The Prince Albert Mintos welcome back a major part of last season’s team just before Saturday’s home opener.

Goaltender Jayden Kraus returned to Prince Albert after a strong showing at training camp with the Victoria Royals of the WHL. Kraus says he took it all in and hopes to pass on the knowledge gained to the rest of the Minto roster.

“The biggest thing at that level you learn a lot of things, see a lot from those guys who have been there for a while. I think the biggest thing is I’ll bring that back and hopefully share it with some of my teammates and the guys in PA.”

Kraus appeared in two games in the pre-season for Victoria. Kraus played for 30 minutes in his WHL pre-season debut stopping 29 of 31 shots against the Prince George Cougars. In his second pre-season game, Kraus stopped all 11 shots the Vancouver Giants fired at him.
Kraus says the experience playing in the WHL pre-season was worthwhile.

“I was a little nervous. The biggest thing for me was to just enjoy it. That was my mindset. I’m playing hockey, at the end of the day I play hockey to have fun. I thought I had a couple good games with a really strong D core in front of me and it turned out really good.”

Kraus adds the biggest thing he took away from Royals training camp was the level of consistency it takes to be a WHL goaltender.

“Off the ice, they’re always professional. On the ice, they’re so good. You’d think a Western [Hockey] League guy should be good. They’re unreal. To see those guys and the perfection it takes to be that good, I was very impressed.”