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With NHL Draft on horizon, Warriors' Korczak aiming for impact performance

Projected first-round NHL pick looking to build on impressive first season with Tribe when slate of games kick off on Mar. 12
Warriors Stn Korczak
Moose Jaw Warriors forward Ryder Korczak will be looking for a big season in the Regina hub.
When the Western Hockey League East Division schedule kicks off during the Mar. 21 weekend in the Regina hub, plenty of players will have lots on the line, but few will be looking to show off what they’re truly capable of more than Moose Jaw Warriors forward Ryder Korczak.

And for good reason: when you’re one of only two players in the division projected as a first-round National Hockey League draft pick this summer, you’re going want to make sure everyone knows that ranking is well deserved.

Korczak, 18, was given an ‘A’ ranking by the NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau in their most recent projections in January, meaning he can be expected to hear his name called on day one of the 2021 NHL Draft. Only Carson Lambos of the Winnipeg Ice found himself with the same ranking.

“I was definitely pumped, it’s obviously a pretty big honour and humbling for me to be ranked as an ‘A’ prospect, but the work just starts now and I’ll have to make sure I live up to their expectations,” Korczak said from his home in Yorkton recently. “I just have to stick to my game, there’s a reason I’m there so I’ll just play my game and be myself.”

Of course, in a normal year, he’d already have 40 or so games under his belt to do just that. But as everyone is plenty aware, things are as about as strange as can be right now, with the upcoming 24-game schedule based completely out of Regina as close to normal as we’re going to get for awhile.

Korczak has done what he can to prepare for the two-month burst of games, keeping busy with the occasional skate and plenty of time in the gym.

“I’m just here with my buddies in Yorkton, so we just go to Canora which is an hour away, or Foam Lake, which isn’t too far, either, and skate there every couple days,” he said. “The off-season has been pretty good, I’ve been relaxing a little bit, skating and working out a little bit and just looking forward to get back to playing games here.”

Interestingly enough, he almost had a chance to do just that far earlier than most of his Warriors compatriots earlier this season. Korczak was actually practicing with the Yorkton Terriers of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League in the lead-up to the SJHL’s start in November and could have found himself skating alongside the likes of Medicine Hat Tigers overager Brett Kemp,  Everett Silvertips forward Jackson Berezowski as well as former Warriors Kaeden and Keenan Taphorn -- all of whom are Yorkton minor hockey products. 

“I was practicing with them for a bit and was thinking about it, but I was hesitant about it because the WHL season was going to go with their season and unfortunately they didn’t,” Korczak said. “It would have been pretty cool, though.”

That opportunity aside, it’s been as much time off as Korczak has had in his hockey career -- it’ll be almost a full year to the day when the puck finally drops in Regina -- and as one can imagine, it’s been rather unusual.

“It’s different, no one has ever been through this and it definitely wasn’t expected, but everyone is going through it,” he said. “So I’m just looking at it as a positive here, everyone has had a lot of off time and I’m just ready to get back to things.”

Warriors PA KorczakRyder Korczak will be looking for even more of this in the coming season. | Lucas Punkari / Prince Albert Daily Herald

When things do get going, the league is going to be looking to make up for lost time. Playing 24 games in a little under two months is about as compact as a hockey schedule can get in the pandemic era, but it’s something Korczak most certainly has no problem with.

“It’ll be interesting, we’ll be there for 58 days and we’ll have 24 games, so not much down time, practice and games pretty much,” he said. “But I’m looking forward to it, for sure.”

Korczak and his Warriors teammates will be looking for a lot of improvement after the rebuild season they had in 2019-20. Scoring goals and putting up points carries far less weight if you aren’t winning games, and while Korczak did plenty of both last season -- 18 goals and 67 points in 62 games, a league-high 17.2 per cent of the Warriors’ offensive output last season according to CHL statistician Geoffery Brandow -- putting up more checks in the W column will be the priority.

The good news is the team is another year old and ideally another year better.

“I think we’re actually looking pretty good,” Korczak said. “We have the two new 20-year-olds, Riley Krane and Brad Ginnell, they’re both going to be good additions to our team, then obviously everyone is a year older and that’s going to be a big addition, just getting bigger and stronger as the years go on. Then we have lots of depth down the middle and our back end is pretty strong and we’ll have really good goaltending with Boston (Bilous) back in the net there, so I think we’ll be pretty solid.”

As for overall goals, just taking a step forward in the right direction will make all the difference.

“From a team standpoint, it would be to make a playoff push if there were playoffs,” Korczak said. “But without that, just competing more and being a grittier team, wanting to win more and put ourselves into situations where we can win games, that’ll be the most important.”

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