Progression and development: Warriors head coach O’Leary looks back on games in East Division Hub
In a normal year for the Moose Jaw Warriors, seeing their Western Hockey League season end in late April would be a sign of overwhelming success: a trip to the Eastern Conference final and at the very least a deep run in the best-of-seven series.
In 2021, their final game marked the conclusion of farand-away the most unusual season in history - one that saw the team take a step forward in their development while playing an abbreviated 24-game schedule in the East Division Hub out of the Brandt Centre in Regina. “First and foremost, I think we’re really lucky,” said Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary. “Looking back, we did it the right way. We came in here setting the restrictions pretty hard and if we didn’t do it this way I can’t see a season happening. So I think it was a privilege to get 24 games in here and I’m thankful for that.”
There is the tiniest of caveats, though - 24 games in 46 days is no cakewalk, especially when locked away from family and friends all that time.
“It feels like it was a full season,” O’Leary admitted. “Certainly the last two weeks have been a grind and it wears on you; it’s a lot of hockey in a short amount of time and not a whole lot else going on inside those four walls. I’m certainly not going to complain one bit about that, it was all part of it, we’ll look back at this as an overall success and I know I had a blast.”
From the very first announcement of the East Division Hub, the message was “player development.” Wins and losses might have been a gauge of success, but seeing improvement was more important. To that end, there were no playoffs, and the Hub will officially close later this week after the final game of the season.
The good thing is that even though they capped the campaign with an 8-13-3-0 record, the aforementioned progression was certainly there for the Warriors, and the team is looking forward to what next season and beyond brings.
“Some of the things are going to develop on their own, our younger guys will take another step and that’ll make us a little more dangerous offensively on a consistent ba
sis,” O’Leary said. “Our team defence and our goaltending is going to be better as well, like the young guys. They’re going to have a chance to develop in the off-season so it’s not a matter of going out to add a bunch of pieces to fill holes. It’s our job to develop and improve within and we’re looking forward to doing that. “They made an impression on us for sure in terms of what’s coming. They got their first year out of their way, so now they should be overflowing with confidence and it’s up to them how far they want to go.”
The one drawback to the tight campaign was the number of injuries. Only four players managed to see action in all 24 games, with two of their top scorers - Eric Alarie (1010-20) and Ryder Korczak (3-13-16) - missing five and seven games apiece with upper body damage. That’s all part of the game in O’Leary’s eyes, though, and something every team had to deal with.
“I think the plan all along was meeting our own standards, that’s why standards beat goals all the time,” he said. “I thought that on a pretty consistent basis our team met the standard that we set in terms of our effort and our compete level. Sure, we would have won more games we had stayed healthy, but if you talk to any team, I’m sure they’d have something to say about the players they lost to injuries as well. There were a lot of things players worked through and injuries were one of them.”
A lot of talk going into the campaign was how the legion of 15-year-olds cracking WHL rosters would perform against their older counterparts. For the Warriors, that included 2020 third-overall Bantam Draft pick Brayden Yager, and to say things are exceptionally bright for the young talent after his seven goals and 18 points in 24 games is a bit of an understatement.
“As crazy as this year has been, it turned out to be a perfect opportunity for him to play 24 games and should go into this off-season feeling comfortable and confident that certainly he can play at a high level in this league and that’s only going to help him as a 16-year-old next year,” O’Leary said. “It was great for me personally to get to know him a bit better, both on the ice and off the ice. I was excited when we drafted him and I’m excited now because I know the character of the kid and what drives him and I’m looking forward to seeing that moving forward here.”
O’Leary also had plenty of praise for the team’s ‘Mr. Warrior’ in overage forward Tate Popple. He, along with Riley Krane and Brad Ginnell, played their final WHL games on Monday night, with Popple having played four seasons -198 games - in a Warriors uniform.
“I thought [the game] (an effort-packed 6-5 OT loss to Saskatoon) was a perfect ending for those guys, I thought we did them right,” O’Leary said. “We talk an awful lot about the 20-year-olds and sending them off the right way and I thought we did that tonight, everyone had a part.
“But losing Tate is a tough one. He’s a guy who made it the hard way and I still remember his first training camp. His grit and determination made himself noticed and he’s been great for us on the ice and off the ice, and at the tough moments he rose to the occasion. He’s a pleasure to be around and I wish him the best moving forward.”