Ice reaping benefits of total rebuild during WHL playoff run

Matthew Savoie was sitting in his high school English class on the morning of May 2, 2019, when his phone blew up.

The 15-year-old centre from St. Albert, Alta., had been chosen first overall by the Winnipeg Ice in the Western Hockey League bantam draft. Naturally, his teacher allowed him to step outside and respond to the many congratulatory calls and texts.

“I wasn’t really even watching the draft, to be honest,” Savoie said. “I just felt my phone start exploding and checked it out…a lot of the guys from the Ice were texting me. It was really exciting.

“For me, it was excitement to welcoming a new challenge and going out of my comfort zone and moving away from home… I just tried to embrace the whole experience of junior hockey.”

That memorable moment for Savoie also proved to be pivotal for the Ice. Four years later, Savoie is a 95-point scorer for a dominant Winnipeg team that had a Canadian Hockey League-best 57 wins during the regular season and is about to begin the WHL finals versus the Seattle Thunderbirds on Friday.

But the route to assembling a team stacked with NHL prospects (Savoie, who was selected ninth overall by the Buffalo Sabres at the 2022 NHL Draft, is joined on the roster by Ottawa Senators prospects Zack Ostapchuk and Carson Latimer, Arizona Coyotes first-round pick Conor Geekie, Philadelphia Flyers draft pick Connor McClennon, Minnesota Wild pick Carson Lambos, Nashville fifth rounder Graham Sward, and San Jose Sharks prospect Mason Beaupit), was anything but easy. 

In the 2018-19 season leading up to Savoie’s selection, the Ice (then playing in Kootenay, B.C.) decided a complete rebuild was the only way forward.

The team had gotten off to a slow start and a couple of veteran players asked to be traded, which led to more veteran players doing the same. The team had to call up players from Jr. A and AAA hockey teams at different points during the year because it didn’t have a full roster. That season, the Ice were the WHL’s youngest team. 

“This was a month into the season,” head coach and former NHL defenceman James Patrick said. “It was a very, very painful two months. We had players quitting. I still remember meeting with Matt [Cockell, the Ice general manager] and Jake [Heisinger, the assistant general manager] and Matt deciding that ‘This is the case. We’ll go all-in on a rebuild.’”

With the new direction, Patrick had to change his coaching style.

“Our philosophy on the ice was total development,” he said. “We totally forgot about systems and every practice was skills practice – working on development and how we could get faster and stronger and improve our skills.”

After ending the season with 13 wins in 68 games, the Ice were armed with the No. 1 selection in the bantam draft and a pile of picks acquired from dealing veterans. They were able to wheel and deal for the second overall pick, choosing Geekie. 

“We felt like we started to develop a culture,” Patrick said. “It took three years, from when you draft players and get to work with them right from the time they are 15 years old, to have an impact on how you want them to work.”

Patrick, Savoie, and leading scorer Zach Benson all pointed to Buffalo Sabres sophomore centre Peyton Krebs as a huge driver of that culture.

Krebs, the No. 1 pick in the WHL bantam draft in 2016, played parts of five seasons for the Ice and served as their captain as a 17-year-old.

“The footprint he had on the organization in terms of culture as far as work ethic, coming to the rink everyday trying to get better, not blaming others or ice time, not making excuses, just accepting adversity and fighting through it, it set the tone for every young guy,” Patrick said. “He really set the tone for the future.”

Krebs also taught his teammates valuable lessons off the ice.

“He’d already gotten a couple of touches in the NHL, so he knew what it took to play at that level,” said Benson, a Chilliwack, B.C., native who was teammates with Krebs during the 2020-21 season. 

“He brought his habits back to the WHL. I picked up a lot of what he did. When you’re younger, you don’t really think about taking care of your body and what you have to put in your body to perform at your highest capabilities. That’s just stuff Peyton did, and you could really see that it translated onto the ice. He hasn’t really been injured and keeps his body in tip-top shape.”

The culture change quickly paid dividends. Following that 13-win campaign, the Ice won 38 times in 2019-20 and made the WHL playoffs. The Ice then finished third in the 12-team Eastern Conference with 18 wins in 24 games in the WHL COVID-19 bubble for the 2020-21 season. 

Benson, the 14th pick in the 2020 WHL bantam draft, has become a major contributor for the Ice, tallying 36 goals and 98 points in 60 games during the regular season and adding 12 more points in 10 playoff games.

TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button and Bob McKenzie both have the Winnipeg forward high in their draft rankings, and he could be the second WHL player selected after Connor Bedard.

“I came into the season with an open mindset,” Benson said. “I didn’t put too much pressure on myself. I just wanted to come in and have a fun year.”

The Ice have dealt several future bantam draft selections to go all-in on a Memorial Cup appearance in 2023. There’s also the reality that several of the NHL prospects on the roster will be moving on after the season, so this spring represents the group’s best shot to achieve something special.

“We’re a team that, on any given night, a different guy can be the best player,” Patrick said. “There’s friendly, quiet competition amongst teammates and they do push each other.”

Savoie agreed.

“This group, it’s just such a brotherhood,” he said. “At the rink, everyone’s pushing each other every day. There’s a lot of camaraderie in the room. We like spending time with each other…I couldn’t have asked for a better group in Winnipeg.”