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| The Blades celebrate a win over the Pats this past Sunday. |
The Saskatoon Blades head coach has a wonderful mix of skilled and good character players to work with for the rest of the current 2023-24 WHL campaign. The Blades sit first overall in the WHL with a 29-8-2-2 record, and they were rated first in the CHL’s Top 10 Rankings that were released on Tuesday. That marks the first time the Blades have topped the CHL Top 10 Rankings this season.
Over a little past the first half of the regular season, Blades general manager Colin Priestner did a fantastic job of solidifying the team’s roster through the trade route. All trades came to a conclusion for the current campaign when the WHL’s trade deadline passed at 4 p.m. Saskatchewan time on January 10.
Priestner was able to add assistance around a solid core group of players in the likes of captain Trevor Wong, Brandon Lisowsky, Egor Sidorov, Vaughn Watterodt, Tyler Parr, Lukas Hansen, Tanner Molendyk, Charlie Wright, Ben Saunderson and Austin Elliott. The biggest additions via the trade route include forwards Fraser Minten, Easton Armstrong, Alexander Suzdalev and defenceman John Babcock.
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| Fraser Minten in action for the Blades this past Sunday. |
The Rockets sent Babcock, who is a sound 19-year-old defensive-defenceman, to the Blades and 17-year-old defenceman Ismail Abougouche to the Oil Kings. The Oil Kings sent 18-year-old defenceman Carter Kowalyk and a fourth round selection in the 2025 Prospects Draft to the Rockets.
Saskatoon had to make some give ups to acquire Suzdalev from the Regina Pats on December 31, 2023 and Minten from the Kamloops Blazers on November 24, 2023. In those two deals, the Blades dealt away three roster players, one list player and six Prospects Draft selections. That included sending the Blazers first round picks in 2024 and 2025 Prospects Drafts and the Pats a first round selection in 2026 Prospects Draft.
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| Alexander Suzdalev in action for the Blades this past Sunday. |
The Blades didn’t have to give up near that much to get Armstrong from the Wenatchee Wild on October 10, 2023. Due to the fact Armstrong is a 20-year-old, the Blades set the Wild a third round selection in the 2025 Prospects Draft and a conditional sixth round pick in the 2027 Prospects Draft.
Saskatoon acquired 19-year-old defenceman Grayden Siepmann in a significant trade with the Calgary Hitmen on October 10, 2023 and 19-year-old defenceman Nicholas Andrusiak in a deal with the Red Deer Rebels for a fifth round pick in the 2025 Prospects Draft on December 12, 2023. Siepmann and Andrusiak have been solid and consistent since joining the Blades, and their experience has shown through.
With world juniors having wrapped up on January 5, the trade deadline in the rearview mirror and Molendyk having returned from healing up a fractured wrist, this past weekend was the first time the Blades had pretty much everyone on their roster available to be used. They were without two defencemen due upper body injuries in 18-year-old veteran Carter Herman (week-to-week) and rookie Morgan Tastad (day-to-day), who turned 18-years-old on January 10.
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| Egor Sidorov in action for the Blades this past Saturday. |
In a 5-4 overtime win over the Victoria Royals this past Saturday and a 6-1 triumph over the Pats this past Sunday both at the SaskTel Centre, the Blades coaches mixed up their forward lines, especially in the clash with the Royals. The line of 19-year-old left-winger Rhett Melnyk, 18-year-old centre Misha Volotovskii and 18-year-old right-winger Rowan Calvert was the one unit that stayed together.
For the victory over the Pats, the Blades coaches put imports Suzdalev and Sidorov together on a line. The two had a strong pre-existing friendship before Suzdalev came over to the Blades. Wong centred the line with Suzdalev playing left wing and Sidorov on right wing.
Still, the Blades coaches have a number of line combinations to tinker with in order to find which forward units have the best chemistry.
For the next week, the Blades should be well tested due to the fact the number one rating in the CHL Top 10 Rankings should see them be a target foes get up a little extra for. The Blades are back at it on Wednesday, when they travel to Red Deer to take on the 22-13-1-4 Rebels (7 p.m. local time, Peavey Mart Centrium).
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| John Babcock plays for the Blades this past Saturday. |
Going forward, this will be a fun Blades team to watch. So far this season, the Blades have done a good job drawing younger fans who are often players on minor hockey teams in Saskatoon and area as the team has averaged 4,972 spectators over 18 home dates. The ground work the Blades players put in for years with elementary school visits and making guest coach appearances with minor hockey teams is paying off.
The youngsters bring a good healthy enthusiasm that creates a great atmosphere to the games. It is evident those Blades players on the ice are their heroes.
If you follow the lead of the youngsters as a ticket buyer, the SaskTel Centre is going to be a great place to be.
Rivalry Series game set for Feb. 7 in Saskatoon, other
notes
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| Emily Clark walks out to the SaskTel Centre in November of 2018. |
On Wednesday, February 7 at 7 p.m., Canada’s senior national women’s hockey team will face the United States in Game 5 of the Rivalry Series. The U.S. leads the 2023-24 edition of the seven-game series 3-1 heading into Game 5 in Saskatoon.
Canada took Game 4 of the set 3-2 after a tiebreaking shootout back on December 16, 2023 at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena in Sarnia, Ont. Last season, the U.S. won the first three games of the series, but Canada rallied back taking the last four contests to capture the series win.
Canada’s roster will feature power forward and 28-year-old Saskatoon product Emily Clark. Clark has one goal over the first four games of the series. She is an assistant captain with Ottawa’s team in the PWHL and has played two games with the Ottawa side.
Clark is an alumna of the Saskatoon Stars Female Under-18 AAA Hockey Team.
The last time Canada and the U.S. played against each other in Saskatoon was back on November 10, 2018 in the championship game of the 4 Nations Cup tournament held at the SaskTel Centre. The U.S. claimed a 5-2 victory in that encounter.
Clark wasn’t able to play at that 4 Nations Cup due to an injured left leg.
- Saskatoon product Berkly Catton is having a sensational sophomore WHL season playing centre for the Spokane Chiefs. Appearing in all the Chiefs 39 games this season, Catton has posted 64 points coming off 27 goals and 37 assists to go with a plus-11 rating in the plus-minus department. Catton turned 18-years-old on Sunday. Entering play on Wednesday, he sits seventh in the WHL’s scoring race.
- Gavin McKenna is having an outstanding rookie season playing left wing for the Medicine Hat Tigers. In 36 games with the Tigers, McKenna has 52 points coming off 17 goals and 35 assists. McKenna turned 16-years-old on December 20, 2023. Due to his December birthday, McKenna will play two more full more seasons in the WHL before becoming eligible for the NHL Entry Draft in 2026.
- On January 9, I had new content appear on the Howe Happenings blog that supports the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. I put together a feature on 16-year-old Saskatoon Lions Speed Skating Club skater Melissa Scutchings, who skated in the Canada Winter Games that ran February 18 to March 5, 2023 across Prince Edward Island. The piece on Scutchings can be found by clicking right here. I also put together a photo roundup that shows photos of some of the facilities at the Complex on January 3 when warm weather winter conditions still existed. The photo roundup also showed fun at the Indoor Training Centre. That post can be found by clicking 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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