Confidence breeds success for Halbgewachs

It took three years for Jayden Halbgewachs to be an overnight success in the Western Hockey League.

In the fall of 2013, Moose Jaw Warriors general manager Alan Millar re-assigned Halbgewachs to the Regina Pat Canadians.

Halbgewachs, a first-round draft pick in the 2012 bantam draw, was a key piece of a deadline deal that sent standout defenceman Joel Edmundson to Kamloops. Halbgewachs was expected to stay up with a rebuilding Warriors, but Millar felt at the time it would be better for his development to spend his 16-year-old season playing midget AAA.

“We feel that Jayden is going to be a very good player in this league when he is 18 or 19 years old,” Millar said at the time.

It took some time, but that assessment is starting to look like an understatement.

“You never want to look ahead too far, but you want to live up to what you were,” Halbgewachs said of the pressure of being a first-round pick. “Coming into your 16-year-old year and not making it as a first-round pick, you want to show people that you deserved to be there.”

Jayden Halbgewachs wheels into the open ice in action form the 2016-17 WHL season. photo courtesy Marc Smith, DiscoverMooseJaw.com
Jayden Halbgewachs wheels into the open ice in action form the 2016-17 WHL season.
photo courtesy Marc Smith, DiscoverMooseJaw.com

Wednesday night, Halbgewachs, now 19, opened the scoring for the Warriors in a 4-1 win over the Prince Albert Raiders. It was his 10th straight game with a goal as he netted his WHL-leading 28th goal of the season.

“The biggest thing for me this year has been my confidence and knowing when to use my speed,” said Halgbewachs who leads the WHL in goals and shares the lead in points heading into Friday’s action. “I think a lot of being successful in this league has to do with confidence. You get more used to the league the more games you play and I think that’s the biggest thing.”

The off-season work that Halbgewachs puts in at the gym has made him stronger and faster with each successive season. He is also reacting quicker to what unfolds on the ice as well. That has made the five-foot-eight right winger a dynamic threat.

“To his credit, nobody works harder off of the ice than him,” said Warriors assistant coach Mark O’Leary who has watched Halbgewachs develop since he was 16. “For a smaller guy like that to be that hard to knock off the puck is a testament to his hard work.

“He’s grown leaps and bounds with his strength level. His hockey sense has grown every year too. You put it all together and you have a player who has hit his stride here as a 19-year-old and it’s real fun to watch.”

It’s telling that Halbgewachs’ 50th point of the season was also his 100th career WHL point. He posted career highs of 15 goals and 41 points last season in 69 games.

“Each year you want to have a better season than the last and keep building off of it,” Halbgewachs said. “Obviously, things are going really well right now, but I just want to keep getting better and better each day.”

Where Halbgewachs really excelled last season was in the playoffs. He, Brett Howden and Tanner Jeannot were tremendous in the Warriors opening round win over Prince Albert. However, as the Warriors stars struggled to out-gun Brandon on their run to the WHL title, Halbgewachs managed to score six goals in five games against the Wheat Kings and had more points than any other Warriors in that series. He finished with a team-best nine playoff goals and his 15 points were one behind both Brayden Point and Dryden Hunt.

When the going got tough in the post-season, Halbgewachs opened eyes by elevating his play.

“Last year in the playoffs it kind of took off for me and things started to happen, so coming into the season I knew I could do it and I had built up some confidence,” he said. “That’s what I brought into this year was more confidence and playing calm out there. That’s what has been working for me.”

It was a long time coming.

The Warriors targeted Halbgewachs when they dealt Edmundson, now with the St. Louis Blues, and a draft pick for defenceman Tyler Bell and a first round pick that was used to draft Jett Woo.

O’Leary said that in meetings with Millar and the coaching staff they have always believed that Halbgewachs would reach the potential that lead to him being drafted 19th overall.

“Since he was a young guy, he’s always had the skill-level,” O’Leary said. “The push with Halbs was always his pace. You saw his skill, but you wanted him to do things quicker. We always told him ‘watch Brayden Point, you could be that good.’”

As much as he wanted to jump into the league in his first season, Halbgewachs acknowledges there was a steep learning curve.

Jayden Halbgewachs
Jayden Halbgewachs

“I think they always believed in me and felt maybe it would take a little more time than it does for some people,” he said of the Warriors front office. “When you’re 16 and coming into the league you want to make the jump. You don’t expect how hard it actually is. Obviously, I’m a smaller player and I had to adapt to this league and I think it took me more time. Everyone develops at different ages and I think that’s what has happened with me.”

Halbgewachs certainly had his share of growing pains. In his rookie season he of 2014-15, he collected eight points in 59 games as he earned limited ice time.

“Confidence is not something you can just give to somebody, they get confidence by being preparing and doing things the right way. And that starts in practice,” O’Leary said. “I think it was something he had to figure out for himself and understand how good he really could be. He had to hold onto pucks longer and not just throw it away. He had to trust in his skill and his speed.”

Under both Tim Hunter and Mike Stothers before him, the Warriors have leaned heavily on their top-six forwards and have been considered with the ice time they’ve given to their fourth-liners. Halbgewachs tasted that first hand as a 17-year-old, but he earned more ice time with each season. Now he plays on the power play, penalty kill and is an assistant captain.

“It was really tough for me coming into the league and not being on the first or second line like I have my whole life. There are some guys who can jump into the league and play on those lines, but for the others you have to battle through it. If you keep pushing through it, over time you’ll get there. It may happen right away and it may take awhile,” said Halbgewachs who hopes he can be an example to his young teammates about hard work and patience eventually paying off.

“With my story, those guys who don’t play on that first or second line in their first two years can see that they just have to keep believing that it will happen one day,” Halbgewachs added.