Battlefords North Stars look back on the 2025-26 season

The North Stars were one of, if not the deepest offensive team in the entire league this season. They had 12 players with 10 or more goals in the regular season which led the league. They also had 14 players with 20 or more total points, which ranked second behind the league just behind Flin Flon’s 16.

Throughout the year, the North Stars felt that they may not have gotten the respect they deserved and played with a chip on their shoulder throughout the year. “We weren’t supposed to be where we were. I think we came into the year, and we were ranked lower than definitely what we wanted to be,” said North Stars rookie Kaleb Dewar. “I think that we exceeded expectations a lot.”

“Obviously a big step for our group. I think we were kind of doubted,” added Owen Nelson, who was acquired by the North Stars from the Melfort Mustangs midseason.”

The North Stars had a good balance of players when it came to their age with five 20-year-olds, nine 19-year-olds, nine 18-year-olds and one 17-year-old.

“I think the good thing is that we did add some tools that were older players that were ready to speed up that process in terms of their development curve,” said Logan. “I think guys like Drew Williamson and making a trade for Raiden Zacharias and bringing in some 06s, 19 year olds, that helps your core grow and helps you be a little bit more solidified in terms of having more of an objective to win versus just develop.”

The North Stars also had a lot of contributions from rookies and 18-year-olds throughout the year.

“Elite contributors. Owen Nelson comes in and is nearly a point per game player for us. You got Carter Geysen who’s a 35-point player this year, nearly 20 goals. Some of the production Kaleb Dewar had through the middle of the year where he and [Finlay] Klippenstein were single-handedly winning us games at times,” said Logan.

On defence, the North Stars only have Gavin Granger graduating, which means the likes of Linken Fisher, Alex Coventry, Owen Dyck, Will Kirwan, Keegan Nash and Austin Garrett will all be eligible to return next year.

A big reason for the North Stars success was how close the group was. Multiple players on the team said this is the closest group they’ve ever played on. “We bonded immediately. I think it only took after fall camp to come together,” said Dewar.

“The guys gelled together quickly and I made 20, 25 new brothers. We’re closer than ever and I’m super excited to get back next year,” said Klippenstein.

Granger, who aged out after this season said this year was the most fun he ever had playing hockey. “It was so much fun to be a part of. I was sad we didn’t get it done, but it was a fun ride.”

Logan said a big reason for the group being as close as it was, was just having “genuine people” around the locker room.

“There are no egos. There’s a lot of guys that care about the guy next to them. I think you really find out who a person is when you’re winning. If you’re losing, there’s a hunger and desperation to eat, right? But if you’re winning, you really figure out if a person has humility and they care about the people around them,” he said.

“The guys cared about the success of the people around them and they brought our younger guys along with them. You just felt like throughout our process of becoming a development team into a team that could win was just that everybody became important.”

Moving into next season, Logan was adamant that although they exceeded expectations this year, nothing is guaranteed in the future.

“You got to earn it. I can’t stress that enough. There’s no expectation to come in and think you’re owed something because you had a decent year. That could get ego checked faster than anything. So come in and have a hunger that we’re unsatisfied with where we finish this year.”

After the North Stars were eliminated in game seven in Yorkton, it was an somber time at the Westland Arena after the game. “It was hard to wrap our heads around not playing anyone. A lot of our guys came into the room and it was sort of a weird feeling and almost emotionless in the sense that it was like, we’re actually done,” said Logan.

It’s easy to think that feeling carried onto the near five-hour bus ride home, but that wasn’t the case.

Even after a heartbreaking game seven loss, the guys were telling stories, cracking jokes, and enjoying the limited time they had together.

Relentless, competitive, family. That’s the kind of group the 2025-26 Battlefords North Stars were. It’s a group that’s incredibly hard to let go of, and a group that made memories which will last a lifetime.

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Ryan.Lambert@pattisonmedia.com

by Ryan Lambert

Battlefords North Stars look back on the 2025-26 season

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