For the first time ever, the dog days of August have arrived in the NHL. The excitement for hockey’s return after a hiatus of more than four months extends beyond the fan bases of the 24 teams involved, including fans of the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades. Five former Blades have participated in the Qualifying […]

It was a sequence of events that certainly charted a course for both teams involved, it just didn’t set each club on the path many expected. The Saskatoon Blades and Brandon Wheat Kings were frequent trade partners in the first half of the 2010s, headlined by blockbuster swaps in 2011 and 2013 that sent career […]

The past two seasons have brought a great deal of change to the Saskatoon Blades but one of the constants throughout has been their on-ice leader. Chase Wouters played his fourth full Western Hockey League season in 2019-20, and his second as captain of the Blades. As Saskatoon’s first-round bantam draft selection, 18th overall in […]

The Saskatoon Blades have a history that dates back to the 1960s in the Western Hockey League and its predecessors. Though that history is not steeped in postseason team success, with no Ed Chynoweth Cup or Memorial Cup titles since their inception in 1964, fans in the Bridge City have witnessed the junior careers of […]

The 2019-20 Western Hockey League season provided a glimpse of what is to come on the ice for the Saskatoon Blades in the coming seasons. After the emergence of the team’s young core this past season, expectations are high for the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, which could feature the most Blades content in more than […]

The Saskatoon Blades had a chance to take a big swing with their first-round selection in the 2020 Canadian Hockey League Import Draft on Tuesday, and they did just that. With the 33rd-overall pick, the Western Hockey League club took highly touted prospect Brad Lambert from Finland. Lambert, a 5-foot-11, 172-pound center, was born in […]

The Saskatoon Blades are heading into the 2020-21 season with confidence in net with the ability to return veteran goalies Nolan Maier and Koen MacInnes. Quality goaltending can be, and often-times is, a game-changer in junior hockey. A top-flight netminder can steal games for a lesser-talented club and can cover up flaws and deficiencies.  That […]

Mitch Love made a name for himself as a rough and tumble defenceman in the Western Hockey League (WHL), and he is doing the same now as head coach of the Saskatoon Blades. A product of the town of Quesnel, BC, a town located a little more than 100 kilometers south of Prince George, Love […]

Inspired by 2019 third-overall NHL Draft selection Kirby Dach, I thought we would take a retrospective look at each of the seven first-round draft selections that the Saskatoon Blades have produced in the new millennium. Saskatoon has a rich history dating back to the 1960s, so to make this story a bit more manageable in […]

Summertime means roster decision time for clubs across the Canadian Hockey League, and the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades are no exception. Each off-season brings its own, usually quite familiar to-do list pertaining to roster-related duties to get the lineup set for the start of the following season. These include things like the bantam and […]

In a season marked by change with new faces in different roles, the Saskatoon Blades were able to remain a factor in the Western Hockey League’s Eastern Conference in 2019-20, thanks in large part to the stability provided by this year’s crop of overage players. At the outset of the season, the Blades knew they […]

Call it a retooling season for the Saskatoon Blades, not rebuilding. Expectations were high for the Blades coming into the 2019-20 campaign, and rightly so, after they finished the 2018-19 season with 98 points and reached the second round of the playoffs, where they bowed out to the eventual league champion Prince Albert Raiders. The […]