Kings to host revival of Heritage League All Star-Game

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Agra Risk Wheatland Kings are gearing up for the return of the Heritage Junior Hockey League All-Star game, set to be hosted at the Strathmore Family Centre on Dec. 6.

Cody Holdaway, general manager for the Wheatland Kings, explained each team throughout the north and south divisions have submitted amounts of players based on their regular season rankings.

“We have a best-on-best north division versus south division full all-star game, backed up with a skills competition as well,” he said. “We have got a couple events, there are quite a few – everything from fastest skater, hardest shot, accuracy shooting; there will be some challenges to test the league’s top goalies; we have got radar guns set up and everything.”

Each team will be comprised of players from all teams in the league. The idea being to showcase some of the top talent in the league all in one place. 

Holdaway added that the Heritage Junior Hockey League being among the premier leagues in Canada, the players participating will effectively be among the top talent for their age in the country. 

“Each team’s general manager had to submit their picks by (Nov. 23) and then the rosters were released Monday (Nov. 24) evening,” explained Holdaway. “Although the Kings are technically in first place in the south division right now, all star rankings were selected based on point percentage and Medicine Hat Cubs were a marginal percentage above us.”

Due to this, the Cubs have five players selected to participate in the all-star game. The Kings have selected four, being in second place by this metric. 

The third place team, in this case for the south division being the Coaldale Copperheads, sends three players. Beyond this, the remaining three teams each send two players to participate. The top two goalies in the division are then added in order to form the 20-man roster.

Representing the Agra Risk Wheatland Kings will be Luke Nottveit (forward), Cole Tweit (forward), Charlie Goll (forward), and Chase Berg (defenseman).

The selected rosters for both divisions do not practise together prior to the start of the game, instead being expected to be able to blend together with their teammates on the go.

Holdaway explained the all-star game was a tradition within the league for a number of years prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, it was something he said all of the teams agreed would be welcome to see revived.

The last time the all-star game was hosted was in 2019. 

“Strathmore has actually never hosted it before. It was just selected at the annual general meeting every year. Teams were able to submit bids and then the league’s members would vote based on which proposal they thought would be the best,” said Holdaway. “It’s definitely been a challenge – there are lots of logistical things with bringing 12 junior hockey teams to one game. Our media team has been running off the rails posting all the player announcements and everything. We are pretty excited.”

He added that several scouts representing the Alberta Junior Hockey League have confirmed their attendance, as well as from other notable hockey organizations. 

The coaching staff for the all-star game will consist of those from the first-place representative teams – in this case being the Medicine Hat Cubs for the south division, and the Red Deer Vipers from the north.

The skills competition starts at 3 p.m. on Dec. 6 and lasts about 90 minutes. The All Star game begins at 7:45 p.m., following the usual Kings game schedule.