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All Edmonton All The Time - Apr. 6  2021 – Vol. 74, Issue 04 - Ryan Kennedy

You can't get much more Edmonton than Dylan Guenther. Born and raised in the Alberta capital, the gifted right winger has literally spent his entire hockey career in the city, and now he’s a star for the WHL’s Oil Kings.

Thanks in part to Edmonton’s famed Brick Tournament, a 10-year-old Guenther saw his passion crystallize. “That was a big goal of mine, to play in that tournament,” Guenther said. “I watched it as I grew up, and when I finally achieved that goal, it gave me the sense that I wanted to play when I was older. It gave me some confidence to keep moving forward and be the best I could be.”

Guenther has certainly been making that case since. After compiling a gaudy 103 points in 30 games for the Northern Alberta X-Treme, the youngster was taken first overall by the Oil Kings in the 2018 WHL bantam draft. Guenther got a taste of the ‘Dub’ the next season, seeing eight games of action and tallying a respectable four points. “We brought him up as a 15-year-old for some games, and he scored some goals that were like a 19- or 20-year-old in our league,” said coach Brad Lauer. “The way he was able to shoot the puck, there was something there.”

Rippin’ it has become a Guenther calling card, and when the WHL began its 2020-21 campaign in late February, he instantly made a mockery of the scoresheet: he notched two points in the first two-and-a-half minutes of the first game and ended up with four points in a 7-1 waxing of Lethbridge. He kept the party going with 10 points in his first three games.

Preparation during unprecedented times was the key. Guenther had an excellent 16-year-old season with the Oil Kings, putting up a point per game and earning WHL rookie-of-the-year honors before everything was shut down in March. But the kid made sure to get himself some homework on his way out the door. “I really think he put the time in this off-season, and obviously he had 11-and-a-half months to do it in,” Lauer said. “When he left in March, he was one of a few guys who reached out to us asking for video of NHL players to watch, and I thought that was pretty impressive for a young guy.”

From The Archive: Ready To Break Out: Central Division The Hockey News has released its archive to all THN subscribers: 76 years of history, stories, and features.

And while Guenther grew up as an Edmonton Oilers fan, his playlist was much more Eastern Conference. “I tried to watch players who I think play a really good defensive game, so Patrice Bergeron was a big one,” he said. “As far as goal-scoring, I watched the best, like David Pastrnak and Auston Matthews. Whether it was them changing the angle of their shot or finding the soft areas in the offensive zone, I really took a lot from them.”

In the gym, Guenther was also augmenting himself, as he knows that everyone will be bigger and stronger as he proceeds to the next level of the game. At nearly 6-foot-2 and 183 pounds, he has already grown a couple inches and gained 20 pounds since the Oil Kings drafted him. The impact of strength training has also helped Guenther get faster, which is why he’s such a difficult load to handle on the ice. Otherwise, Lauer and his staff have been helping him with little details, such as defensive-zone coverage and wall play.

As many WHL players were sidelined in the fall by the lack of a season, Guenther was lucky enough to get into some action with the Alberta Jr. A League’s Sherwood Park Crusaders (Sherwood Park being a suburb of Edmonton, naturally). There, he got to play with another local kid, fellow 2021 draft prospect Ty Mueller. Guenther posted five points in four games with the Crusaders and got to play the game with a different feel. “It was good, the league was definitely different, and it was something I had to adjust to, maybe a bit more rough and chippy,” he said. “But it was good to get into some action and just bump my shoulders around and be in a team environment.”

Thanks to the Oil Kings’ environment, he’s getting a chance to do that again. Edmonton has been playing in a cohort system where the players only go from their billet houses to the rink and back (Guenther lives at home with his family). The players have school at the rink in the morning, followed by a workout, lunch and practice. After that, they can hang out together, and they’ve benefited from last year’s NHL bubble: leftovers in Edmonton included a golf simulator, basketball nets and ping-pong tables.

It has given the Oil Kings a sense of normalcy during strange times. They’re at the rink, but it doesn’t feel like the rink – it just feels like buddies hanging out. And on the ice it’s been business as usual for Guenther: scoring goals and lots of them.

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