– written by Jamie Neugebauer
It is October 9th, 2024. Notre Dame is in town to face the Kindersley Klippers.
It is just the seventh game of Klippers’ defenceman Jaxon Herchak’s junior hockey career.
Second period, scoreless game.
The Hounds turn the puck over, and it falls to Herchak’s partner, Kyler Smith.
Head up the whole time, Herchak receives the D-to-D pass in his own zone, takes a millisecond to process the chaos of the neutral zone, and threads a perfect pass through all sorts of bodies to the tape of forward Zak Anderson.
Anderson cruises in alone and scores.
Just another simple-yet-perfect play by the 17-year-old rookie blue liner.
“I think I was making a joke (about Jaxon) to someone the other day,” says Klippers’ head coach Clayton Jardine.
“I think Jaxon could easily play in the NCAA right now and look the same. He is not flashy; he is not taking the puck end to end or standing out (like that), even though his points make him stand out. Jaxon’s biggest strength is making the right play at the right time.”
And Jardine knows of what he speaks; he played four years of NCAA Division I for Merrimack College from 2011 to 2015 and played with NHL defencemen Tyson Barrie and Dylan Olsen in junior.
Herchak, of Waldheim, SK, about a half-hour drive due north of Saskatoon, is already committed to Colorado College of the NCAA, and leads all Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League rookies in points with 10 through eight games as a defender.
As an elite 2007-born defenceman, he appears right in line for a potential spot on Team Canada West at the World Junior A Challenge, on the Winnipeg SJHL/MJHL Showcase ‘Young Guns’ roster in January, and has staked a claim as a very early candidate for SJHL Rookie of the Year.
All that said, Herchak is genuinely not driven by personal accolades.
“Klippers’ team success comes first for me,” he says.
“Obviously, it would be such an honour to make Team Canada, but I’m just going to contribute to the Klippers in any way that I can and if that is good enough to make the Selection Camp roster and that team, then that would be great.”
Solidly built at 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds, Herchak suggests he is “an offensive defenceman that enjoys joining the rush when the time is right, but one that worries about my defensive zone first.”
“I take pride in breaking pucks out and doing that well,” he adds, “and I think I can bring leadership to the table and a little bit of grit. I also love to hit.”
Leadership is something Jaxon comes by honestly.
His dad, Marc, is a Senior Project Manager for the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways. At the same time, his mother, Jasmin, is the co-founder of a remarkable non-profit organization called ‘Empty Arms’ that provides support to families who have experienced pregnancy, infant, or early childhood loss.
That maturity, combined with his talent, has led Jaxon to wear the captain’s ‘C’ for Team Saskatchewan’s silver-medal entry into the 2023 Canada Winter Games and to represent the province and the Kinistin Saulteaux First Nation at the 2024 National Aboriginal Hockey Championships.
“Both of those experiences meant everything to me,” he says.
“To wear the letter on both teams, with those great rosters and coaching staffs, it was just amazing. We just bonded so nicely as a group on both occasions, and I just had so much fun. I don’t know what it means to other people, but for me, it means everything to wear Saskatchewan across my chest, and I hope it’s a stepping stone to many more experiences like it.”
Talent-wise, Herchak fit right in on that loaded Team Saskatchewan Canada Winter Games squad. Surrounded by potential NHL first-round picks Reese Hamilton and Cole Reschny, among others, the team won the silver medal in Prince Edward Island. It was assistant coached by Notre Dame Hounds Junior A head coach Brett Pilkington.
A high draft pick of the Western Hockey League’s Prince Albert Raiders and the United States Hockey League’s Omaha Lancers, Herchak is more than content with his decision to spend his rookie season in Kindersley.
“Oh, I am loving it in the SJHL,” he says.
“I just think the grit, the passion from towns for their team, it’s a league like no other. It’s such a fast, hard-hitting league with plenty of skill, so I think it’s the perfect place to be for me. It is a great stepping stone out of U18 AAA (Warman Wildcats), and from the moment I got drafted by the Klippers a couple of years ago, speaking to Coach Jardine, my family and I felt the relationships were all there. It was just laid out the right way for me to go into Kindersley when I was ready to move on from minor hockey.”
“Specifically, on the Klippers,” he continues, “I think every one of the other defencemen on the club has had their fair share of junior, and every one of them knows how to lead by example on and off the ice.
“They help me a lot, and whenever I’m in the line-up, it doesn’t matter who I play with; I am excited to play with them.”
Herchak calls Jardine the best coach he’s ever had and feels Jardine’s personability and communication skills have made him feel at home at the Inter Pipeline Arena.
While Jaxon is highly touted, mature, and already committed, he is still a young 17-year-old with all the mental and physical ups and downs that come with that. So, being within relatively close distance of his tight-knit family has been enormously important to him.
“My family works super hard for everything they have,” he says, “and I could not ask for a better family.
“The support I receive from all my family is crazy; they’ll drive up to Flin Flon for a game if I ask them to. Especially now at the start of the year, I have had a tough time at times with the distance from home. But my family always find a way to support me and make me feel at home, even away from home, and they come to every game they can.”
With a solid blend of experience and youth, the Klippers have proven early on to be one of the top teams in the league.
And with Herchak, despite his youth, quarterbacking much of what they do, they are more than worth the price of admission.
