John MacNeil
Daily Herald
With licence plates from California, Minnesota, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and elsewhere mixed in with the dominating Saskatchewan presence in the Art Hauser Centre parking lot, a Prince Albert kid stood out in his own right.
For the second straight Raiders’ training camp, Madden Dell skated with fellow Western Hockey League prospects in his hometown rink.
It all amounted to heady stuff for the likes of Dell, who is going into his second and final season with the U18 AAA Prince Albert Mintos.
From the Mintos’ camp to the Raiders’ camp on back-to-back weekends, Dell is camping out again this weekend as he participates in Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League tryouts with the Battlefords North Stars.
He anticipated the pace of the WHL camp would help him “tons” as he stepped into battle with Battlefords.
“Just the experience with the older kids and how fast it is, compared to years prior playing AA and AAA,” he said. “I got some experience last year, too. For sure, it’ll be good preparation for that (SJHL) camp.
“Raiders’ camp was definitely just how I remembered it. Just as fast, just as skilled and just as many competitors who wanted it as much as I did. It was good.”
For a kid who grew up in Prince Albert, it was particularly special for Dell to not only compete in the Raiders’ camp, but also to take part in a shootout during intrasquad action, and to play in the Green-and-White game.
“I loved coming back to play in my hometown,” he said. “It was always a dream to play here, and it’s going to continue to be that dream, moving forward.
“I took lots from the camp, and I’m going to keep that knowledge, moving forward this year.”
As he skates into his senior year with the Mintos, Dell will keep a close eye on the Raiders, whose dressing room is just across the hallway at the Art Hauser.
“I’m working toward (becoming listed with the Raiders). With them just seeing me over the past year or two, it’s been good.”
Dell, usually playing centre, is six-foot-one and about 180 pounds.
“I’m trying to get the weight bumped up a bit more,” he said. “Trying to grow into my body, in size.”
Last season with the Mintos, Dell scored six goals and 21 points in 31 games in the Saskatchewan Male AAA Hockey League.
He described himself as “a dynamic, skilled, 200-foot player that loves having the puck on his stick.”
In the 2024-25 season, Dell netted 26 goals and 61 points in 34 games with the U16 AA Prince Albert Renegades. That performance prompted Battlefords to select him in the fourth round of the 2025 SJHL draft.
Now, with a year of U18 AAA hockey under his belt, he wants to make an even greater impression on the junior A North Stars, while gaining more experience at their camp.
“Yeah, just trying to benefit from playing against more size, more skill and fast hockey, and take that experience with me playing for the Mintos again this year. I’ll strive to make that (Battlefords) team, or the Raiders, or whoever, in the future.”
In the present, Dell and the Mintos hope to turn a corner this season and return to the playoff picture.
“It’s definitely going to be new,” he said. “A new setting and a new culture going forward. It’s going to be good.”
Dell, who turns 17 in October, believes in the Mintos’ new management team of general manager Chris Bourdon and head coach Tyson Dallman.
“He knows what it takes, for sure,” Dell said about Dallman, a former Mintos’ forward who later played junior A, major junior and university hockey.
One of the Mintos’ rookies, defenceman Owen Kahl of Saskatoon, also participated in the Raiders’ WHL camp. Last season, Kahl and three other new Mintos — goaltender Will Shaw and forwards Liam Harris and Axton Snow-Hayes — were part of the Saskatchewan U18 AA champion Saskatoon Riverkings.
Liam Myhre, a 17-year-old defenceman from Nipawin, has played the past two years with the Mintos, but he’s expected to graduate to the major junior Raiders this season. Myhre has been named to Prince Albert’s 31-man roster for the WHL pre-season.
For the past week, virtually all of the Mintos have been participating in major junior and junior A training camps, before likely making their way back to Prince Albert.
This week, the Mintos announced the signing of defenceman Rhett Franklin from the U16 AA Prince Albert Renegades. The La Ronge Ice Wolves’ SJHL draft choice scored 16 goals and 38 points in 32 games last season with the Renegades.
