Blades emotional after clearing out lockers for last time

The day after the Saskatoon Blades were eliminated by the Moose Jaw Warriors in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Championship series, emotions were still high among players and staff as they cleared out their locker room and said their final farewells.

“I’m still a little bit in shock,” said defenceman Charlie Wright. “I’m sure at some point it will kick in that next year I don’t get to come back. It hurts. It still sucks.”

“It’s a little tough right now, but I’m proud of our group,” said Brandon Lisowsky.

“It’s an amazing group we have in there. (The Warriors) are a good team. It’s tough to think about right now. They can score at any time. Last night, I think we outworked them and outplayed them. They got a nice bounce, and this is hockey – it happens.”

While players were still emotional, nobody was more emotional on clean-out day than general manager Colin Priestner.

“The run we went on was something you dream of,” said Priestner as he choked up while speaking to the media.

“It just ended in kind of a nightmare. To think about how close we got – I still feel like we have the best team in the country – I feel like we deserved to win last night and feel like we were in a great series with a great team.”

Priestner, for the most part, had no regrets how this season played out, despite coming up short of winning a WHL championship. He did say he wished he could’ve helped bring a title to Saskatoon, saying the city deserves it.

“I just wish I was able to deliver a championship to the people of this city,” he said. “Everybody believed in us, and we did everything we could to bring this team and city a championship. They supported us unbelievably. Sports are just so cruel. It comes down to a skate blade going into your own net in overtime in Game 7 after six overtimes.”

Priestner said he couldn’t be prouder of his team, and feels the success they’ve had over the past several seasons has inspired a new generation of Blades fans.

He said they’ll raise the regular-season championship banner and division banner next year, because the players deserve it and earned it.

“I’m trying to reconcile with myself that this season wasn’t a failure because we didn’t win a championship,” he added. “It’s devastating, but we achieved so much and I think just for the greater good of the sport and this team in the city, I think we took it to places it hasn’t been in 30 or 40 years.”

Because of the age limits in junior hockey, the Blades will lose several key players next year as the older players advance in their hockey careers. Despite that, Priestner said he’s confident the Blades have a lot of good things going for them, pointing to the culture developed by the older players.

“We return, I think, an extremely good defence. I think we have the young superstar goalie of the league (in Evan Gardner),” he explained.

“The future is actually a lot brighter than people think. We have a really good core of prospects. We have the structure and skill of returning players to go on a run again next year. The question is, what we do with our assets?”

Priestner said he will have to explore recouping some draft picks after they gave up a lot acquiring big-name players like Fraser Minten and Alexander Suzdalev.