Bjorklund, Krebs bound for D.C.

By JAMES TUBB on September 17, 2021.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

Garin Bjorklund has big goals heading into NHL camp next week.

He wants a contract.

The 19-year-old goalie joined the Tigers for Day 2 of training camp Thursday before heading off to Washington Capitals camp on Tuesday. He hopes to showcase his skills when he arrives in the States, which will be his first time crossing the border.

“Hopefully I go there and show off what I’ve got, meet everyone and hopefully I play really well and my goal is to get a contract there,” he said.

For Bjorklund, getting to meet and compete against some of the players he grew up watching will be an exciting experience. He looks forward to potentially facing shots from Capitals’ star Alex Ovechkin.

“It’ll be pretty cool to see Ovi’s shot, as a little kid you kind of look up to that guy and now for me to be in the cage and see what his shot is like in person, it’ll be eye-opening for sure,” Bjorklund said.

The Grand Prairie product spent the start of the off-season with family before heading to skate in Calgary and later taking part in Canada’s world junior camp, an experience he described as awesome.

“Everyone there is obviously a high-end hockey player and they are there for a reason,” he said. “So just to be at that camp and play on that team come Christmas time it’s a huge honour anytime you get to wear the maple leaf.”

Bjorklund recognizes he will likely be back with Medicine Hat for the season, which is something he says he is looking forward to, as he believes they will have a strong team.

“We’re going to have a good team this year, hopefully we can go really far and hopefully win a championship,” he said.

He added he is looking forward to being the starting goaltender for head coach Willie Desjardins this year after he “got a sniff of it,” last year.

“I’m ready for anything that comes my way, I always put 100% into it, I’m excited for it,” Bjorklund said.

He credits his defence on the Tigers for making his job easy and giving him a lot of confidence in the net. One of the guys in front of him for the last three years, Dru Krebs, will beat Bjorklund to the Capitals training camp by a couple of days.

Krebs will be joining Washington today as he looks forward to soaking up the NHL experience and hopefully making it with the big boys at camp.

“I want to make it to main camp, that’d be my overall goal but, I’m just going in there trying to have a good time,” said Krebs. “It’s an NHL camp so I’m really happy to be there.”

The defenceman will likely be re-joining the Tigers with Bjorklund once NHL camp is done, where he looks forward to having fans back in the stands at Co-op Place.

“I’d love to hear the fans back here in Medicine Hat,” he said. “It’ll be fun to listen to them and see all the hardcore fans. It’ll be awesome to be there.”

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