Lare Pahtayken has committed to play Midget AAA Hockey for the Tisdale Trojans as part of an unconventional hockey journey. (WSHL Stats)

By Aaron Schulze

To B.C. and Back

Lare Pahtayken’s unconventional path to the Tisdale Trojans

May 15, 2020 | 12:59 PM

May 1 was “signing day” for many teams in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League (SMAAAHL) to reveal their player commitments for the 2020-21 season.

The Tisdale Trojans announced most of their new signings that day, but they had one more commitment to unveil on May 13.

Lare Pahtayken, a 2003-born defenceman from Onion Lake, will play his first season of Midget AAA hockey with the Trojans – unless he earns a spot with a team in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) or Western Hockey League (WHL) – after taking an unconventional path.

“I played a couple of games with the Battlefords Barons Bantam AA team,” Pahtayken told northeastNOW. “I didn’t really fit in as well, so I came home and played for a year. My next year, I tried out for Bantam AAA in Lloydminster and didn’t cut it… I ended up playing in Hillmond, which was pretty good. I had a lot of improvement that year.”

From there, Pahtayken hopped from playing in Bantam house leagues to Junior A Tier II, followed by Junior B. Instead of spending a majority of his U18 years rising through the Bantam and Midget levels in Saskatchewan, Pahtayken played his 15 and 16-year-old seasons in junior leagues against players up to 21 years old.

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He was with the Cold Lake Wings (now defunct) of the Western States Hockey League in 2018-19 and played Junior B hockey in B.C. with the Golden Rockets of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL).

“It was scary at first,” Pahtayken said regarding his jump to junior hockey at a young age. “I quickly got the hang of the game and went out there and had fun. I knew what to do and made quicker decisions.”

Pahtayken received an invite to attend Golden’s training camp ahead of the 2019-20 season. He thought it would help him get ready for the Melfort Mustangs’ camp in the SJHL. Instead, Pahtayken earned a spot in Golden and went on to lead all U17 defencemen in KIJHL scoring with 23 points (seven goals and 16 assists) in 45 games.

After two seasons of playing hockey against players four to five years older than him, what made Pahtayken commit to Tisdale and be one of the older players in the SMAAAHL?

“It’s a lot closer to home compared to last year,” he said. “Tisdale has been a pretty high performing team the last couple of years. They have a great organization.”

Dennis Kubat, Trojans head coach, spoke with the Mustangs and found out about Pahtayken. The Mustangs invited Pahtayken to their exhibition camp in 2019 and still have him on their protected list.

“We were probably in the same boat with a lot of families and players in the northeast who are thinking ‘who is this guy,’” Kubat said. “We did a little research on him, talked to a few of his coaches and people in the Mustangs organization, and everyone had nothing but positive things to say. It was a no brainer from there. You can add a 6-2, 200-pounds defenceman who has a good skill set, an amazing shot, and put up good numbers in one of the better Junior B leagues in Canada. We’re excited to have him and we’re looking forward to continuing his development to the next level.”

With the Trojans’ spring camp being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kubat didn’t have the chance to see Pahtayken in person. However, Kubat doesn’t have an issue bringing Pahtayken on board after two seasons of junior hockey.

“It’s more about picking the program, not the league, that’s right and going to help him develop,” Kubat said. “I love guys that take a different route and don’t follow protocol; make their own path. He chose his own right path and had success where he’s been, but it’s not the conventional Bantam AA to Midget AAA. He wanted to be closer to home, [fill in] when need be with the Mustangs, and experience Midget AAA. He liked what we had to offer; being on the ice every day with our workout program, our trainers, our education program, everything was exciting for him.”

Pahtayken said another factor in committing to Tisdale was having a team to play for in case he doesn’t make the Mustangs in the SJHL or the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the WHL. Aside from team success, he hopes to improve on his footspeed if he plays in Tisdale.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow