Brook proud of team's effort through season

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say fans taking in a high school basketball game at Vanier Collegiate a few years ago had little idea the skinny kid taking their admission would become one of the best defencemen in the Western Hockey League.

No, Josh Brook might have been a few years removed from the rugged rearguard and Warriors captain he would become, but how things changed in the ensuing years.

So while it was an emotional Brook who stepped before the cameras after the Tribe’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Saskatoon Blades on Wednesday night – which gave Saskatoon a 4-0 sweep in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarter-final – he was also a player who had plenty to be proud of through his time with the Warriors.

“We played great, it’s tough ending the season, it’s emotional but everyone battled hard and I can’t say enough about this team,” said Brook. “They persevered and everyone improved so much, it was great.

“We had a great group of guys, no one thought we could do what we did this year, but we believed and it’s emotional to have it come to an end… I can’t say enough about the guys in that room.”

Brook, who was selected fourth overall by Moose Jaw in the 2014 Bantam Draft, has almost certainly played his last game in a Warriors uniform. In fact, it’s likely the 19-year-old Roblin, Man. product will be playing professional hockey in the very near future – the Montreal Canadiens, who chose Brook in the second round, 56^th overall two summers ago, are all but certain to assign him to a farm team in the coming days.

Wherever he ends up, that team will be getting a player coming off a career year. Brook led all defencemen in scoring with 16 goals and 75 points while going plus-24 in the process. That capped an impressive career that saw him rack up 31 goals, 126 assists and 157 points in 204 games.

For all his on-ice success, though, it’s the people that Brook will remember most from his time in Moose Jaw.

“It meant everything,” he said when asked about his memories of his four years with Moose Jaw. “The city took me in when I was 16 and I can’t say enough about the fans here, the people, the organization, the coaching staff, everyone I met in my time in Moose Jaw. They’ve all been awesome.”

Brook will still have some Western Hockey League business to attend to in the near future, as he’s in line for some league hardware as the Eastern Conference nominee for the Bill Hunter Memorial Trophy as the WHL’s top defenceman.