2015-16 - a special year for the Wheat City
The 2015-16 Brandon Wheat Kings are considered by most as one of the very best teams in franchise history. With this year's “Wheaties” putting in a bid for the 2026 Memorial Cup, it is a perfect time to look back at some of the most dominant teams in the Wheat Kings archives.
The 2015-16 Wheat Kings were loaded with talent from top to bottom including big name prospects such as Nolan Patrick, Ivan Provorov, Jayce Hawryluk and John Quenneville, with other players breaking expectations such as Tim MaGauly, captain Macoy Erkamps, Tyler Coulter, and Reid Duke. Behind the top guys were a pair of young players breaking into the league in Kale Clague, Stelio Mattheos. That said, we most certainly cannot forget about the homegrown talent with four players from Brandon: Tanner Kaspick, Ty Lewis, Duncan Campbell and Connor Gutenberg.
Oh yeah, the team also included one of - if not - the best goaltending tandems in franchise history with Jordan Papirny and Logan Thompson between the pipes. As usual, they were led by Vegas Golden Knights GM and Wheat Kings Icon Kelly Mccrimmon behind the bench and in the front office.
To sum it all up, this team was loaded and one of the best since hosting the 2010 Memorial Cup.
The Season Before: The 2014-15 Brandon Wheat Kings
Before heading to Red Deer in 2015-16, the “Wheaties” found themselves with a chance to book a ticket to the 2014-15 Memorial Cup in Quebec. The team - led by 105 point and Eastern Conference player of the year Tim MaGauly, Peter Quenneville, Ivan Provorov, Morgan Klimchuk, Rihards Bukarts and other members of the 2015-16 squad - made their way to the WHL final where they played the Kelowna Rockets.
Brandon breezed through the regular season, finishing with 114 points to top the league. Then they did it again in the playoffs; cruising through Edmonton, Regina, and Calgary all in five games to reach the WHL Championship. Brandon and Kelowna were evenly matched teams both with fire power up front and tremendous depth. However, the “Wheaties” did go into the finals as slight favorites over a Kelowna team that finished just two points behind them for the regular season title.
Kelowna went into Brandon and played two very physical and tight games. The Rockets ended up winning both, heading back to BC with a 2-0 series lead.
Kelowna, led by future NHL talent Nick Merkley, Madison Bowey and Leon Draisitl, wasted no time and finished the Wheat Kings in four, crushing all of Manitoba’s dreams and sending the Wheat Kings back home to Brandon.
A Big Hole to Fill
Before training camp began, the Wheat Kings were hit with a bombshell. Ryan Pilon, one of the team's best defenseman and New York Islanders draft pick, would not be returning to Brandon. Pilon told McCrimmon his heart was no longer in the game.
Although Pilon’s presence would be missed at parts of the season, the Wheat Kings made it work with Clague. The youngster took a gigantic step in 2015-16 and filled in perfectly with his offensive style game on an already very good Brandon D-corps.
Tough Decisions
After a crushing end to the season, McCrimmon had some decisions to make about his roster. The Wheat Kings had already lost key parts of their team going into 2015 including their captain Peter Quenneville, five-year defenceman Eric Roy and Calgary Flames' 2013 first rounder Morgan Klimchuk, but there was one more decision on McCrimmon’s hands.
Brandon had four 20-year-old players rostered heading into the season (one over the limit), Rihards Bukarts, Colton Waltz, Macoy Erkamps and Washington Capitals' pick Tim MaGauly. With MaGauly starting the season on Injured reserve it gave the Wheat Kings a little extra time to make their decision and it really was a tough one. It seemed to be between Bukarts and Waltz, but ultimately the Wheat Kings shipped off Bukarts to the Portland Winterhawks for two third round picks.
Bukarts who played two full seasons with the Wheat Kings put up exactly one point per game in that time with 137 in 137 games. The Latvian forward finished off his WHL career with 53 points in 55 games for Portland.
The decision to keep Waltz was most likely because of Pilon’s earlier departure. Waltz would later be packaged with forward Braylon Shmyr and sent to Saskatoon.
2015-16 Regular Season
With all the departures and some crazy twists before the season, Brandon still emerged as heavy favorites coming out of the Eastern Conference.
With five NHL prospects and others waiting to be drafted, the Wheat Kings brought out a solid lineup of returnees from the 2014-15 finals team. Jayce Hawryluk, John Quenneville, Nolan Patrick, Ivan Provorov, Macoy Erkamps and Reid Duke were all expected to take even bigger steps than the year before.
And for the most part, they did.
Another Trade
On January 4, McCrimmon pulled off a huge deal, sending forward Braylon Shmyr and overage defenceman Colton Waltz (who earlier demanded a trade) to the Saskatoon Blades for overage defenceman Mitchell Wheaton, 17-year-old Schael Higson and a second-round pick.
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Game On's Jackson Bachewich has produced this five-part series set for release in advance of puck drop on the 2024-25 WHL season. The remaining pieces will be revealed in the coming weeks.
Stay tuned for the next four stories released in Game On's Memorial Cup Throwback Series.
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