A familiar name joins the Prince Albert Raiders
Older brother set example for 15-year-old blue-liner, already 6-foot-1 and growing
Kaiden Guhle was excited to be selected by the Prince Albert Raiders in the WHL Bantam Draft two weeks ago, and it wasn’t necessarily because he was the first overall pick.
Guhle is very familiar with the Raiders organization as his older brother, Brendan, played parts of four years in Prince Albert before being traded to the Prince George Cougars midway through this season.
Guhle, 15, officially signed with the Raiders this past weekend, but won’t be eligible to play in the WHL full-time until the 2018-19 season.
“To officially be a Raider and be able to be with them for the next however many years, it all worked perfectly,” Guhle said. “I’ve been to that rink a lot of times, I’ve seen the dressing room, I’ve been to quite a few Raiders games. I’ve met the coach and I know the city and so that was the ideal situation for me to end up going there.”
Guhle, a six-foot-one, 174-pound defenceman who is still growing, had an outstanding season with the Okanagan Hockey Academy Edmonton Bantam Prep of the Canadian Sport School Hockey League. In 30 games, the Sherwood Park product had 17 goals and 23 assists for 40 points and was named the league’s top defenceman.
“In my opinion, it was a slam dunk that he would go first overall,” said OHA Edmonton head coach Sean Beissel. “I thought of all the options to go first overall in that draft, there were lots of good players, but I thought Kaiden was probably the most well-rounded.”
Guhle has drawn comparisons to St. Louis Blues defenceman Jay Bouwmeester, who was also a former first overall pick in the WHL Bantam Draft.
An excellent skater, Guhle excels at both ends of the ice, according to Beissel.
“He’s a six-foot-two, six-foot-three defenceman that can skate very, very well,” he said. “That’s obviously the very first thing that comes to mind when you see him, you see he’s a tall, lanky defenceman with a beautiful skating stride.
“His brother was a very successful Western Hockey League player and an NHL pick, so the bloodlines are there. What a lot of people don’t see about Kaiden right away is that he plays defence the right way. It’s easy to look at the website and see that he had great offensive numbers this year, it’s not easy to identify that he played against the toughest assignments, against the strongest players in the strongest bantam league in Canada. He was able to defend very, very effectively, so he’s a very well-rounded defenceman.”
The CSSHL is made up of a number of hockey academies throughout Western Canada and divided into different age divisions. OHA Edmonton had a 15-12-3 record this season in a nine-team league.
“Being able to travel and knowing what it’s like to be on the road almost every weekend, it kind of gives you the experience of what it would be like in the WHL,” Guhle said. “I think it really helped give me a taste of what it’s going to be like in the WHL and in the higher levels.”
Guhle is looking forward to following in his brother’s footsteps in Prince Albert, although he wants to make his own mark. Brendan Guhle, 19, was the third-overall pick in the 2012 WHL Bantam Draft and went on to be selected by the Buffalo Sabres in the second round — 51st overall — of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. He made his NHL debut this season playing three games for the Sabres and finished the year with the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League.
“My brother influenced me quite a lot,” Guhle said. “He was always getting me to work hard and he always woke me up in the morning to get me to go to the gym. He tells me about the WHL if I had any questions and if I was going into a big game, he would always text me and give me advice.
“For sure, he’s been a big impact for me.”
Guhle plans to continue working on his game this summer and is looking to have a strong year in midget hockey next season before possibly making the jump to the WHL.
“I have to get bigger, get stronger and keep working on my shot,” he said. “I have to work on my skating and just focus on the little details, for sure.
“This is a huge summer for me, so I have to stay focused and dialed in and keep staying on that one goal of making to the WHL it as a 16-year-old. I just have to try and keep getting better.”
My brother influenced me quite a lot. He was always getting me to work hard and he always woke me up in the morning to get me to go to the gym.