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Danielson Rejoins Wheat Kings After Once-In-A-Lifetime World Junior Experience

January 5, 2024 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Brandon Wheat Kings News Release


Leave it to the captain of a team to work hard even when he's not at his best.

Fresh off nearly 24 consecutive hours of travel, Brandon Wheat Kings' captain Nate Danielson was back on the ice at practice with his teammates today, being put through his paces in up-tempo drills. With the last shot of the last drill of practice, he sent a water bottle flying with a perfect snapshot, a strong sign that despite the jet lag he'll be ready to get back to WHL games soon enough.

"It was an eight-hour flight from Copenhagen to Toronto, and we had a three-hour bus ride before that," Danielson said. "Then it was another three hours from Toronto to Winnipeg, and a two hour drive from Winnipeg so it was a long day."

With that travel completed and his old stall in the dressing room waiting for him at Westoba Place, Danielson is now ready to get back to the business of leading a WHL team on their playoff push. But he'll bring back the memory of a tournament he grew up dreaming of playing in.

"It was pretty cool just to wear the maple leaf and be part of the whole experience," Danielson said. "It went by a lot quicker when you're actually inside of it than when you're just watching it at home. It was a lot of fun and I've brought a lot of good memories back with me."

Among those memories was not only Danielson's first goal for Team Canada, but the team's first goal of the tournament in their very first game. In the second period of the contest with Finland, Danielson parked himself in front of the Finnish net and scored in an unusual fashion.

"It was a bit of a weird goal, just hitting me and going in, but they all count," he said. "It was pretty cool to get the first goal of the tournament for our team. It was an anticipated goal and everyone wanted to get it, so it felt nice."

The tournament was not only a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it was also a chance to see how he stacked up against the best players of his age group in the world. After opening the tournament with a bang, he was pleased with how he settled in as the games progressed.

"I thought I got better as the tournament went on," Danielson said. "I got more comfortable, and I thought my last game was my best game of the tournament. I had a lot of chances and they just didn't seem to go in, but I thought I was pretty good."

Danielson rejoins a team that will welcome him back with open arms, and one that continued the winning ways he had helped them establish in early December. The Wheat Kings have now won eight of their last ten games, and even though he was several time zones away in Sweden, he kept himself well informed about how the team was doing.

"I would watch the highlights every morning when I woke up, it would be the first thing I looked at on my phone," Danielson said. "I didn't get to watch games because it was about 2:00 AM there, but I kept up with everything."

Danielson and the Wheat Kings will host the Vancouver Giants on Saturday night to kick off a six-game homestand.

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