Grizzlies’ Habs drafted goaltender Vecvanags man on a mission
Returning goaltender Mikus Vecvanags had an adventure last season in coming to the Victoria Grizzlies mid-season after backstopping Latvia at the 2026 world junior championship. And he says he has some “unfinished business” this season with the Grizzlies, who were edged in last season’s B.C. Hockey League playoffs in overtime in Game 7 of their Coastal Conference series against the Cowichan Valley Capitals.
But before that is new business this week in the rookie camp of the Montreal Canadiens, the team that drafted him in the fifth round of the 2024 NHL draft. That is an eerily similar echo to Jakub Dobes, the Czech goaltender who the Habs drafted in the fifth round in 2020, and who was the surprise star for Montreal in its run last spring to the Eastern Conference final of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“Dobes is an inspiration as we are in similar shoes as European goaltenders drafted by Montreal in the fifth round,” said Vecvanags, as he opened in Grizzlies camp over the weekend, before leaving for Habs camp on Tuesday.
“It proves that anything is possible. I just take my career day to day and season to season.”
Next season it will lead the 20-year-old to the University of Maine Black Bears of the NCAA. Vecvanags said he tries to learn from every stage and everybody. That includes Kristers Gudlevskis, who almost backstopped Latvia to the greatest Olympic upset of all-time in a 2-1 quarter-final loss to former Grizzlies forward and eventual gold-medallist for Canada at Sochi 2014, Jamie Benn.
“I attended [Gudlevskis’] goaltending camps and he is an awesome guy and I picked his brain,” said Vecvanags.
Vecvanags plans to do the same with the gathered young hopefuls in Canadiens rookie camp camp beginning Friday in Gatineau, Que., with games Saturday and Sunday against the Winnipeg Jets and Ottawa Senators prospects: “I want to learn as much as I can in a pro setting.”
Vecvanags arrived Saturday to YYJ after spending the summer back home in Latvia: “I did mostly dryland and worked on the physical side getting stronger. I also worked on the mental side because for goalies that is 90 per cent of the game. My on-ice over the summer was with a Latvian group of guys who play in the AHL and European pro leagues.”
The 20-year-old said he is primed and feels ready for both Habs camp and the BCHL season to follow.
“I am excited to be back on the Island because I feel we are building something special with the Grizzlies, after coming so close last season, and I can’t wait to get started,” said Vecvanags.
The six-foot-three Vecvanags will be backed up this season in the Grizzlies’ crease by new addition Hunter Dryden, the six-foot-four grandson of the late six-time Stanley Cup-champion Canadiens goaltender Ken Dryden, out of Taft Prep School in Connecticut. Hunter’s dad is Ken’s son, Michael Dryden, and mom is Tammy Lee Shewchuk-Dryden, gold medallist for Canada in women’s hockey at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
The Grizzlies open the preseason Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at The Q Centre against the defending BCHL Coastal Conference-champion Nanaimo Clippers before heading up-Island to play the Alberni Valley Bulldogs on Friday night in Port Alberni.
CAMP NOTES: A notable returnee among the forward corps for the Grizzlies is Owen Warnick, committed to Northern Michigan of the NCAA, and who was second in team scoring last season. Intriguing newcomers include six-foot-two forward Peter Ziak, who has played seven pro games in his native Slovakia, and had 21 goals and 35 assists for 56 points in 37 games last season with HC 05 Banská Bystrica of the Slovakian Junior League. … There were 71 current or former BCHL players invited to NHL rookie summer camps following the draft and that number is expected to be about the same for this week’s NHL rookie camps for signed players and invited free-agent prospects.
