Kimberley Dynamiter defenceman Leith Olafson has signed with the Junior A Melfort Mustangs for the 2021-22 season.
Born in 2003, Olafson grew up in Wasa, B.C. and started playing with the Dynamiters in the 2019-2020 season. He also got a taste for Junior A play with the Cranbrook Bucks.
“I’m pretty excited,” Olafson said. “It’s a great opportunity for me, especially being able to move up and play Junior A next year is a big step in my hockey career and I think Melfort is a good team that can help me develop and become a good player.”
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Olafson said that he’s going to miss the community of his hometown and the very supportive fans the Dynamiters have.
“It sounds like Melfort’s also like that, which is one of the contributing factors to me going there,” he said. “But just being away from home is going to be probably difficult for a little bit until I get used to that, because I’ve never lived away from home, so that will probably be the biggest challenge for me.”
In addition to the fans and his teammates, Olafson said one of the biggest takeaways from his stint with the Dynamiters is his gratitude for the organizations coaching staff.
“All the coaches wanted everyone there to succeed, which was a big part of my development I feel,” he said, adding that getting to play with 20-year-old players as a 16-year-old was also a fundamental part of his development.
“I feel like that’s an advantage that playing with the Dynamiters gave me these past two years, just being able to play with higher-level competition and learn from those older guys who have had experience in junior hockey.”
Dynamiters head coach and general manager Derek Stuart helped out Olafson in his journey to move up the hockey ranks after this past season, so critical to the development of these young players’ careers, was decimated by COVID.
Another person who helped out was assistant coach Carson Loftsgard, who played for the Melfort Mustangs in the late ’90s, nearly winning a national championship there. Melfort’s coach Trevor Blevins has been with the team a long time. A Melfort local, he was a teammate of Loftsgard and has been coaching for years.
Loftsgard has been working with Olafson on and off the ice since he was about 11 years old. Personally knowing Blevins and that he has many contacts within the league and in NCAA, and knowing Leith wants to move to the next level beyond Junior A, Loftsgard helped facilitate the conversation, but said it was ultimately up to Olafson and his family where to go.
“We had some really good teams, I learned to win when I was there, it was my first experience away from home the same it’ll be for Leith,” Loftsgard said. “So there’s lots of parallels between his path and mine and I hope he has the same sort of great experience up there that I had.”
Due to the compromised season, Loftsgard said that he’s had personal experience with lots of young players who have found it difficult to maintain and advance not only their physical skills, but to keep up their mental strength and work towards their goals.
“It was a huge blow to Leith as a player to have last year go the way it did,” Loftsfard said. “When you’re a 17-year-old in our league, you’re trying to advance and it’s really important to be seen and to play and the rest of it, so Melfort’s getting a kid that is not allowing the challenges to hold him back and I think that’s why he’s going to be successful in hockey and after hockey as well.”
Olafson said last year he trained all summer, preparing for a season that didn’t really end up happening.
“This summer’s going to be a big summer where I’m hopefully going to be focused all summer on just gaining strength and speed and conditioning,” he said. “So next year when I go up to Junior A I can just blow by everyone else who wasn’t preparing properly.”
Loftsgard certainly feels this confidence is well founded and said “he’s very driven and he’s very focused and he will surpass a lot of kids.”
Olafson hasn’t heard for sure when he will need to be there, but suspects it will be around the middle of August and will just be training and getting prepared in the meantime.
paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin
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