Yager welcomes change after trades to Jets and Lethbridge

Brayden Yager had an eventful start to his 2024-25 campaign.

The 6-foot centre had just completed the best season of his hockey career, helping the Moose Jaw Warriors become Western Hockey League champions and represented the league at last year’s Memorial Cup.

He was in the middle of his off-season and preparing to attend his second NHL training camp when he found out that he was traded from the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Winnipeg Jets on Aug. 22 in exchange for forward Rutger McGroarty.

“It was a little bit of a surprise. You don’t expect to get traded at such a young age,” said Yager.  “Obviously, I enjoyed my time in Pittsburgh where I met some pretty good players and learned a lot from.

“[But] my first camp in Winnipeg was unreal and there are obviously lots of great players there too. It was great that those guys were really good to me and the staff were unbelievable to just make me feel welcome and that I belonged.”

With the trade to Winnipeg, the Saskatoon, Sask., native was given the opportunity to remain in Western Canada where he has played his entire minor-league career up to this point.

The opportunity allows him to play in a market that he’s familiar with and stick close to home, which wasn’t lost on Yager’s family.

“Mom and Dad were pretty pumped because I’m a lot closer to home [than in Pittsburgh],” said Yager. “I’ve been to Winnipeg a lot when I was growing up and it’s a great city and obviously a great hockey town.

“Being in Canada makes it more special and I’ll hopefully get a chance to play in the NHL there.”

Yager was drafted 14th overall by the Penguins in 2023 and had his first taste of NHL action in Pittsburgh by appearing in two preseason games with the club.

One of the huge advantages of being drafted by the Penguins was that Yager had a chance to get an up close and personal look at future Hall of Fame centre Sidney Crosby, who also went out of his way to welcome Yager to the pros.

“Sid was unbelievable with me,” said Yager. “From the moment I got drafted, he gave me a call to welcome me to the organization. When I went to that first camp, I was trying to be a sponge to learn as much as I could from a guy like him.”

Yager prides himself of being a 200-foot player who is focused on taking care of the defensive side of the ice before worrying about offence.

The Jets have asked him to focus more on improving his game when he doesn’t have the puck, and while Yager believes he has made significant strides in that area, it remains a work in progress, which is not uncommon for offensively gifted young players.

“As a young player, if you want to play in the NHL you have to play on both ends of the ice and you got to play not just with the puck, but be just as good without it,” said Yager. “That’s what they’re really harping on me in order to transfer to the next level and that’s been a common theme from both my experiences with the Penguins and Jets.”

Yager recorded a goal and two points in two preseason games with the Jets before he was returned back to the WHL.

He went back to a Moose Jaw team that looked very different than the one that won a championship the year prior. Big names like Denton Mateychuk, Matthew Savoie, and Jagger Firkus all moved onto their NHL organizations and the Warriors looked to be in a rebuilding state.

After going 6-15-4 to begin the season, the Warriors pulled the trigger to send Yager and starting netminder Jackson Unger to the Lethbridge Hurricanes for goalie Brady Smith, forward Landen Ward, defenceman Colt Carter, and six draft picks at the beginning of December.

Yager and Unger joined a competitive Hurricanes team that was in a tight race at the top of the Eastern Conference standings and gave both players new life on the season.

“It was unbelievable for [Warriors general manager Jason Ripplinger] to put me in a good spot here in Lethbridge,” said Yager. “There’s such a great staff here, great players, and a team that has a chance to do something special.”

Yager recorded 25 goals and 82 points in 54 games split between Moose Jaw and Lethbridge and helped the Hurricanes to finish fourth in the conference with a 42-21-5 record.

Lethbridge is currently taking on the Brandon Wheat Kings in the first round and have a 3-1 series advantage. Yager has three goals and five points in the series and is looking to move onto the second round with a win on Friday.

Should Lethbridge finish the job against Brandon, they could have a tough task ahead of them with the prospect of taking on phenom Gavin McKenna and the Medicine Hat Tigers in the second round.  Medicine Hat finished at the top of the conference with a 47-17-3 record and McKenna has been unstoppable lately, registering points in each of his last 44 games.

The Tigers are taking on the Swift Current Broncos in the first round and also have a 3-1 series advantage entering Friday night.

“Our division and conference is really strong this year,” said Yager. “A lot of the teams were loading up and it’s going to be a battle but that’s just the way the playoffs are, it’s hard.

“We have the group that we have, I think we have a lot of players that can be really good in the playoffs. It’s just going to be a matter of being consistent and not getting too high or too low. It’s a seven-game series and those are long series.”

Yager believes that the main things that both he and Unger can bring to the Hurricanes is their experience from last year and their leadership.

Moose Jaw went through a gruelling seven-game series against the Saskatoon Blades in the Eastern Conference Final last season with six of the seven games being decided by overtime. That experience of having gone through tough battles in the past will be a valuable asset as the team moves forward.

Yager, who was captain of the Warriors before the trade, was also a member of Team Canada at the World Juniors in 2024 and 2025 and captained the team in Ottawa this year.

Though the overall team results didn’t end the way he would like, there were lessons that he took despite back-to-back fifth-place finishes.

“Any time you get to represent your country it’s a special feeling. You want to wear it with pride, represent your country well and to be a part of the leadership group was very special to me,” said Yager.

“The biggest thing that we learned as a group and individuals was how important it is to play a full 60 minutes. You have one game to win it, not a series. You don’t have any time to waste and just be ready from puck drop to the last final seconds.

“Obviously, it’s best on best and those tournaments are tough. Everybody is so good; it doesn’t matter what country it is.”