Catton, Yager and Price set to continue hockey journey together at WJHC

They grew up playing hockey together as kids, and now they’re set to take junior hockey’s biggest stage together at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship in Ottawa.

Berkly Catton, Brayden Yager and Caden Price are all from Saskatoon and played with each other during the 2020-21 season for the U18 AAA Saskatoon Contacts.

Dale Lambert was the head coach of the Contacts during that season, and said he’s excited to see the three players being given the opportunity to represent Canada.

“It’s very cool for me. It’s very cool for those kids. Quite frankly, there probably could have been five kids from that team who were representing Canada this year,” Lambert said.

Read more:

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• Canada’s 2025 World Juniors starts with Boxing Day game against Finland
• Ottawa beats out Saskatchewan cities to host 2025 world juniors

Price and Catton are both prospects of the Seattle Kraken and Yager is a prospect of the Winnipeg Jets.

Four other players from that Contacts team are also listed to NHL teams: Kevin Korchinski has spent over a season playing with the Chicago Blackhawks, Riley Heidt is a Minnesota Wild prospect, Kalan Lind is committed to the Nashville Predators and Noah Chadwick is with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

When Smith, Catton and Price were with the Contacts, the club was only able to play in six games in the 2020-21 season because of COVID-19 restrictions that were in place.

Despite only being able to play six games that entire season, Lambert attributes the players’ success in their early hockey careers to their drive and determination.

“They were all extremely talented players,” Lambert said. “I think the big thing is that they’re dedicated to honing their craft and they’re great kids.”

“I remember at the end of the year Berkly’s dad said that he’s never seen his son display so much growth in one season and that was a year where we only played six games, but we practiced five days a week.

“Yager was no different. Caden price is no different. There are kids everywhere – it’s not just Saskatchewan – but there are just kids who are so extremely focused at getting better every day. We’re just fortunate to have had a whole bunch of them come from this province.”

When Lambert looks back on that 2020-21 team, he thinks it’s one of the best groups he’s had the opportunity to coach.

“There was a lot of good players on that team. There was a lot of really high draft picks taken from that team. So probably that could have been the most gifted team that I’ve had the opportunity to be around. It was unfortunate that it was the year that it was, because I think that was a team that could have definitely won a championship,” Lambert added.

Catton, Price and Yager are all expected to suit up for Canada when the tournament begins on Boxing Day against Finland. You can listen to every Team Canada game at the World Juniors on 650 CKOM and 980 CJME.