Eatonia’s Cade Hayes has strong year with midget AAA Tisdale Trojans

Kevin McBain
of The Crossroads

Eatonia’s Cade Hayes is off to a promising start at the midget level with the Tisdale Trojans of the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League.

The rookie centre led the team in points this year with 36, in goals with 19 and in power play goals with seven.

“I was really happy with the season,” said the 15-year-old son of Zane and Teana. “Started by playing on the top line and playing on the power play a lot.”

Head coach Darrell Mann said that he was definitely impressed by Hayes this season.

“To be honest, because he is so young, I was thinking that if we could get 15 points from him that would be great,” he said. “But for him to lead the team in points with 36 that is incredible.”

He adds that Hayes’s work ethic and his hockey smarts are definitely factors in his success.

“I think the biggest thing is his hockey IQ. He has such a great understanding of the game and he anticipates so well and gets himself in the right spot at the right time,” said Mann. “He also works hard and you could tell by his play that he worked very hard in the off-season.”

He was recognized for his efforts by the team winning the Rookie of the Year award; Most Points Award; and he shared the Most Popular Player award.

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Hayes, standing at 5’9” tall and weighing in at 160 pounds, said that he did work hard to prepare to compete at the Midget AAA level, a pretty big jump from playing Bantam AA with the West Central Wheat Kings.

“Honestly, I did work hard in the summer and I think it paid off,” he said. He had worked with a personal trainer in Eatonia over the summer. Even at gym sessions at school, he kept thinking how he could do an activity in a way that would help him improve his skills for hockey, no matter what activity he was doing.

Hayes said that he agreed with Mann about how many points that he thought he would get in his first year.

“I was kind of looking for 15 to 20 points this year, but I played a lot more than I thought I would,” he said.

He said that one of the many parts of the game that he was good at coming and improved throughout the season was his ‘hockey sight’.

“I am definitely happy with how I am seeing the ice and the movement around me,” he said. “A lot of people have commented on that.”

The end of the season was a month back, but it didn’t mean that he was done with hockey for the year. Over the Easter weekend, he attended spring camp for the Trojans. This was followed by the Melfort Mustangs Jr. A camp (who he is listed with) last weekend and the Moose Jaw Warriors camp, who drafted him in the 2017 WHL Bantam Draft.

Meanwhile, he will continue to work hard on his conditioning and improving his game. One thing that he wants to do is to improve on his explosiveness, generating that jump or power that is important in a skaters first few strides.

“I hope to improve on my skating, especially working on those first three strides,” he said.

Something again, reiterated by Mann.

“If anything, he could work on his foot speed,” he said. “Getting going during those first three strides is important.

“I think his hockey IQ and being in the right spot at the right time makes up for some of that,” he said. “But he is turning into a 200-foot player … a complete player for us.”

One other area of improvement Hayes said, is that he wants to be more of a leader going into next season.

“Going into Tisdale I was kind of thinking that I should just let the older guys lead the way, but I think I could have been more vocal and take a bit more of a leadership role,” he said. He is with the Trojans for the next couple of seasons, unless he gets called up to the next level.

Hayes said that he would like to thank his parents and past coaches for his success.

“For sure my parents have spent a lot of time and money to help me out which I truly appreciate,” he said. “Plus, I have had a lot of really good coaches over the years that have helped me along the way.”

The team

The Trojans, loaded with young talent ended up having a pretty good season. They finished fourth in the league with a record of 29 wins, 14 losses and four overtime losses.

However, they ended up making an early exit, losing in the first round to Swift Current, a team loaded with older players.

“We did pretty well in the regular season,” said Mann. “But then we ran into Swift Current, a team with a lot of 17-year-old players.

“We have a really young team and we kind of were setting up for next season in case we were able to secure the 2019 Telus Cup Western Regional Championships,” he said. “We did find out that we got that, so it worked out and we are really excited to host and we should have a real good team next season.

Mann adds that they have 15 players eligible to return to the lineup, making for a great core of players to return for next season.

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