazers.

    Zary proceeded to crack the WHL ranks with the Blazers as a 16-year-old rookie in 2017-18. Skating through a campaign where he dealt with living away from home for the first time and juggling his high school studies in a new school, Zary had sound numbers posting 11 goals and 18 assists in 68 regular season games.

    He proceeded to have a breakout campaign as a 17-year-old sophomore in 2018-19 recording 24 goals, 43 assists and a plus-18 rating in 63 regular season games.

    After falling 4-2 in a best-of-seven first round playoff series to the Victoria Royals, Zary played for Canada at the world under-18 hockey championships held in April of 2019 in Ornskoldsvik and Umea, Sweden.

    He had four goals and three assists in seven games at that event.

    In his third campaign with the Blazers in 2019-20, Zary took another step upwards in his game.

    He was invited to take part in the main training camp for Canada’s world junior team last December as an injury replacement player. While he was cut from Canada’s final roster, Zary is still eligible to play at world juniors for the upcoming season, so he gained valuable experience from last year’s invite.

    On top of having great personal numbers, Zary helped the Blazers mathematically lock up first place in the WHL’s B.C. Division with a 41-18-3-1 record before the COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of the last 11 days of the WHL regular season and the entire post-season for all major junior clubs under the Canadian Hockey League umbrella.

Connor Zary could be a late first round NHL Entry Draft pick.

    That marked the first time the Blazers had won the B.C. Division title since the 2011-12 campaign.

While the Blazers and Zary won’t have a chance to put together a special post-season run, he left no doubt he is one of the WHL’s top players.

    Zary wasn’t the only Saskatoon product to be named a Western Conference first team all-star. Adam Beckman, who is a Saskatoon product that is an 18-year-old left-winger with the Spokane Chiefs, cracked the Western Conference first all-star team after a stellar campaign.

    Beckman, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 174 pounds, topped the WHL in goals (48) and points (107) appearing in 63 regular season games. He had a plus-44 rating to go along with his point totals.

    Last year, Beckman was selected in the third round and 75^th overall by the Minnesota Wild in the NHL Entry Draft, and he has signed an NHL entry-level contract with the Wild.

    Rounding out the Western Conference first all-star team was Seth Jarvis of the Portland Winterhawks at forward, Ty Smith of the Spokane Chiefs and Johnny Ludvig of the Winterhawks on defence and Everett Silvertips netminder Dustin Wolf in goal.

    Prince Albert Raiders Belarusian import centre Aliaksei Protas was named a WHL Eastern Conference first team all-star. Protas posted 31 goals, 49 assists and a plus-37 rating in 58 regular season games.

Braden Schneider was a first team WHL Eastern Conference all-star.

    He was selected in the third round and 91^st overall in last year’s NHL Entry Draft by the Washington Capitals and has signed an NHL entry-level contract with that club.

    Prince Albert product Braden Schneider made the Eastern Conference first all-star team playing defence for the Brandon Wheat Kings. Schneider had seven goals, 35 assists and a plus-nine rating skating in 60 regular season games with the Wheat Kings.

    Schneider is rated ninth among North American skaters in the final NHL Central Scouting rankings.

    Also named to the Eastern Conference first all-star team are James Hamblin of the Medicine Hat Tigers and Dylan Cozens of the Lethbridge Hurricanes at forward, Calen Addison of the Hurricanes on defence and Jiri Patera of the Wheat Kings in goal.

    On Monday, the WHL announced is its second team all-stars for the Eastern and Western Conference.

    Prince Albert Raiders netminder Max Paddock cracked the second all-star team for the Eastern Conference. 

Max Paddock was a second team WHL Eastern Conference all-star.

    In 48 regular season games split between the Regina Pats and Raiders, Paddock posted a 23-16-8 record, a 2.65 goals against average, a .915 save percentage and five shutouts.
    The Pats traded Paddock to the Raiders on Jan. 9.

    Prince Albert product and overage Edmonton Oil Kings centre Riley Sawchuk was named a second team Eastern Conference all-star as well. Sawchuk topped the Oil Kings in scoring with 25 goals and 51 assists in 64 regular season games.

    Rounding out the second all-star team for the Eastern Conference were Mark Kastelic of the Calgary Hitmen and Peyton Krebs of the Winnipeg Ice at forward, and Alex Cotton of the Hurricanes and Matthew Robertson of the Oil Kings on defence.

    The WHL Western Conference second team all-stars were Eli Zummack of the Chiefs, Bryce Kindopp of the Silvertips and Zane Franklin of the Blazers at forward, Jake Christiansen of Silvertips and Bowen Byram of the Vancouver Giants on defence and Joel Hofer of the Winterhawks in goal.

    The NHL Central Scouting final rankings included healthy representation from the Raiders and Saskatoon Blades.

Kaiden Guhle could be a first round NHL Entry Draft selection.

    Raiders defenceman Kaiden Guhle was rated eighth among North American skaters and was the highest rated WHL player on that list. Raiders right-winger Ozzy Wiesblatt was ranked 19^th, defenceman Landon Kosior was listed 98^th and centre Ilya Usau came in at 108^th among North American skaters.

