As fans of the Moose Jaw Warriors can tell you, forward Brayden Yager was something special to watch this past season in the Western Hockey League.
The 16-year-old rookie took what he learned in the East Division hub during the spring of 2021 and hit the ice running right from the drop of the puck, with his hat trick on opening night against Saskatoon announcing his presence to the Mosaic Place faithful.
It just kept going from there, and the WHL noticed.
On Wednesday, Yager was announced as the winner of the James Piggott Memorial Trophy as the Western Hockey League Rookie of the Year, putting a stamp on a dynamic first full campaign for the Saskatoon product.
The news came as a surprise to Yager, who was relaxing at home earlier in the week when a call came in from Warriors general manager Jason Ripplinger.
“Ripper phoned me in the morning and asked if my parents were around so I went and got them and he told us the good news that I was the Rookie of the Year for the WHL,” Yager said of how he found out the news. “I was a little bit in shock, but it settles in after a bit and we were really happy. I’m really pumped and it’s a huge honour.”
Yager led all 16-year-old players with 34 goals and 59 points in 63 games, setting a Warriors franchise record for most goals by a player his age. He never went more than three games without at least a point, with his longest run seeing five goals and eight points on the board from Dec. 11 through Dec. 31. Yager’s highest-scoring game came on Jan. 25 in Edmonton, when he put up two goals and five points in Moose Jaw’s 8-1 win.
Given that it was his first full season in the WHL, things couldn’t have worked out much better.
“It’s obviously a grind, you get after Christmas and you start to feel fatigue and stuff, but coming into the year I didn’t have any numbers in mind and just played my game,” he said. “It was pretty cool to have my first year in Moose Jaw and seeing the fans and all that stuff was awesome, and then to do it with all the guys in that room was pretty special.”
Yager felt the key to it all was sticking to what worked throughout his career, in addition to playing alongside some pretty high-level talent.
“My teammates play a big role in it for sure as well, a guy like Jagger Firkus, I played with him all year and he had himself a pretty special season as well,” he said. “So to play with him was really cool and it helped a lot.”
Yager was up against Swift Current’s Owen Pickering, Kelowna’s Andrew Cristall and Seattle’s Kevin Korchinski for the honour.
“It was more than those three guys, A.C. had an unbelievable year, so did Korch and there are a lot of other 05s who had an unreal season as well,” Yager said. “So it was pretty special to come out on top and get the award.”
Of course, with a league honour of this stature comes additional attention, especially heading into a player’s NHL Draft year. Yager plans to take it all in stride, though, and keep going with what’s worked in the past.
“People say it might be a little added pressure, but I’m not going to think of it as pressure,” he said. “It’s something I’m going to take advantage of, we have a really good team for next year and we’re going to be looking to do something special.
“With the draft I’m not going to try and think about it too much, it’s going to be in the back of my mind but I’m just going to do what I can to play well, play my game and hope it’ll go well.”
An important part of that will be the work Yager plans to put in during the off-season, with a focus on overall growth a major goal.
“I’m going to try and get bigger, stronger and faster, one thing for me is I want to be powerful,” Yager said. “One of the assets of my game is powerful skating and shooting, so I think that’s probably going to be my plan this summer. Work on strength a little bit here, then get into power and agility and hopefully have a shot at representing Canada at the Ivan Hlinka this summer.”
For more on the Warriors and their upcoming campaign, be sure to visit www.mjwarriors.ca.
