A pair of players, Jaxon Jacobson & Nolan Saunderson, who played minor hockey in Brandon last season were recently announced to the Male U16 Summer Development Camp roster.  The camp, July 19 – 22, 2023, will be the third phase of five in the Hockey Manitoba Male U16 Program of Excellence and will include practices and games, as well as team meetings and team building events. Jacobson spent last season with the Brandon Wheat Kings U-18 AAA team where he amassed 60 points in 44 regular season games. He was selected in the 1st round, 5th overall in the in the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft by the Brandon Wheat Kings. The Spokane Chiefs used the 90th overall (5th round) to select blueliner Nolan Saunderson. Saunderson picked up 28 points in 31 games this past season with the Brandon Wheat Kings U15 AAA squad.

The Westman Heat U17 AA softball team headed to Winnipeg, Buhler Field, over the weekend to participate in the U17AA showcase tournament and returned home with a championship title in their possession. They finished the round robin sporting a 2-2 record, as noted below. Lost Eastman 12-7 Lost Central 7-4 Win Bonni Vital 18-6 Win Northwest Reapers 6-1 In semi-final the Heat toppled Central Charge 9-7 before a highly anticipated rematch with Eastman in the championship game. The Heat turned the tables on Eastman in the tournament final with a convincing 9-3 victory.

The MJHL's 2023-24 regular season schedule begins on Friday, September 22nd 2023 with 5 games scheduled for the evening.  The Dauphin Kings regular season kicks off that evening at at home with a matchup against the Swan Valley Stampeders. That same evening, the Neepawa Titans travel to Waywayseecappo to tangle with the Wolverines and the Steinbach Pistons visit Virden to take on the Oil Capitals. The MJHL consists of 13-teams broken up into two divisions. Each team will play a 58-game schedule that concludes on March 17 2024.

The Western Hockey League announced today that the Winnipeg ICE franchise has been sold and relocated to Wenatchee, Washington, and will operate under the new ownership of David White of the California-based Shoot the Puck Foundation. The sale and relocation of the Winnipeg franchise has received the approval of the WHL Board of Governors and is effective immediately. Wenatchee becomes the sixth U.S.-based WHL team and will join the WHL’s U.S. Division and Western Conference for the 2023-24 season. The relocation to Wenatchee will allow the WHL to balance its Western and Eastern Conferences with 11 member Clubs in each Conference starting next season. Unfortunately, multiple attempts by the ICE ownership to construct an arena facility of acceptable WHL standards in Winnipeg, based on the agreed upon timeframes, were unsuccessful, leading to the relocation to Wenatchee. The Western Hockey League would like to thank the Winnipeg ICE fans for their support and the ICE organization for building a highly successful hockey program that we expect will have a great future in Washington State.

Two local Brandon players, Ekam Dhaliwal and Dalton Andrew were both selected today in the NAHL draft. The NAHL is considered one of the top 3 Junior Hockey leagues in North America for sending players to NCAA D1 and D3 hockey. To date no players have been drafted to the NAHL from Brandon since the league began in 1975. Dhaliwal whom played for the U18 AAA Wheat Kings last year was selected by Anchorage Wolverines in the 9th round.   Dalton Andrew, also a former U18 AAA Wheat King, was selected in the first round by Shreveport. Andrew played the last two seasons in the MJHL for the Winkler Flyers. Dalton Andrew Keith Morris GM of Anchorage told BDNMB.CA today they felt lucky to get Ekam at that point of the draft.  "He has an incredible release and a natural goal scorer". Ekam hockey profile https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/647509/ekam-dhaliwal Dalton hockey profile https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/416924/dalton-andrew For more information on the NAHL draft and league click below. https://nahldraft.rinknet.com/