The 2024-25 Western Hockey League (WHL) season is right around the corner and all eyes will be on the Saskatoon Blades. Last season, they finished first with 50 wins and 105 points thanks to the strength of their veteran core. Unfortunately, many of those veterans are gone, having either aged out or gone to play professionally, leaving massive gap at the top of the roster that will not be easy to fill.

However, the Blades’ remaining veterans aren’t too worried about the pressures of the upcoming season. “I don’t think our mindset changes going into this year,” said 20-year-old defenceman Ben Saunderson. “It’s not a re-set, laid-back year for us. We’re still looking to come out on top every night…It’s going to be a different way of winning. We had a lot of skilled older guys last year and sometimes we would get wins not playing our best hockey, and it’s going to need our full effort every night.”

“It’s going to be a different way of winning”

📽️ Defenceman Ben Saunderson ahead of Saturday’s @merlinyxe Home Opener pic.twitter.com/6qrx3sZJ08

— Saskatoon Blades (@BladesHockey) September 19, 2024

Saunderson’s high level of confidence in his team isn’t undeserved. This team knows how to win and has done so fairly consistently over the past four seasons. But, without Fraser Minten, Trevor Wong, Alexander Suzdalev, Yegor Sidorov, Easton Armstrong, and Charlie Wright, the Blades aren’t going to have the strongest offence like they did last season. Instead, Saskatoon will rely on their solid defence and stellar goaltending to grind out wins. They won’t be as pretty, but this team remains just as competitive as it did before.

Moose Jaw Series Left a Chip on Their Shoulder

Heading into the 2023-24 playoffs, Saskatoon was a favourite to take home the Ed Chynoweth Cup for the first time in franchise history. Unfortunately, they ran into the Moose Jaw Warriors in the Conference Final, losing to them in seven games. Those memories will be tough to forget for the returning veterans.

Although the game-seven overtime loss was a tough pill to swallow, Rowan Calvert may have one of the most painful experiences of the Blades’ final game. A Moose Jaw native, his older brother, Atley Calvert, played for the Warriors and helped them sweep past the Prince George Cougars, and Rowan was in the stands, supporting his family. But it was tough not to think about being on the ice instead.

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“To be honest, I didn’t want to go to the game,” he said ahead of the Blades’ season opener against the Swift Current Broncos. “That was what really stung. He brought the Cup to the house and I told him, ‘Don’t bring it to the house.’ I wasn’t too happy about that honestly and that’s more of what I’ve thought about being so much closer to it…it’s definitely fuelled me and it’s something that I’ll think about for a long, long time.”

But the Blades aren’t bitter over the loss. “We weren’t mad with our efforts,” added Saunderson. “The focus is, that’s hockey and sometimes bounces don’t go your way…I don’t think anyone’s hanging their head.” Nor should they; six of the seven games in the series went into overtime, and although many left heartbroken after the 3-2 loss, none were ashamed of what they had accomplished, and now they can take that motivation to the rest of the team.

Blades Proud of Their Ability to Defend

However, no matter how motivated the players are, they will have a tougher time putting the puck in the net. Of the 10 highest scoring Blades in the playoffs last season, only Brandon Lisowsky, Tanner Molendyk, Saunderson, and Grayden Siepmann remain, and the four combined for 13 goals. Sidorov alone scored 15, while Minten and Armstrong combined for 14. That will leave Calvert, Misha Volotovskii, Tyler Parr, and Lukas Hansen to pick up a lot of the slack. Calvert believes that they’re ready for it, though. “They’re taking steps into becoming more of the top guys after we were depth guys and played a different role for the team’s success,” he said. “Everyone’s got a little bit more jump and everyone’s a little bit more excited.”

Still, that’s a lot of responsibility to place on a group who hasn’t seen someone record more than 31 points in a single season. Ben Riche was added to help in that area, and although he led the WHL in pre-season scoring with nine points in four games, he too hasn’t posted more than 35 points in a season. It will certainly help to have Evan Gardner back in net and will look to build on his impressive rookie numbers, but one player won’t be able to turn the tides.

That’s where the Blades’ secret weapon comes in – defence. “It’s something that we really take pride is defending here,” said Saunderson, “and even if you have all the skill in the world you still have to defend. It’s super important to us and something we look to do every single night.” New head coach Dan DaSilva also emphasized the importance of playing a tight defensive game, saying, “First and foremost, we have to be really structurally and sound defensively. It’s not going to be easy to score against us. We’re going to be very, very tight defensively. We take a lot of pride in that.”

On top of Saunderson and Molendyk, who recently returned from the Nashville Predators training camp, the Blades will also have Siepmann, who made significant strides last season after coming over from the Calgary Hitmen and was invited to the Washington Capitals’ rookie camp. At 6-foot-4, Morgan Tastad will add some much-needed physicality and size on the back end as will the 6-foot-2 17-year-old Isaac Poll, while 16-year-old Brayden Klimpke has stood out early thanks to his speed and intelligence, drawing praise from both Saunderson and DaSilva.

Saskatoon’s Young Guys Will Learn from the Best

No one is kidding themselves that this team will replicate last season’s success. However, no one is taking this as a rebuilding season despite so many 16 and 17-year-olds on the roster. Instead, the focus has been on leadership and helping the young guys succeed while playing tough, competitive hockey. Saunderson reflected on last season’s loss as a motivator for this season, saying, “Falling short last year brings motivation to the older guys and just trying to get that in through the young guys, we’re here to win games…I’ve been here for five years now, I know what the day-to-day is like and what it takes to be successful in this league and just kind of show the young guys where to go from there.”

Players like Klimpke, Zach Olsen, Vlastimil Blazek, Willy James, Cooper Williams, and Colten Worthington couldn’t ask for a better place to be. Each one looks primed for a very successful junior career and have all shown flashes of brilliance during training camp and pre-season games, but now it’s time to figure out how to succeed throughout a WHL season. According to DaSilva, it all comes down to one thing – getting better every day.

There’s still plenty to do before the Blades’ season opener on Friday, Sept. 20 and their home opener on Saturday, Sept. 21 both against the Broncos. Winning those games will take a lot of gritty hockey. But Saskatoon knows what they’re getting into, and they’re ready to try some new things in order to remain one of the best in the league.