Carnduff's Carter Phair has experienced the peaks and valleys of life as a junior hockey league goaltender this season.
Phair, 18, started the 2016-17 campaign with the Western Hockey League's Edmonton Oil Kings where he appeared in one preseason game with the club. He was then traded to the WHL's Kamloops Blazers on Sept. 6 for a fourth-round draft pick.
The six-foot-four and 181-pound netminder played two preseason games with the Blazers and took the ice in one regular season contest in a relief role. A few weeks after Blazers starter Conner Ingram returned to the team from the Tampa Bay Lightning's training camp, Phair was reassigned to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's Weyburn Red Wings.
“I was not sure where I was going to end up or how it was going to go,” said Phair, who was a 10th-round draft pick of the Oil Kings in 2013. “Edmonton did a lot for me at the start of the year and Kamloops just continued to build on that. (But I'm) happy to be back here. Weyburn is a second home to me.”
Phair said guys move the puck a lot faster in the WHL compared to the SJHL. He said that increases in the regular season when the best players are in the lineup meaning you have to battle that much harder.
“It (was) a great experience,” he said. “It tests you for sure. The speed of the release of those guys and the overall speed of the game is just incredible. It's something that definitely helps my development a lot.”
It took a little bit of time to readjust to the SJHL game, noted Phair, but that isn't reflected in his stats. After compiling an 8-4 record, a 2.25 goals against average and a .925 save percentage (SP) in 19 games with the club last season, the second-year junior A goalie posts a 7-7 record, a 2.25 GAA and a .927 SP in 18 contests so far this year.
Phair will be looking to improve on those statistics this weekend when the Red Wings (25-24-2-4) battle the Estevan Power Dodge Bruins (34-17-2-1) at Affinity Place on Friday and Crescent Point Place on Saturday. The one-time Estevan TS&M bantam AA Bruins goalie said it's always exciting to play against their Highway 39 and Viterra Division rivals, even if he used to be a fan of the Black and Gold growing up.
“At first being with the Wings it was kind of weird,” said Phair. “Obviously playing in Estevan you start to hate the Wings and now that I'm in Weyburn it just flops around. Those are the games you get up for.”
