WHL Brandon Wheat Kings

Elick Excels in Role, Wins Gold with Canada

Published on August 16, 2023 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Brandon Wheat Kings News Release


Charlie Elick doesn't remember much about the moment he became a gold medalist at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. In that instant, things blurred together for him a little bit. He remembers how he felt leading up to it, however.

"It was nerve wracking being in OT for that long, a full 20 minutes," said Elick. "But when it lead up to that goal, words can't describe the feeling we had when we won that. I'm on the bench and I kind of just blacked out when we scored."

In the days since the tournament, he's returned to Calgary with a gold medal for his efforts and has had some time to reflect on the tournament. Being called to represent his country, earning the trust of his coaching staff and playing big minutes, and drawing repeated praise from TSN's broadcast crew were small parts of an incredible week.

"Wearing the maple leaf is a prestigious honor," Elick said. "The whole experience was amazing. The only thing that was tough to start with was the time change, that eight hour difference from Calgary to Vienna. But the team bonded really well and we were almost like a club team when we got over there."

Making Team Canada was an honor, but helping them to a gold medal wasn't easy. The top 2006-born players in the world, and a few from the 2007 birth year, proved to be a lot to handle, though not too much to handle.

"Those guys are all the top of our age group," said Elick. "The skill was a lot different, but I wouldn't say the speed of the play was much different. The skill was higher but pace of play could've been the same. Playing in the WHL, you see stronger, heavier guys, whereas there we had smaller skilled guys, which was different to defend."

Just as Elick was able to rely on some of his WHL experience to help him with Team Canada, the Wheat Kings are hopeful he'll take some of what he learned with Team Canada and apply it to the WHL. After all, by the end of the tournament Elick had established himself as a mainstay on the penalty kill and a reliable force on the back end.

"They asked me to play a role and I just tried to stick to that," said Elick. "I took a lot of things I learned playing for the Wheat Kings and brought it to that, knowing that whatever role they gave me I was going to play as well as I can."

Part of that role was finishing his checks, which Elick said he wants to bring to his game in Brandon this season as well. Another part was being a calming influence on the back end, even when the games got weird. And they did get weird; fog descended on the arena that, at times, made it hard to see where passes were coming from.

"My dad played pro, and he always had to play through those conditions," said Elick. "He gave me some tips because he knew it was going to be foggy. We were in the white jerseys in a couple of those games where it was really foggy, so it was even harder to see our own players. You almost had to be more aware of where your teammates were before you made passes."

That adversity didn't slow Elick or Team Canada down for long, however, as the team lost their first match against Finland and then didn't lose the rest of the way. And when the tournament ended, Elick not only claimed a gold medal but got to share it with fellow Wheat King Roger McQueen.

"Me and him are a pretty tight duo," Elick said. "It was an unreal experience. We celebrated for a while after that together. I'm going to see him when I get back, it's probably just going to make our bond tighter. It's a great experience, you can't even describe how amazing it was."

Elick and the Wheat Kings will open the training camp on Friday, September 1.

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Western Hockey League Stories from August 16, 2023


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