Five players on the current roster were listed by the scouting organization for the 2021 National Hockey League Entry Draft and of that group, three -- Ryder Korczak, Eric Alarie and Cole Jordan -- are almost certain to be drafted, while Max Wanner and Martin Rysavy are longshots.
That means, including team captain Daemon Hunt, the Warriors will likely have four NHL draftees in their line-up and potentially as many as six.
It’s as positive a sign for the future as there could be for Moose Jaw Warriors general manager Jason Ripplinger, who recently chatted with MooseJawToday.com about the rankings, the off-season and what’s coming up for the local Western Hockey League club.
“I think as a scouting staff we’ve done our job and we’ve been able to identify guys with good work ethic and guys who can compete and are very smart,” Ripplinger said. “And some guys have grown, like a Max Wanner, who came on and played really well in the Hub.”
Wanner -- who hails from Estevan but now lives in Moose Jaw full time -- was unlisted in the previous CSB rankings but came in at 223rd among North American skaters.
“He’s put in the time to work on his game and work in the gym,” Ripplinger said. “For me, I’ve told NHL scouts he hasn’t reached his ceiling yet. He has lots of room for growth and lots of upside coming up, so we’re really excited about him.”
The scary thing about the Warriors future is the talent still coming up. Defenceman Denton Mateychuk is an all but certain NHL Draft pick in 2022 and forward Brayden Yager the same for 2023, meaning the team will have professional-level players circulating through their line-up for the foreseeable future.
“If you have a lot of NHL talent on your team, you’re usually a pretty good team,” Ripplinger said.
Virtual Development Camp
The Warriors will put in some time over the coming months getting re-acquainted with the future of their team as they hold virtual development camps for their 2004 and 2005-born players. The events will take place beginning next week and will run once a week throughout June.
“It’s been such a long layoff and we haven’t seen some of these kids play in over a year,” Ripplinger said. “We don’t know if they’ve grown or how much they’ve improved… you can talk to them over the phone and hear in their voices whether they’ve matured over the last year and five months, but as players it’s hard to say unless you see them play.
“So it’s a chance to start fresh again, get our coaches acquainted with our new players and start building a relationship with these guys”
The strangeness of the pandemic era could change the dynamic of the league for the coming season, at least.
“Are they going to be ready to jump into the Western Hockey League next year? Maybe, maybe not. Normally, 17-year-olds, that’s their year to crack the roster,” Ripplinger said. “So it wouldn’t surprise me if we see a lot of 18-year-old rookies in our league.”
Import Draft
The next major order of league business will be the Canadian Hockey League Import Draft coming up on June 30, with the Warriors expecting to make a single pick.
Czech Republic forward Rysavy is all but certain to make the trip overseas next season, but overage countryman Martin Lang has opted to stay home and begin his professional career.
Then there’s the wildest of wildcards in Sweden’s Jesper Wallstedt.
The Warriors’ first-round pick in 2019, Wallstedt is currently the top-ranked European goaltender heading into the NHL Draft and remains an outside-chance longshot to suit up at Mosaic Place next season.
“When we drafted him we knew he was a long shot and that’s still the case,” Ripplinger said. “He’s playing pro right now and it’s difficult to get those guys to come to junior hockey… it’s something that probably won’t happen, but you never know.”
Wallstedt remains on a special import draft list that gives the Warriors a chance to select a player this year while retaining his rights.
“We’ve had some conversations and we don’t know if it’s going to be a defenceman or a forward or a goalie, so we’ll take a look at the options that are in front of us,” Ripplinger said.
WHL Draft
The opportunity for scouts to evaluate talent for the WHL Draft took one of the hardest hits in the pandemic era, with few leagues featuring U15 players managing to play more than a few games before COVID-19 shut them down.
With that in mind, the WHL is planning to hold a scouting tournament for 2006- and 2007-born players in mid-June in Saskatoon followed by a similar event in Regina later in the month, all with the goal of getting players in front of as many eyes as possible before the 2021 WHL Draft in December.
It’s a unique situation in that the 2022 Draft will take place the following May, meaning two drafts will be taking place in the same season.
“We’re still going to be watching the 07s as we’re watching the 06s, but the first half of the year we’ll focus on the 06s,” Ripplinger said. “We’re all in the same boat since we haven’t done this before and there’s no right or wrong answer how we’re going to approach drafting two age groups in one year. We’ll do it our way and hopefully it’ll be the right way.”
Fun Stuff?
One of the highlights of the off-season for both current and former Warriors is the annual MNP Warriors Alumni Golf Tournament.
The event -- which acts as a major fundraiser for the team’s scholarship fund -- annually sees former players making the trek to Moose Jaw for a weekend of reminiscing and visiting with billets and teammates. That includes plenty of NHL luminaries past and present, with Tampa Bay Lightning superstar Brayden Point and Calgary Flames legend Theo Fleury among the regular participants in recent years.
That all went to the side last year during the pandemic, and while other alternatives were floated for later in the summer when caseloads were almost non-existent in Saskatchewan, nothing came to fruition.
The hope this year is something might happen once the pandemic wanes in the coming months, but nothing is set in stone.
“We’ve talked about that, the golf tournament or a horseshoe tournament, whenever the restrictions are lifted and they allow you to have your 150 people in gatherings,” Ripplinger said. “Once we get there we’ll seriously start talking about that stuff.”
Looking Back and Looking Forward
Make no mistake, the Warriors had hoped to make a serious jump in the standings this season, even though they once again took the ice with one of the youngest line-ups in the league.
Their 8-13-3-0 record would have translated into a 22-win campaign over 68 games, an improvement over 2019-20’s 14 wins but not the playoff quest they’d hoped for. The strangeness of the situation and a bit of bad luck with personnel were factors, but Ripplinger chose to look at the positives with player development and the team as a whole heading into next season.
“If you break it down in this Hub, there were a whole bunch of things that went wrong at bad times,” Ripplniger said. “Korczak goes down with an injury, you lose Mateychuk who was only 16 but filled a big role on the blueline… You don’t want to make excuses, since it gave other guys opportunities to develop, and I think that was a big thing. All of our young guys and some of our older guys, too, they all took a step, which is good.”
Seeing things return to normal next season could make all the difference when it comes to making a leap up the standings.
“Maybe the intensity toward the end was a little lacking just because guys were ready to go home, it was a grind playing every second day. It was 24 games, a quarter of a season, in two months,” Ripplinger said. “When we get back to normalcy, I think things will be better. Having a normal training camp and a full season, we’re really looking forward to seeing what we can do.”
