Brayden Yager of Moose Jaw in the Western Hockey League will file a monthly draft diary for NHL.com this season leading up to the 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on June 28-29. The 17-year-old right-shot center (5-foot-11, 166 pounds), who received an A rating on NHL Central Scouting’s preliminary players to watch list presented by BioSteel, has 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in 13 games this season. Yager was named Canadian Hockey League Rookie of the Year after he had 59 points (34 goals, 25 assists) in 63 games in 2021-22.
Hi hockey fans.
To start the diary this month, I thought I’d talk about our team. This past week and a half was a step in the right direction. We went on a four-game winning streak but it came to an end Oct. 29 when we lost 6-2 to Tri-City. There’s been a lot of high expectations for us this year, so I think we’re heading in the right direction.
I feel we’re starting to get out of our zone cleaner, and then getting into the offensive zone we’re starting to make plays and becoming better at managing the puck. There are always times when you need to dump the puck in and there’s times we need to make plays too, so I think we’re kind of starting to figure it out as a group. I think we’re shooting pucks, getting to the net and getting inside and that’s what our coaches want us to do, get inside. That’s where the scoring chances are made.
Personally, I think I’ve been playing responsibly. I take pride in my 200-foot game and I’ve been doing a pretty good job of that. I’m getting lots of chances and maybe I would like to put some more in the net, but as long as the chances are coming, I know I’m doing something right. I think the goals will come. I feel I’ve been responsible, not cheating for offense. The chances are coming, and the goals will start to go in as well.
Each time we celebrate a win, we name a Warrior Player of the Game. I earned my first player of the game for the season after scoring the decisive goal in a 2-1 win against Regina on Oct. 26. It’s a team effort, and I think our goalies have been getting player of the game quite often when we win because they’ve been lights-out. But it was really nice to be recognized.
The player of the game is given a helmet and jacket from the Canadian Snowbirds, a Canadian air force aerobatics team that’s based near Moose Jaw. It kind of just goes along with our culture, and with the Snowbirds and Moose Jaw Warriors being tight organizations.
My shot is something I started working on in my driveway back home a while ago. I was pretty fortunate that my dad and my mom got me shooting tiles and a net, the whole setup. The driveway is where I spent a lot of time as a kid, just shooting hundreds of pucks a day and then going on the ice and working on shooting in stride. One of the things my parents told me when I was younger was, “Don’t just shoot 300 pucks. Shoot one puck at a time and shoot with a purpose.”
That was one thing they always told me growing up and I learned a lot from that so I think that’s something I still do today, making sure every rep is a good one.
We didn’t do anything crazy as a team for Halloween this year. Last year we had a little team party and everyone dressed up, but after a busy weekend everyone was pretty gassed.
When I was younger I would always be some sort of skeleton for Halloween. There are actually some funny pictures my parents have that I’ve seen. For my first Halloween I think I was Simba from “The Lion King.” I was a pretty chubby kid when I was little, so there’s another picture where I dressed as Winnie the Pooh. My face fit perfectly for that because it was so chubby. It was hilarious.
Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks for reading and I’ll return in December.
Photo: Marc Smith, Moose Jaw (WHL)
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