MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- When Jason Ripplinger took over as Moose Jaw Warriors general manager at the end of the 2020-21 season, there was some work to do.
The Western Hockey League franchise was in the midst of a rebuild and had just come off a sub.-500 season playing in the East Division bubble in Regina -- but there was hope for the future.
The Warriors had a group of young talent that Ripplinger had played a major role in scouting and drafting, players the team hoped would become leaders in a few years and possibly even contend for a title during the Warriors’ 40th anniversary in 2023-24.
Flash forward three seasons, and all of Ripplinger’s efforts to build a contender have paid off and then some.
A second-straight 40-plus win season. Ranking in the Canadian Hockey League Top 10 much of the campaign. Four players on Team Canada for the World Juniors. Two players named Player of the Month during the season. And a crew ranked as one of the favourites for the WHL Championship.
For all that, Ripplinger was named the East Division nominee for the Lloyd Saunders Memorial Trophy as the WHL Executive of the Year on Wednesday morning.
Ripplinger built the Warriors into a serious contender with a host of savvy trades throughout the season, with the Warriors eventually finishing with the WHL’s fifth-best record at 44-21-0-3, second-best in the Eastern Conference.
As the Warriors assistant general manager, Ripplinger was instrumental in bringing the likes of 2023 WHL scoring champion Jagger Firkus, team captain and Columbus Blue Jackets first-rounder Denton Mateychuk and former WHL Rookie of the Year Brayden Yager into the Warriors fold.
With that kind of talent and potential, Ripplinger put together a series of trades to bolster the roster throughout the campaign, adding NHL-drafted defencemen Kalem Parker (Minnesota) and Vojtech Port (Anaheim) along with forwards Brayden Schuurman and Rilen Kovacevic and goaltender Evan May.
Ripplinger then pulled off one of the biggest trades in team history at the deadline, adding Buffalo Sabres first-rounder Matthew Savoie and his two points-per-game offence immediately after Savoie, Mateychuk, Yager and Firkus arrived home from playing with Team Canada at the World Juniors.
Ripplinger signed a multi-year extension as the Warriors general manager in March.
The 2024 WHL Awards will be presented in May.
The Warriors are back in action in the Eastern Conference quarter-final Wednesday night when they take on the Brandon Wheat Kings at the Keystone Centre. Game time is 6 p.m.
