By any measure, this past Western Hockey League season was a successful one for the Moose Jaw Warriors.
Despite going through some late-season adversity, the Warriors still managed to put together a 41-win season, secure home ice-advantage in the playoffs, sweep the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the first round and throw a heck of a scare into the WHL regular-season champion Winnipeg Ice in the second round.
And while the Warriors bowed out in six games against the Ice, the season as a whole was another step forward for the local crew -- and one that has head coach Mark O’Leary looking back on the whole thing in a positive light.
“I think now that the dust has settled a little bit, as a whole I’ll remember this season as a positive one and a success,” O’Leary said. “I’m real proud of the players and the effort and compete they had all season long, even going through what we did as a group. The players gave the fans something to cheer about, and we went into every game expecting to win. That speaks to the amount of talent we had and the ability and where we were as a group.”
It wasn’t all that long ago when the Warriors were simply hoping to make the playoffs. Now, they have players with 20 or more playoff games under their belt, the kind of experience that will only help the team going forward.
“Every year you have different teams and you have to allow yourself to go through these things and learn from them,” O’Leary said. “You’re not always going to have a team where it feels like it’s championship calibre, but with the guys returning next year, they’re more prepared now to go through tough times and more prepared to play playoff hockey.
“That comes with experience, and in that sense, it was a positive year, one we’ll look back on and smile eventually. It still stings a bit, but I think it was a good experience for the players and a positive one.”
As for the regular season, the Warriors put together a 41-24-0-3 record despite losing four key players to a 17-game suspension late in the season. That gave others a chance to step up, though, and O’Leary was impressed with what he saw from those that did.
Defenceman Matthew Gallant offered a perfect example, with the 18-year-old in and out of the line-up prior to the suspension but making the most of his opportunity to play in the top four when the time came.
“That’s what adversity is all about, finding the silver lining and finding some positives to take from it,” O’Leary said. “Gallant is a good example, he has the skill level, but when we had to lean on him a little bit more, I think he found out he was capable of more than he thought, and that’s good for your confidence going into your work in the summer… You get a taste of that, being a regular in the top four, that’s what you want to be the next year. That’s what you’re looking for from players, be it guys that have been on the team for a couple years or even rookies, you ask them to be patient and they’ll have their time
“I think we saw that with guys like Ben RIche and Harper Lolacher, too, the time they had in the top six to be able to play with some of our top players. That’s good for them, to continue to progress.”
The key for any team’s success is steady improvement from their players, and the Warriors saw a host of veterans take a jump in their game -- guys like Jagger Firkus and Brayden Yager, who both put up career highs in points, or captain Denton Mateychuk, who was an absolute rock on the blueline while playing huge minutes.
But few in the entire WHL made the kind of move Atley Calvert did, with the Moose Jaw Minor Hockey product singled out by O’Leary as an example of what hard work can accomplish.
“You see a guy who scores 40 goals, but I see a guy who puts all the work in beforehand, and the 40 goals is just a byproduct of that,” O’Leary said. “He’s a guy who’s very self-aware and knows what he has to do to be successful and a lot of that stuff isn’t very fun. It’s the grunt work, the little things, and that’s what he works on in the summertime. There’s no one who works on his game more than Atley Calvert and that’s both on the ice and off the ice. You put that amount of effort in and you’re diligent about it, it’s a great story when the results follow.”
Naturally, the Warriors will be looking for a similar jump from players when they return to the team this fall.
“That’s what we look for every year,” O’Leary said. “You expect someone to jump off the page and take a step, whether that’s going from five goals to 15 or from a guy who plays 10 minutes who is playing 25 minutes. A lot can happen with guys over a three-month off-season and that’s the exciting thing about this job, seeing the growth through the off-season.”
It all leads into the 2023-24 campaign, and to put it simply, the Warriors expect to be right there. With a solid returning core and young talent coming up, another 40-plus win season is certainly in the cards, even if the league as a whole is expected to feature a lot more parity.
“It’s a bit of a different year where we don’t have as many players coming back as last year, but I think the players that are coming back are established and have grown up together and give us a really good core,” O’Leary said. “There are still some holes to fill, there are opportunities for guys in our line-up to climb, and time will tell where players slot in, but the skill level of the guys coming back is high and that gives us a good jumping off point.”
Until then, things now roll over into off-ice activities. The WHL Prospects Draft is May 11, with general manager Jason Ripplinger and his scouting staff taking in the Alberta Cup this past weekend to get one last look at a handful of players. That’s followed by the NHL Draft June 28-29, where ranked Warriors Brayden Yager and Jackson Unger will look to hear their names called.
Other than that, it’s all about putting in that off-season work and getting ready to go.
“There will be communication with our players and their summer plans, making sure they’re looked after with off-ice and on-ice training and building a plan for them with specific things we’d like to see improve over the summer,” O’Leary said. “There will be time to put the feet up at the lake, too, but we know the guys will be putting in the work to improve as much as they can.”
