WHEAT KINGS CALL UP ANOTHER PROSPECT
Brandon, MB. – The Brandon Wheat Kings have announced that defenceman Kale Clague will join the Western Hockey League club for the balance of the 2014 Playoffs.
The 5’11” 181 lb. 15-year old will arrive in Brandon tonight and is expected to be on the ice for practice on Monday as the Wheat Kings continue preparations for their Eastern Conference Semi-Final series with the Edmonton Oil Kings.
A first round draft choice and sixth overall selection of the Wheat Kings in last spring’s WHL Bantam Draft, Clague enjoyed an outstanding season with the Baker Hughes Bobcats of the Alberta AAA Midget Hockey League this year. Besides leading the Cats to first place in the Dodge Division with a regular season record of 24-9-2 and a berth in the League’s Championship Final, he was instrumental in Team Alberta capturing the gold medal at the Western Canadian Challenge Cup in Calgary last October.
Clague led all defenceman and finished third overall in the AMHL playoff scoring race with two goals and 13 points in twelve games, after finishing second among all blueliners during the regular season with 33 points, including eleven goals in 31 games.
The Lloydminster native, who established a new Alberta AAA Bantam Hockey League scoring record for defenceman in 2012-13, became available to the Wheat Kings this week when the Bobcats lost out to Red Deer in the best of five League Final.
Clague joins center Nolan Patrick on the Wheat Kings active playoff roster. A 15-year old from Winnipeg, Patrick was recalled from the Winnipeg AAA Thrashers earlier this month and had one goal in three regular season starts before playing all four games against Regina in the opening round.
The Wheat Kings and Oil Kings will kick off their best of seven series this week with games one and two Thursday night and Saturday afternoon at Rexall Place in Edmonton. Games three and four will then be played at Brandon’s Westman Communications Group Place on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 8th and 9th.
Look for Clague to put up a point a game in the playoffs and even a multiple point game as well could be in the cards. For McCrimmon to get him and Nolan Patrick in the same draft and then most likely have the number one pick this year…wow.
Wow. Aren't you a Dreamer!? Duh!
Oil kings for the sweep
Bitter pats fan!
No just stating the obvious
This guy might be the best player to come out of last years draft. I seen him play at the start of the season and he was running Brandons PP.
No question that he is the best 15 year old player in Canada last year. Easily could have played WHL regular PP last year, but because the dad his head on straight, they chose not to file exceptional status. Think about Brandon in the next three years. They currently have the best d corps in Canada right now, and it looks to stay amazing. May have to get rid of Pilon and his old man to make room for Clague's brilliance, because it isn't going to be pretty when the 16 year old starts bringing in the points on the… Read more »
Zero shot Brandon beats OilKings in series. Don't think I'm a bitter Pats fan, I called 4 game sweep of Pats b4 last round too.
If Brandon gets (even) a win in the first three games, it will make for a very interesting series. Brandon has one hell of a team and a world class coach.
Brandon is the youngest team in the WHL next to MJ, so they should get beat. It was some kind of impressive that they destroyed Regina the way they did.
Clague is a great player, but there were some other good ones to. I would argue Nolan Patrick is as good. He was soild as a 98 (17) in that series too.
offensively clague is a stud. his skating and puck skills are un-matched. Defensively he is just ok though. He did not develop as much as he needed too this season and will struggle with that. he can almost be a liability at times. His skating does correct for some of that but you'll see.