Brayden Yager spent the majority of his major junior career with one team, the Moose Jaw Warriors. Yager guided the Warriors to their first ever WHL title and an appearance in the Memorial Cup last spring.
In August, Yager’s rights were traded to the Winnipeg Jets from Pittsburgh for Rutger McGroarty in a rare prospect for prospect deal. Less than four months later, Yager was dealt again, this time from Moose Jaw to Lethbridge. The 19-year-old said going to the World Juniors to play for Canada helped take his mind off leaving Moose Jaw, a city that had been his second home since 2021.
“I spent a week with the team (in Lethbridge) before World Juniors, kind of got comfortable with everybody and the staff and everything and obviously coming back, came back, played a couple games and then took a week off and now I'm kind of getting in the full swing of things,” said Yager.
“But right from the get-go, the guys were great, all super welcoming and great group of guys. The team that's looking to do something pretty special this year.”
Yager was dealt with Warrior teammate Jackson Unger, which also helped with adjusting to his new environment. Plus, the Hurricanes would not have made such a huge deal unless they had championship aspirations and adding two players who won a title a year ago showed they meant business.
“It's nice to be wanted by a team and right from the moment I got traded, I knew that Lethbridge is, they're always hard to play against. To be a part of a team like that, feels really good,” said Yager.
“And to be able to, like you said, have another chance to go deep in the playoffs and hopefully win a championship again would be incredible. And I know we definitely have the group to do it. So that's exciting.”
The Hurricanes just came out of February playing 14 games in 28 days and sit in fourth place in the Eastern Conference and recently booked their ticket to the postseason. As of Wednesday, they are eight points behind first place Medicine Hat with seven games remaining and two head-to-head meetings with the Tigers.
“Once you get to March, that's when it starts to get really fun. And you kind of count the days down to when playoffs start,” said Yager.
“You kind of see all the possibilities and matchups and everything like that.”
Yager has 40 games of playoff experience in the Western Hockey League and add four games of Memorial Cup play to his resume as well. It’s part of the reason why Hurricanes GM Peter Anholt brought in Yager, to be able to pass on his wisdom when the playoffs begin to his teammates.
“I think Pete, obviously I have a good relationship with Pete, and I think that whenever we can bring experience, obviously we brought Port (defenceman Vojtech) Port and (goaltender Jackson) Unger in as well,” said Yager.
“So I think a couple of guys that have a little bit of experience and can share a little bit of what it was like last year and just kind of what it takes to get to that level of the team.”
While Yager is busy with his Western Hockey League team, he has appreciated the support he has received from Jets fans. Yager had a solid training camp and looks to build on that when he arrives here in July for development camp.
Yeah, it's exciting. I mean when the fans like you early and it just makes it that much more exciting to be a part of the organization when the fans are excited about you,” said Yager.
And obviously, I'm just as excited to be a Jet one day, too. So yeah, it's incredible. Lots of support from the fans, which is, it's what you want as a player to be liked by your fan base.”
