NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE RINKS

By: Jamie Neugebauer
Voice of the ND Hounds, DUBNetwork Moose Jaw Warriors Beat Writer

1. Krebs to the show!: To those who paid attention to the Regina Hub it should come as no surprise that the Vegas Golden Knights considered Peyton Krebs NHL-ready the second the season finished. Bigger, stronger, and faster than anyone in the Hub, he put up 30 assists and 43 points in 24 games for his Winnipeg ICE without breaking too much of a sweat, and nobody doubted that his work ethic would translate right away. Krebs made his debut Monday, notched his first assist, and did not look out of place in a 6-5 loss to the Minnesota Wild. Is Krebs going to be a Top 6 forward in the NHL? I don’t know, you need some serious flash for that. But I do think he’ll be IN the NHL for a very, very long time.
2. Lots of shots for ’05s: Speaking of youngsters making jumps, Victoria’s Austin Zemlak made his WHL debut this past weekend, and made it 18 of 22 players selected in the 2020 WHL Bantam Draft (those born in 2005) who already have dub games under their belt! Certainly, it’s an ideal, no-risk situation with the pandemic, and the lack of minor hockey leagues to give these kids games, but the list of impactful 15-, 16-year-olds in the league is still so impressive. Connor Bedard of Regina took the world by storm, and I, and many others, have worked hard to shine the light on Moose Jaw’s No. 3 overall pick Brayden Yager, but from Red Deer’s Kalan Lind to Winnipeg’s Zach Benson, to Vancouver’s Mazden Leslie, and way more, there are so, so, so many good 2005’s in the Dub. By comparison, there is still one first-rounder from 2019 who has yet to feature. That being said, the 2004s are incredible too! It’s going to be an absolute blast covering the WHL the next couple of years!
3. Canada rolls on: The Canadian U18s keep on rolling, and even though it’s a tournament this year for 2003 birth years, it’s the 2004-born Shane Wright, and the ’05-born Bedard making the headlines for the dominant Canadian team. I wrote in my column last week that Canada isn’t going to lose a game, and probably won’t even come close to losing a game; so how’s my prediction going so far? They went 4-0 during the prelims, scoring 28 and allowing five, and beat the Czechs 10-3 in the quarters. They have a date with the Swedes in the semis Wednesday afternoon, a team they crumpled 12-1 to start the tournament. Uh so far, so good? If there’s one man to give Canada headaches, it’s the Russian Matvei Michkov, so hopefully, we get that Canada-Russia final to watch Bedard go head to head with the only man who could challenge him for No. 1 in 2023.
4. Bedard punishes the Czechs: Canada has two of the last three No. 1 overall picks in the WHL draft in their Top 6 forwards (Bedard and Edmonton’s Dylan Guenther), the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NHL draft in Shane Wright, and are just loaded everywhere; so that Bedard has been an important piece of the Canadian puzzle instead of THE puzzle like he is in Regina, is no slight. Monday’s slaughter of the Czechs, wherein Bedard scored five of his nine points on the tournament so far, was a masterclass by the kid, starting with a no-look behind the back pass to Wyatt Johnston to open the scoring early on. It’s a relentless team that can hurt you from every line, so keep enjoying the tourney folks! By the way, the U.S.A. is out after losing to Sweden in the quarters.
5. Rysavy thoughts: Moose Jaw Warriors fans (and beat writers like me!) had a close eye on potential Warrior Martin Rysavy, whom MJ took sixth overall in the 2020 CHL Import draft. He finished his tournament for the Czech Republic with two goals in five games, one on a sweet one-timer on a power play, and was solid in his own zone. He’s a big boy at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, and when I spoke to Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary about the 2003-born Rysavy, he said the young Czech takes great pride in being a force and a presence in front of the net. I didn’t see great foot speed, though he does have some touch around the net, and seems a similar mold to Eric Alarie, who led Moose Jaw in goals at the Hub. Rysavy on one line, Alarie on the other, spread the likes of Ryder Korczak, Brayden Yager, and Jagger Firkus around them…the Top 6 at Mosaic Arena is looking tasty next year. 
6. My Hub rankings: Time to evaluate how I did with my Hub ranking predictions! Here is how it went: 

• Brandon 
• Winnipeg 
• Saskatoon 
• PA
• Regina
• Moose Jaw 
• Swift Current 

–      This was my prediction: Not too bad! 

• Saskatoon
• Winnipeg
• Brandon
• PA
• Moose Jaw
• Regina
• Swift Current

7. Maybe the best Hub story?: With all the storylines in the Hub, maybe the best was the emergence of Prince Albert Raiders forward Dallyn Peekeekoot. A 2004-birth year and a 2019 10th rounder, Peekeekoot, who hails from Ahtahkakoop Cree First Nation, was brought in as injuries ravaged the Raiders, and made a huge impression through five games, banging and crashing his way to six points, and energized his community an hour west of Prince Albert. His coach Marc Habscheid raved throughout the Hub about his energy, how good of a teammate he is, and he’s almost certain to be a fan favourite at the Art Hauser Centre next year! Pretty great story.
8. Dally moves on: After several years of trying to make it work, Kaleb Dahlgren officially announced his retirement from hockey in a social media post on Monday. Dahlgren, now 23, is the Humboldt crash survivor who has been the most vocal about his experiences and had been hoping to for York University in USports as he had been studying at the Toronto school since the year after the tragedy. The topic of playing again always brought emotion out in Dally whenever I asked him, and you could see how desperately he wanted to get back out there, but the wisdom of doing so with his concussion issues just did not add up in the end. All the steps he’s already taken are just incredible, and the maturity of this move is just another one. By the way, he earned USports Academic All-Canadian honours in the 2018-19 season, and the York Lions’ Community Leadership Award the next year…I don’t have the words for how impressive of a person he is.
9. A month past the SJ cancellation: It was around this time last month that the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League finally pulled the plug on the 2020-2021 campaign, and to find the right words to make sense of the widely varied struggles and frustrations of the players across the league has been difficult. I have read Dahlgren’s book slowly since it came out, I’ll be honest, mostly because I find it a challenge to read from an emotional standpoint. Yet the words in it hit home again how upsetting the pandemic-ruined campaign is, especially for the 20-year-olds. Kaleb paints a picture in the book of the sacrifice, and sheer effort that these kids have undertaken to get there; so much that it makes all the sense in the world that their identity as hockey players is so real, and so critical to who they are. That the government seemed less helpful and accommodating, that the hockey world up here at large could not find a way for these young men to play, to be who they are for a whole year, is just so crushing again. I mentioned on Rod’s show a couple of weeks ago that it was really a slow bleed for them, and that by the end the final cancellation might have even been a mercy for many, but the frustration about it all only makes sense when one looks at the whole year lost. Yes, the pandemic deserves the most blame, but I am still convinced that like in America, we could have found a way for these hundreds of young men. We all need to let it go and move on, but I have to be honest too, and reading Kaleb’s book brought it all back up again to me. PS You should all read his book. No exceptions.
10. May the Fourth (Bonus): Finally on a brighter note, it’s nice to see Premier Moe’s government put their cojones on the table with a plan to have things relatively back to normal by July (if enough people get vaccinated, I guess?). I’m not exactly sure how far long everything needs to be for the SJHL (or anyone in sports, I guess) to be allowed to go ahead and start planning for the start of training camps, and whatnot, but at least having a road map from the government is nice for a change. I am also an unabashed Star Wars fan, so May the Fourth be with you!

(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)