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| The Blades celebrate a goal from their final game in the 2017-18 season. |
The Saskatoon Blades will make the WHL playoffs in the
2018-19 campaign. That is my prediction for “the Bridge City Bunch” this
season, and I am sticking to it.
Saskatoon last made the playoffs back in the 2012-13
campaign, when they hosted the Memorial Cup. That marked the final season of
the Blades being owned by long-time owner Jack Brodsky.
In making that prediction, I can already see the jaded
followers of the team falling down on the floor in laughter. Actually, I have a
gut feeling the Blades might have a playoff spot locked up when March 2019 begins. That notion might potentially cause the jaded fans to die of laughter,
so I hope they can control themselves and be alright.
Due to the fact the Blades are in the midst of their longest
playoff drought in team history spanning the last five consecutive seasons, the
“I will believe it when I see it” notion has floated around a number of
followers of the charter WHL franchise.
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| Chase Wouters has been named the Blades new captain. |
The Blades finished first overall in the WHL in 2010-11 with
a 56-13-2-1 record, but were swept in the second round of the playoffs by that
season’s eventual WHL champions the Kootenay Ice.
Under Priestner’s ownership, the Blades have slowly
improved. In the 2013-14 campaign, the Blades finished with a 16-51-2-3 record
for 37 points in the standings, which was an expected drop after hosting the
Memorial Cup.
The club’s record has improved each season since that time.
For the past two seasons, the Blades were seeing signs that
their lengthy rebuild was paying off and that the club had come out of the funk
in the aftermath of hosting the 2013 Memorial Cup. Unfortunately, a playoff
berth eluded the squad.
In 2016-17, the Blades posted a 28-35-7-2 record to sit five
points behind the Calgary Hitmen (30-32-8-2) for the second and final wildcard
berth in the WHL’s Eastern Conference.
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| Dawson Davidson will serve as a Blades assistant captain. |
Saskatoon had the seventh most points in the 12-team Eastern
Conference, which meant two clubs with worse records made the post-season under
the current league playoff format.
The Blades were playing out of an East Division, which was
viewed as one of the toughest divisions seen at any time in the history of the
WHL. Saskatoon still put together an 18-17-2-1 mark playing against East
Division foes.
Internally, the Blades must have felt reasonably confident a
post-season berth would happen last season, because management decided to bring
back the team’s classic Pac-Man jerseys as the club’s regular look before the
start of the campaign. The Blades wore the Pac-Man jerseys during a heyday of
stellar campaigns in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Saskatoon will be guided by rookie 34-year-old head coach Mitch
Love this season. Love is viewed as one of the best young coaches in the WHL
having spent the previous seven seasons with the Everett Silvertips as an
assistant coach.
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| Max Gerlach has scored 30-or-more goals in three straight campaigns. |
The Blades two biggest draws will be 17-year-old stars in
centre Kirby Dach and goalie Nolan Maier. Dach is being pegged as a prospect
that could go early in the first round in next year’s NHL Entry Draft, and
Maier aims to build off a sensational rookie campaign that saw him named the
Blades team MVP as well as rookie of the year.
On Thursday, the Blades announced their leadership group,
and their picks were great ones. Chase Wouters, who is a standout 18-year-old
centre, was named the 59th captain in Blades team history.
Wouters appeared in all of the Blades 72 games last season
and finished fourth in team scoring with 18 goals and 33 assists, while posting
a plus-seven rating in the plus-minus department. He was named the scholastic
player of the year for the Eastern Conference posting a 90 per cent average in
Grade 11 and an 89 per cent average last year in Grade 12.
Having just returned from the training camp of the NHL’s
Tampa Bay Lightning, Wouters, who is from Lloydminster, Alta/Sask., had earned
the opportunity to be the Blades leader with his efforts on and off the ice.
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| Josh Paterson had a breakout season for the Blades in 2017-18. |
Davidson and Gerlach know all the ropes of the WHL. Davidson
has appeared in 233 career regular season games with the Kamloops Blazers,
Regina Pats and Blades displaying an offensive touch on the back end collecting
24 goals and 92 assists over that time.
The Moosomin, Sask., product had 10 goals and 33 assists in
69 regular season games split between the Pats and Blades in 2017-18.
Gerlach, who recently returned from the training camp of the
NHL’s Arizona Coyotes, has appeared in 209 career regular season games split
between the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Blades. Over that time, the Flower
Mound, Texas, product has registered 99 goals and 78 assists.
In each of his three previous WHL seasons, Gerlach has
potted 30-or-more goals and collected 35 goals and 35 assists in 65 regular
season games split between the Tigers and Blades in 2017-18.
Paterson has improved steadily in his three campaigns to
date with the Blades. The Edmonton, Alta., product had a breakout campaign in
2017-18 for the Blades appearing in all 72 regular season games netting 31
goals and 22 assists, which were both career highs.
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| Kirby Dach is one of the Blades top players to watch this season. |
Standing 5-foot-11 and weighing 192 pounds, the Swan River,
Man., product has displayed a good offensive touch coming up through the
Manitoba minor hockey system, and he might turn into more of a power forward.
Overall, the Blades have a solid roster that has been mainly
built through the WHL Bantam Draft and supplemented with some sound trades.
The Blades open the regular season traveling to Swift
Current on Friday night to take on the Broncos at 7 p.m. at the Credit Union
i-Plex. Those two clubs go at it again on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel
Centre in the Blades home opener.
The overall hard work everyone in the Blades organization
has put in over the past five years is set to show returns in a big way.
Back in the Express with Pilon
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| Garrett Pilon is embarking on his professional hockey career. |
Pilon was a graduate of the Saskatoon minor hockey system,
and for the past three seasons, he became a star playing in the WHL for the
Kamloops Blazers and Everett Silvertips. In 207 regular season games split
between the Blazers and Silvertips, Pilon recorded 69 goals and 123 assists.
He collected career highs in goals (34) and assists (46)
appearing in 69 regular season games split between the Blazers and Silvertips
last season.
Pilon has a signed three-year NHL entry-level contract with
the Capitals and is currently playing pre-season games with the defending
Stanley Cup champions.
The story on Pilon can be found right here.
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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