Schimnowski’s sensational season

Crewe Schimnowski knows which parts of his game will impress talent evaluators.

He has a shot that most 14-year-olds can only dream about and the smooth puck-handling skills to go with it. Intangibles like elite vision and a high hockey IQ are evident, and at 5-9, 170 pounds, he isn’t afraid to throw his body around.

What’s more rare about the Winnipeg teen is a self-understanding of his weaknesses, and his determination to improve in those areas.

He doesn’t shy away from talking about what he needs to work on.

“Skating, for sure,” said Schimnowski, a forward for the Winnipeg Bruins who led U15 AAA with 57 goals and 111 points in 29 regular-season contests this past winter.

“I’m aware of it, and I go to the gym to work on legs for explosiveness and working on my stride, so it’s already coming along much better.”

It would’ve been easy for Schimnowski to rest on his laurels after this season. His sensational campaign skyrocketed his draft stock and has him positioned to be a first-round pick in next month’s Western Hockey League Bantam Draft, which takes place May 7.

Schimnowski isn’t interested in settling, though. It’s a reason why Bruins head coach Chris McColm was confident when naming him team captain.

“That’s the maturity coming out,” said McColm. “That was one of the things that we picked out from him was he’s got to work on his footwork, he’s got to get quicker, got to get faster. But that being said, he is one of the quickest, he is one of the fastest in the league. But we’re preparing him for that next step.”

Those closest to the team predicted Schimnowski would have a big season, but no one could have guessed he would put up the numbers he did.

Last season, and underage, he made the Bruins U15 AAA team and developed quickly while skating on a line with standout talent Tyden Lafournaise, who was selected 13th overall in the 2024 WHL Bantam Draft.

This season, centring a line with Owen Murray and Trevor Toyne, he more than doubled his production from his 13-year-old season — adding 14 goals and 13 assists in 12 playoff games — while being called up to play with the Bruins’ U17 and U18 teams.

“It was awesome,” Schimnowski said of the season, which saw the Bruins go undefeated during the regular season and 43-1 overall en route to winning the league championship.

“It was good to do it with the team I had this year, too. So it was an honour to be a captain of that team, and it’s a great group of guys and great group of hockey players, and just a great feeling.”

While the right-shooting forward capitalizes on his shoot-first mentality, he doesn’t force the issue and makes the right play more times than not.

“Crewe is a two-way player. He’s very offensive-minded. He sees the game well from both an offensive and defensive perspective, but he’s a great teammate. He’s a very unselfish, humble kid and he’s just a hard-working kid,” said McColm.

“That’s why he’s our captain, right? He’s just a leader all around.”

Before the playoffs began, Schimnowski received an endorsement from fellow Winnipegger and social media influencer Jesse Pollock, who posted a video on TikTok with his reaction to Schimnowski’s eye-popping regular season numbers. The video has been liked over 19,700 times and served as a nice kick before the most important stretch of the year.

“I was actually in class when I found it, and… it just ignited me, I guess. It was really cool to see. A bunch of people reached out and stuff, and that was awesome, so it kind of felt good to be out there,” said Schimnowski, adding he’s followed Pollock’s content for a long time.

“I gained a lot of Instagram followers from that, for sure,” he said with a chuckle. “Just cool to see that he made a video on me.”

Schimnowski, whose dad played football in college and mom curled at a high level, is the first in his family attempting a run at a hockey career.

Though the WHL Bantam Draft can be tough to predict, evaluators have told McColm that Schimnowski should come off the board somewhere in the top 15 picks.

That would place him among the top Manitobans selected, as Reid Nicol of Brandon (Brandon Wheat Kings AAA), Cole Landreville of St. Claude (Pilot Mound Academy) and Crosby Mateychuk of Dominion City (Eastman Selects) have been talked about in a similar range.

“I’d put some money on that,” McColm said.

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca