Moose Jaw, Sask. – The Moose Jaw Warriors received a big boost over the weekend when it was announced that star forward Brayden Yager had been reassigned by the Winnipeg Jets.
Yager arrived back in the Friendly City to start the week and hit the ice for the first time with his teammates on Tuesday.
Now that he’s back with the Warriors, Yager is looking to build off the habits he developed over the past month at the NHL level with the Winnipeg Jets.
“You see a lot of players come back to junior and some of their habits go out the window and they’re cheating for points, but if you want to translate to the NHL, you need to stick to your 200-foot game,” Yager said.
“The biggest thing talking to the NHL coaches about how to make the jump, it’s all about what you do without the puck and that’s the one thing I really learnt [in Winnipeg] is trying to do as much as I can to be in the right spots to get the puck back.”
Being back in Moose Jaw will be the first time for Yager to settle back into a familiar surrounding since last season.
As wild as the run to the WHL Championship was, Yager’s offseason might have topped it.
In between NHL Development Camps and Hockey Canada’s World Junior Summer Showcase, Yager was also traded from the Pittsburgh Penguins to Jets, which was a new experience in his hockey career.
“You just kind of freeze, you’re shocked and once it kind of settles in and you figure out where you’re going and obviously going to a Canadian market in Winnipeg, it’s super exciting,” Yager said.
“Being a prairie boy and getting to play in a prairie area again, it’s going to be pretty special.”
Yager already had an NHL training camp under his belt last season with the Penguins, but he said there was nerves heading to camp with a new organization this time around.
“Credit to all the older guys and all the staff there, they really made me feel welcome and brought me in,” he said.
One veteran on the Jets helped Yager out specifically as he said Mark Scheifele stuck around after practice to give him some pointers.
“It was maybe my third practice there, I asked him a couple of questions and he kind of jumped all over it and we ended up staying on the ice for 30-40 minutes after just talking,” Yager said.
“He was in the same situation, getting sent back at 19 and things to focus on, how to make the jump to the NHL and it was pretty cool of him to take time out of his day to work with me.”
Yager had the opportunity to play in two preseason games against the Minnesota Wild, finishing with a goal and two points.
During those two games he also had the chance to square off with some familiar faces, going head-to-head with forward Warriors captain Daemon Hunt, teammate Kalem Parker and childhood friend Riley Heidt.
“Huntsy was pretty cool, I haven’t seen him in a couple of years and he looked really good out there, he scored in the first game we played against them and with Parksy, there was a couple chirps here and there, having fun and he looked really good,” he said.
Now Yager turns his attention to helping the Warriors. He will be back in the lineup with the team coming up this weekend when Moose Jaw takes on Lethbridge and Medicine Hat during a two-game Alberta road trip.