Saskatoon Blades Hockey Club
Organization (2023)
Hockey
The 2022-23 Saskatoon Blades weren’t just a hockey team; they were history makers.
It was easy to see early on just how special this team was. This year’s rendition of the Blue and Gold took only 25 games to crack 20 wins, the fastest in franchise history. Saskatoon wasn’t just catching eyes in the province but across all of Canada. The Bridge City Bunch kept their foot on the gas and finished 48-15-4-1, good for fifth in the WHL. At the helm behind the bench was WHL Coach of the Year Brennan Sonne and his staff, earning the third highest winning percentage and most wins in a 68-game schedule in franchise history.
The team was the definition of all for one. Everyone pulled the rope as nine different players cracked double-digit goals. Captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere set the tone both on and off the ice, and even tied NHL legend Wendal Clark for the tenth most points by a defenceman in Blades history. The glass shattered on a stellar rookie season for netminder “Stone Cold” Austin Elliott. Both men received second-team all-star nods alongside speedy forward Trevor Wong. Egor Sidorov torched opposing netminders with 40 goals, returning next year as the newest member of the Anaheim Ducks organization. Another man returning with NHL swagger is Tanner Molendyk, who went 24th overall to the Nashville Predators, and who’s silky skating hurts your ankles just watching.
The Blades kept winning and the bandwagon was getting crowded. The buzz carried, so much so the club witnessed their first sellout in franchise history as 14,768 fans packed inside SaskTel Centre to watch them face the Regina Pats. One sellout wasn’t enough though, because they did it again the very next game to cap off their regular season at home.
The fun was just getting started.
If two games versus their Highway 11 rival wasn’t enough to end the regular season, a first-round best-of-seven playoff series for the ages between the two followed. Fans witnessed back-to-back overtime winners from Sidorov and forward Jake Chiasson in enemy territory, then returned home for an electric Game 5 victory. The stage didn’t get any bigger than Game 7. At home, once again sold out, with everyone behind the Blue and Gold. The Blades rose to the occasion, punching their ticket to the second round where once again they proved everybody wrong.
Everyone wrote off Saskatoon when trailing 3-0 in the series versus the Red Deer Rebels. Everyone except themselves. Nobody in the room pointed fingers, pushed any blame, or made excuses. Instead, they banded together, picked each other up, and became just the third team in WHL history to overcome a 3-0 series deficit, making the Eastern Conference Championship for the first time since 1994.
Memories were made that will last a lifetime. Blades hockey was once again not only the talk of the city, but the province. The players carried themselves on the ice with swagger, while giving back to community off it.
If there’s one thing to say about the 2022-23 Saskatoon Blades, they remembered who they are.