Life a roller-coaster ride for Benson

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This article was published 02/04/2022 (1313 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Zach Benson has been gaining traction as a top prospect for the 2023 NHL Draft but if his hockey career doesn’t lead to fame and fortune in the big leagues, he’ll always have the family business to fall back on.

The Bensons own the Chilliwack, B.C.-based West Coast Amusements, a company that supplies midway rides and attractions for fairs and carnivals across Western Canada.

And Benson, a 16-year-old forward with the Winnipeg Ice, is already a seasoned carny.

“I’ve been out there since I was a one-year-old, every summer,” said Benson, earlier this week. “We travel around Western Canada, not Manitoba but B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan. So, we kind of do that every summer.

“Obviously the last couple summers we haven’t really been able to get out (owing to the pandemic) but last summer we stayed around B.C., and if I had Saturday off training I would go out there and help out in the mini-donuts or or do something like that.”

The company was founded by his great-grandparents, and Benson’s family — mom Jaclyn, dad Darcy and his brothers, Levi and Dylan — are all involved in the production.

His preferred gig?

“I would say mini-donuts is probably my favourite,” he said. “I haven’t been able to work on the rides or anything. I don’t really trust myself with that. I don’t know, it seems pretty high-tech for me.”

Frequent travel during the summer months hasn’t deterred the Benson brothers’ development on the ice.

“Actually, every town that we kind of went to there’s always a hockey camp, luckily,” said Benson. “So to keep us busy, my mom would usually book us into a hockey camp and we didn’t miss much summer training.”

While Benson loves hanging out with his cousins and grandparents in the summertime, he has also found a satisfying niche in Winnipeg.

When his 15-year-old season was wiped out by the pandemic last spring, he was freed up to accept the invitation of Ice management to acclimate with the WHL team during the 24-game hub season in Regina. He shocked most observers by scoring 10 goals and 20 points in 24 games.

He quickly became embedded in the fabric of the team.

“The expectations that we were given were he would just come to practice and maybe get into a few games,” said Darcy Benson. “So, it was more just for the experience to be honest, but Zach was lucky enough and won the coach’s trust to throw him in there for every game.”

Head coach James Patrick was immediately struck by Benson’s acumen and willingness to learn.

It helped that a comfort level had already been established for Benson and other incoming players and their parents. In the three months that preceded the hub season, everyone had been included on Zoom calls that allowed players and parents to get a feel for a coaching staff and organization they were just getting to know.

“Our organizational approach is that we are so respectful of all our players, but I’m so thankful that the parents entrust us to spend this much time with their kids,” said Patrick. “We want to make them the best players possible, but more than that — the best people.”

From the day a player is chosen in the WHL Draft, assistant general manager Jake Heisinger is the primary point of contact with the team for prospects and parents before they arrive at their first training camp.

In Benson’s case, it was a short mini-camp before his first season.

“To be honest, from a father and mother standpoint, it was a real tough moment dropping your son off at the university in Regina and pretty much waving to him as he goes inside the building,” said Darcy. “And we had not met the coaches, just due to the pandemic.”

Any concerns have since melted away. Patrick credited the personal traits of the veteran players in the dressing room for helping to provide a good environment for young players.

“We do a ton of work on our team values and respect and trust and character and we’ve been doing this for going on the third year — a lot of work on Zoom calls during the last few years,” said Patrick.

“Where do we get the trust? I think there is a bit of a track record now. I do think we have we have a really good culture that’s led by older players and by looking at the 20-year-olds (we have), I could get emotional talking about what type of people they are when I’m talking about Cole Muir, Jakin Smallwood and Nolan Orzeck.”

Benson, Winnipeg’s first-round choice in the 2020 draft, came with high expectations. But with an exceptionally deep group of forwards on the Ice roster, he was not expected to be a star.

And yet he has excelled, piling up 22 goals and 55 points in 52 games entering Friday’s action. With an excellent shot and uncanny instincts for the game, the 5-foot-10, 150-pounder could very well be the league’s best 2023 NHL Draft prospect not named Connor Bedard.

“He loves the game and that’s the honest truth right there,” said Darcy. “He’s always been a real mature kid and and he loves the game. This is what he’s wanted to do since he was old enough to talk.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14