Brayden Yager will be making his Winnipeg Jets debut soon at the 2024 Young Stars Classic tournament in Penticton.
Mark O’Leary knows a lot about Yager’s abilities as he has coached the 19-year-old forward since the Saskatoon native began his major junior career in Moose Jaw. O’Leary and the Warriors will begin defence of their 2024 WHL title when camp opens on Wednesday.
“To have the summer to kinda look back on it. It was the perfect year. It was hard, it was ups and downs,” said O’Leary.
“But I just think that for a guy like Brayden that we basically built our team around, when he first came in as a 15-year-old and for it to all come together last year, it was pretty special.”
After being selected 14th overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins at the 2023 NHL Draft in Nashville, Yager took a big step on the ice with the Warriors last season. In 2023-24, he recorded 17 more points than he did the previous campaign in 10 fewer games. On top of that, Yager had 27 points (11G, 16A) in 20 WHL playoff games and six more points (3G, 3A) in four games at the Memorial Cup. O’Leary saw growth in Yager both on and off the ice.
"Yeah, you can talk about his on-ice game and how much it's matured in terms of playing at both ends of the rink and he's always cared about both ends, but I just think that through the true compete that you see in the one-on-one puck battles, it's come a long way at both ends,” said O’Leary.
“So, I think that's the biggest thing on the ice and then just off the ice, just the maturity of being able to handle the ups and downs and the emotional roller coaster that is a full season.”
Before last season began, the Warriors coach said they expected Yager to put up a lot of points. But Yager also worked on his play making abilities, helping his teammates look good in the process and he also added penalty killing to his skill set. The Warriors penalty kill was ranked 10th in the league during the regular season and that improved to 82.9% in the postseason.
“We had a really good power play (1st in the WHL, 32.4%). (Associate coach) Scott King had a real good time working with that group for years now and the power play was excellent. But for our penalty kill to start off as bad as it did last year. And then really come alive there in the playoffs. A big part of that is Brayden and I know he wants to be a part of that side of the game and that's impressive,” said O’Leary.
“And that's why I think with Brayden, he is a true pro. It's one thing for coaches to have ideas and an organization to have a vision of what it looks like and how your team's gonna play. But it's another thing to have the buy in from the players and we had a lot of that with our leadership group and Brayden was a big part of that.”
That should be music to the Jets and their fans that Yager wants to get better. It should also be music to their ears that he is excited to be a member of the organization.
“He was pumped. I didn't know what his first reaction would be but excitement about being in a Canadian market, and I know his family is excited. It's probably about a nine hour drive down that way,” said O’Leary.
“So, he's a hockey player and he's played in Winnipeg before (against the Ice) and I just think he's excited about this challenge.”
Yager will be in the Manitoba capital in early September with his fellow Jets rookies before the group takes off for Penticton. After taking part of the Young Stars tournament, he will take part of main camp where O’Leary is excited about Yager learning some good habits from one of the Jets veteran players.
“I'd expect a guy like Adam Lowry, who I have a lot of respect for in terms of watching him grow up in Swift Current (with the Broncos) and the way he plays and everything,” said O’Leary.
“Brayden will be able to watch him and those other guys, how they are day-to-day and that's only gonna help our organization if he comes back.”
