NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
Swift Current Broncos forward Caleb Wyrostok, of Medicine Hat, monitors the play during a pre-season Western Hockey League game against the Medicine Hat Tigers at Irvine Sports Complex on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
Caleb Wyrostok is earning his keep.
The 16-year-old Medicine Hat product signed a contract with the Swift Current Broncos back in June and has been turning heads in the pre-season with an assist over his first three games.
“It’s a great feeling just playing at this level, and with a bunch of the great guys in the dressing room, it’s unbelievable,” said Wyrostok, who picked up a 4-2 win over his hometown Medicine Hat Tigers in Wednesday’s pre-season game at Irvine Sports Complex, and logged his assist in a 5-4 shootout win over the Regina Pats Saturday. “I’m just happy to get the pace under my belt. It’s definitely a faster league – it’s tighter, you’ve got to make plays faster, there are harder hits so just getting that under my belt and taking that into the season will be really good for me.”
While he’s not expected to remain with club in a full-time role this season, Broncos head coach and director of hockey operations Dean Brockman says the club holds Wyrostok in high regard and sees a very bright future for the young forward.
“I can’t tell you how much we think of him. He’s a great kid, we signed him for a reason,” said Brockman. “He does a lot of good things and I think once he gets more comfortable with the league he’ll get better and better. He’s going to go back this year and play another year of midget, and that’s important for him too. But he’s a great kid with a great attitude and he’ll be a good player for us.”
When he eventually parts ways with the Broncos for the rest of the season, Wyrostok will report back to Northern Alberta Xtreme Prep in Edmonton. Wyrostok made the move north to compete with the Xtreme’s Elite 15s last season after being selected in the ninth round of the 2018 bantam draft at 197th overall. After racking up 20 goals, 15 assists and 116 penalty minutes in 30 games with the Canadian Sport School Hockey League club, the 5-foot-9, 160-pound right-winger found himself sitting in front of a standard WHL player agreement.
“Signing with (the Broncos) was probably one of my really good accomplishments and I owe it to Dean and all the coaching staff too for believing in me. It’s a great feeling,” said Wyrostok. “Obviously playing the Elite 15s at NAX last year really helped me through the season. They have really great coaches up there and great guys. I think just all the different lessons I learned up there I brought into camp which is really good.”
For the time being, Wyrostok says he’s soaking up as much as he can from Swift Current’s veteran group in the hopes of skating alongside them in the future.
“Taking me through training camp, the vets really have a good idea of what’s going on and they help out all the young guys,” said Wyrostok. “Having a couple vets on each team really helped me get through training camp. But other than that, going into pre-season I was just really happy and eager to get started.”
