Rookies helping lead the way for U18 AAA Saskatoon Blazers

A year removed from nearly winning the U18 AAA national championship, the Saskatoon Blazers are hoping an influx of youth can lead them back to the big dance.

READ MORE:

• Blazers aim for national championship after provincial, regional titles
• Blazers advance to second round of AAA playoffs
• Macklin’s Cole Reschny rocking rookie season with Victoria Royals

This year, there are 12 rookies on the team, all of whom are aged between 15 and 16.

Two of those players picking up for the production from those who left are 15-year-olds Dayne Beuker and Caine Wilke.

Beuker is from Humboldt and is on pace to finish with one of the best rookie seasons in the last decade for the Blazers.

This season, he has accumulated 34 goals and a league-leading 71 points in just 39 games with five regular-season games remaining. He could tie or pass former Blazers forward Cole Reschny, who had 84 points in 48 games last year with the club. Reschny is now a member of the WHL’s Victoria Royals.

For Beuker, it’s his first season playing AAA hockey after ripping up AA with the Humboldt Broncos last year, when he scored 103 points in just 33 games.

He credits the talent on the Blazers for the reason why he’s been able to make the transition to AAA look so seamless.

“With a good team, I had a good start to the year. I’ve really adjusted well to the league and pace and (had) really good coaching to help me develop,” Beuker said.

In order to play for the Blazers, Beuker had to move away from Humboldt and move in with a billet family, which he says has been great to him. He was a first-round pick (14th overall) of the Lethbridge Hurricanes in last spring’s WHL draft.

Playing at the U18 AAA level might be new for Beuker, but it’s nothing new for his family.

His father Dean played in the same league for the AAA Saskatoon Contacts in 1997-98, when he recorded 82 points in 43 games and was second in league scoring. Only former NHLer Jarret Stoll had more points than Dean that season with 89 points in 44 games.

Dean also played four seasons in the WHL with the Portland Winterhawks in the late 1990s.

Beuker mentioned beating his dad’s point total is something that’s in the back of his mind.

“We have a pretty competitive family, so I really want to beat him and that’s kind of the goal for the last half of the season. I don’t want him to have any bragging rights,” he laughed.

Because his mom is an American, Beuker is a dual citizen and has multiple options ahead of him when it comes to which route he can take next. For now, he says he’s focusing on his current season with the Blazers.

Part of Beuker’s success this season has been thanks to Wilke being his linemate; Wilke also has had a successful season, with 52 points in 36 games.

Wilke is from Saskatoon and was drafted 20th overall by the Everett Silvertips in the WHL draft last spring.

His success in AAA this year has already caught the attention of the Silvertips – so much so that they called him up for a game this past December – which is rare for someone this young so early in the season.

“It was a great experience. The assistant GM gave me a call late at night and then early morning I was gone. It was out of the blue,” Wilke explained. “They were missing a couple players from injuries, so they decided to pull me up for a couple of games.”

Wilke’s brother Trae plays in the WHL for the Hurricanes. Caine suggested the jump up to the WHL was an eye-opener for him.

“It’s like (playing) against men. It’s crazy. I think I played 15 minutes and I thought I was pretty good and consistent and played pretty gritty. It was pretty good,” Wilke added.

Blazers coach Troy Walkington has been impressed with what the duo has been able to do this year.

“This is an older league. There are a lot of 16s and 17s in this league and to play in this league at 15 I think you have to be elite,” Walkington said.

“They’re both real offensive, both dynamic and both play at a high pace and they both can score. It’s so hard in today’s game to be able to find players who can create offence and both players can create offence,” he added.

Walkington is hopeful the Blazers will be able to get back to competing for another national championship in the spring.

But he thinks if they can get back there, it will be because of his veteran players who went on a similar journey last year.

“It’s really going to be up to those seven guys that carried over from last year,” he said. “I told them before that they know the road and we know that the playoffs are a total different game and our No. 1 priority is to be the No. 1 seed. It’s up to those seven returning players to understand and prepare our team for the next round and the playoffs.

“They knew how hard it was for us to achieve what we achieved last year and to be able to draw on those experiences I think is a priority. So far this year, they’ve done an outstanding job keeping our team’s eye on what needs to be done.”

The Blazers are to face the Notre Dame Hounds on Sunday. The Blazers are to play host to the Swift Current Legionnaires on Wednesday and Thursday before concluding their regular season with games Feb. 24 and 25 against the Battlefords Stars.