Sartor, Joss reunited in Wilderness

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This article was published 12/01/2021 (1946 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mitchell Joss and Mikol Sartor led a charmed existence with the Winnipeg Blues in 2019-20.

Sartor, a centre, led the MJHL in scoring with 93 points and Joss, his right-winger, was fourth with 71. Both players decided to move south in the off-season but it’s been a bumpy transition for the 19-year-olds.

Sartor had one goal and four points in seven games with the North American Hockey League’s Johnstown Tomahawks before being released, while Joss was cut loose after a pre-season tryout with the USHL’s Waterloo Black Hawks.

Joss then joined the NAHL’s Minnesota Wilderness, playing one game before a statewide shutdown in December.

The Wilderness was back at practice last week with Joss and now Sartor, whose rights were acquired during the winter break, skating together.

By Friday, head coach Jon Vaillancourt had Sartor centring Joss with Will Traeger, an 18-year-old from Mendota Heights, Minn., on the left side.

Traeger, committed to attend Boston College next fall, and his new linemates could be a dangerous trio when they debut Friday against the Janesville Jets.

“That’ll be a good line,” said Joss by telephone from Cloquet, Minn., Sunday. “We had a scrimmage Friday afternoon and we were playing together and we were clicking, I thought.”

After a long layoff, Joss is eager to get his play back to a high level. 

“I see myself fitting in a top role, being that go-to guy, kind of how I was with the Blues last year,” he said. “I think that’s where coach Vaillancourt wants to see me fit in as well. Just be that guy where I could score goals and be reliable in the D-zone and create plays and just play my own game really. And so far, he’s been giving me the opportunity to do that.”

The Wilderness coaching staff had a fairly extensive read on Joss before he arrived.

“We did a lot of scouting work on him,” said Vaillancourt. “We drafted him in the supplemental draft relatively early. It’s been a long process, kind of waiting for him but we started talking in March so we knew quite a bit about him as far as the way he plays and his style… By the time he got here, there were unfortunate circumstances where we had to take a pause.”

The Wilderness played only three regular-season games before the pause while two other Minnesota-based clubs, the St. Cloud Norsemen and Austin Bruins, relocated to North and South Dakota in order to play games.

“We felt that it was more responsible to our fan base and for our sponsors to pause and then start back up,” said Vaillancourt, explaining the decision to shut down.

After six weeks without any action, the Wilderness has a lot of ground to make up. Minnesota is between seven and 17 games played behind its Central Division rivals and the club will carry the league maximum of 27 players to help overcome the wear and tear of a heavy schedule. NAHL teams are booked for a 60-game regular season.

“We should be playing a lot of games, so it’ll be a lot of four-game weeks and three games per week, “ said Vaillancourt. “It’s a lot of hockey, which is great for the kids.”

Vaillancourt figures Joss is a good college prospect, a reputation he can enhance with a good performance. 

“We really like his game,” said Vaillancourt. “He’s fast. I think he’s dynamic. You look at the success he had last year with good players around him. He did a nice job moving the puck and playing the game the right way. 

“We don’t think he’s gonna have the numbers he had last year — in my opinion our league is a little bit stronger than the (MJHL) — but we believe that he has the ability to put points up with the right guys around him.”

 

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14