    Right-winger Tristen Robins was the highest rated Blades player among North America skaters coming in at the 86^th spot. The Blades were also represented on the North American skaters list by defenceman Rhett Rhinehart at the 151^st spot, rearguard Aiden De La Gorgendiere at the 197^th spot and left-winger Kyle Crnkovic at the 208^th spot.

    Blades netminder Koen MacInnes rated 22^nd among North American goalies.

NLL cancels remainder of regular season, playoffs up in air

Rush captain Chris Corbeil raises the Champion’s Cup in 2016.

    It will be a longer wait before fans of the Saskatchewan Rush can enjoy the energy of one of their games again.

    On Wednesday, the National Lacrosse League cancelled the remainder of its regular season games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The NLL first suspended regular season play back on March 12.

    A released put out by the NLL on Wednesday said the league is looking at a number of scenarios to return to play when all stakeholders and health officials deem to possible.

    The NLL is still hoping to get a post-season in. The Calgary Roughnecks won the National Lacrosse League Cup as NLL champions last season.

    When the NLL suspended play, the Rush sat first in the West Division with a 7-3 record. They last played on March 7, when they thumped the Vancouver Warriors 17-7 at the SaskTel Centre.

Mark Matthews raises the National Lacrosse League Cup in 2018.

    The Rush began playing in Saskatoon at the start of the 2016 campaign after moving from Edmonton, Alta.

    Since they began calling Saskatchewan home, the Rush had won the NLL title on two occasions including their first campaign based out of Saskatoon in 2016 and 2018. The Rush locked up the NLL championship on both occasions at home.
    They won the Champion’s Cup in 2016, which was the NLL’s old championship trophy. The Rush captured the National Lacrosse League Cup in 2018, when it was awarded as the league’s title trophy for the first time.

    The Rush have provided loads of excitement and sports highlights during their time in Saskatchewan. It would be uplifting if they can find away to provide more thrills later this year in some sort of post-season.

Trudeau’s “normality” quote anxiety inducing, other notes

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave a statement during his morning address that will likely be anxiety inducing for many people regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Trudeau said early on the shutdowns that are in place around the country will be the new normal until a vaccine is found for COVID-19. There have been various mainstream media reports that have said a vaccine for COVID-19 could be a 12 to 18 months away.

    A reporter questioned Trudeau if he envisioned multiple waves of shutdowns and how can the country handle the multiple waves of shutdowns. The response did not help with regards to anxiety over how the world is right now over COVID-19.

    “Normality as it was known before will not come back full on until we get a vaccine for this,” said Trudeau. “That could be a very long way off.”

    Trudeau did try to close his answer to that question with a thought that might be a little more upbeat.

    “Once we get through this first wave, we will have developed both tools and habits that will allow us to be much more resilient and resistant to further outbreaks and spreads,” said Trudeau.

    The way Trudeau gave his answers it does put the thought into the mind that the current lockdowns could be in place for some time. It greatly increases the fear that life before all the shutdowns started happening in North American on March 11 might not come back at all.

    If there are shutdowns for 12 to 18 months, life will be vastly different on the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic than it was before it and the sports world is included in that. That normal that was known on March 10 will likely be gone forever in that scenario.

    When something like that Trudeau quote comes up in these times, one has to take a step back and take a deep breath. You do have to have something like Trudeau said in the back of your head, because there is some truth to that statement.

    Still, you can’t dwell on it, because there is so much uncertainty with regards to COVID-19.

    You have to remember to take things one day at a time. Even dwelling on how things could be two months from now is not healthy.

    It was also a reminder to set limits on how much time one spends checking out news programs and social media lines. Spending too much time follow those platforms is not good for mental health either.

    With that noted, that quote provided a huge bump in the road to my morning on top of some computer problems. I believe I was able to get over it quickly as I ventured into projects for the day.

• The Saskatchewan High School Athletic Association executive council met on Sunday to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the programs and activities run by the sport body. The SHSAA produced a frequently asked questions and COVID-19 response document that said all SHSAA schedule sports that were to take place until the end of June 30 have been cancelled. That brings an official end to the SHSAA’s 2019-20 season. The SHSAA had been slated to run championships in badminton and track and field. The spring portions of golf and cross country running were also brought to an end along with all spring football camps. The SHSAA document said further update on fall activity programs would be available at the end of June.
• On Wednesday, the WHL announced Portland Winterhawks centre Jake Gricius was named the Western Conference humanitarian of the year and Calgary Hitmen centre Riley Fiddler-Schultz was the Eastern Conference humanitarian of the year. The WHL is rolling out its player awards online and on its web platform.
• On Thursday, the WHL announced Kamloops Blazers netminder Dylan Garand was named the Western Conference scholastic player of the year and Regina Pats left-winger Jacob Brook was named the Eastern Conference scholastic player of the year.
• Saskatoon Blades overage feisty left-winger Riley McKay signed a one-year AHL contract with the Rockford IceHogs on Thursday. The IceHogs are the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks. McKay posted 19 goals, 19 assists, 93 penalty minutes and an even rating in the plus-minus department in 62 regular season games with the Blades. McKay’s goals and assists totals were career highs for his time in the WHL.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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