By Cami Kepke via Western Hockey League

KENNEWICK, Wash. – Riley Sawchuk was looking to begin his professional hockey career upon completing his time in the Western Hockey League, but the timing couldn’t have been worse.

With the end of the 2019-20 season canceled due to the pandemic, the former Tri-City American knew receiving a professional contract in those uncertain times was unlikely.

“Everyone’s hoping for a contract once you’re done with the WHL, but when our season was canceled, things got surreal for me that a contract might not come,” said Sawchuk. “It was then that I came to terms with the fact that I needed to start focusing on school.”

Originally drafted by the Americans in the 2014 WHL Prospects Draft, Sawchuk skated in 195 games over four seasons with the club before finishing his WHL career with the Edmonton Oil Kings. All told, the Prince Albert, Saskatchewan product collected 160 points (62-98-160) in 259 career games.

While it’s been years since he was a member of the organization, Sawchuk reflects on his time in the Tri-Cities fondly.

“I think the connections and teammates that I had,” he said when asked what he enjoyed most about his time with the Americans. “The atmosphere in the rink was amazing. I had unbelievable billets, Dustin and Carrie Carlson, who really helped with my experience.”

After deciding to take advantage of his WHL education package, Sawchuk had two driving factors that helped him land at Mount Royal University in Calgary.

“I was pretty close with Nolan Yaremko when we were together in Tri-City,” he said. “He really helped with my decision to go to Mount Royal. There were also other schools in Eastern Canada that I was considering, but I wanted to be a little closer to home after playing so long in Tri-City. My family couldn’t come down and see me play very often, so being in Calgary gave me the opportunity to be in a bigger city while also having my family close enough that they could come watch the odd weekend.”

There was no hockey played across USports in 2020-21, so Sawchuk had to wait another year to get back on the ice for competitive games.

The long layoff didn’t seem to affect Sawchuk as he burst onto the scene with the Mount Royal Cougars in 2021-22, ending the year with 38 points (15-23-38) in just 20 games, earning six accolades, including USports All-Rookie Team, USports (West) First All-Star Team, and USports West Most Outstanding Freshman.

According to Sawchuk, his connection with Yaremko played a big part in his immediate success.

“I had a really good bond with our head coach, Bert Gilling, but also my previous chemistry with Yaremko,” he said. “We had played together before and just clicked on a line together right away. The groups we had there were such tight-knit groups. We just had really good teams during my time there, so I think that allowed me to be successful.”

WHL players receive a year of scholarship for every year they play in the league, and Sawchuk said accessing his education package couldn’t have been easier.

“Once I got into contact with the school I was going to, they pretty much handled everything for me,” he said. “I had to sign a lot of papers on the backside of it, but it was a super easy process.”

Sawchuk took another step forward in 2022-23 by leading all of USports in scoring with 49 points (20-29-49) in 27 games.

The Canadian university ranks are widely considered to be one of the most underrated hockey leagues, and Sawchuk couldn’t agree more.

“You might not have the giant rinks or all the money like you see in the NCAA, but there are so many good players in that league,” he said. “There may not be the first-round NHL picks or things like that, but you’ve got guys who work so hard. There’s a ton of skill in that league, and I 100 percent think it’s highly underrated.”

Between juggling hockey and his classwork toward his accounting degree, Sawchuk let his agent handle all talks with professional teams about his future.

That future became a reality in February of 2023 when he was signed to a contract by the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins, the AHL affiliate of the Detroit Red Wings.

“My agent kind of did most of the work for me,” he laughed. “I just told him what kind of contract I was interested in, and Grand Rapids was the best fit because of that. He made it all really easy for me.”

One day Sawchuk was attending class at Mount Royal University, and the next, he was joining the Griffins for the remainder of the 2022-23 season. It was a moment a few years in the making for Sawchuk, who saw his dream of being a professional hockey player come true.

“It was honestly pretty surreal,” he said. “I actually knew a few guys in the Red Wings organization at the time, so they gave me a bit of a rundown on what to expect. It was a great experience when I got there, and I was still taking a few of my classes online, so I was really busy, but it was an unreal experience.”

Sawchuk skated in 23 games with the Griffins to finish out the year, scoring three goals.

Heading into his first full year as a pro in 2023-24, Sawchuk’s offseason routine got flipped on its head to prepare him for the grind of a long season.

“I’ve been staying in Calgary over the summer for the past few years, and the past couple summers have been pretty straightforward,” he said. “I would just train and usually had a summer job, got out to golf a whole bunch. But last summer I remember my agent telling me that they didn’t want me working a summer job, they just wanted me to focus strictly on hockey to get ready for the pro season, so I didn’t work or anything. I just worked out basically every day, skated four or five times a week, and I think that’s what prepared me.”

Sawchuk saw some time with the Griffins this past year, scoring once in 12 games, but spent most of the season with the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye where he was a key contributor.

In 50 regular season games, he posted 52 points (25-27-52) before exploding in the playoffs, leading the Walleye in scoring with 18 points (10-8-18) in 14 games.

He says his experience with the Walleye was some of the most fun he’s ever had playing hockey.

“It was honestly one of the best years of hockey I’ve ever had,” he said. “On the ice, team-wise, we had such a good group of guys, and it was one of those feelings where it just felt like you were never going to lose. When we lost in the playoffs, that was obviously heartbreaking, but we did something special this year, and that made it a great experience.”

The Walleye finished second in the ECHL’s Western Conference with a record of 48-14-4-5 and reached the Western Conference Final. They had a record-setting stretch from March 15 to May 10 where they won 22 consecutive games. The streak broke the previous ECHL record of 18 straight wins set by the Las Vegas Thunder in 2007 and included sweeping their first two playoff rounds against the Kalamazoo Wings and the Wheeling Nailers.

Their stretch came to a difficult ending as they fell to the Kansas City Mavericks, the ECHL’s top team, in six games in the Western Conference Final.

Sawchuk’s contract with the Griffins organization expired at the end of this season, and while it hasn’t been announced publicly yet, he said he already has a new home locked in for the upcoming 2024-25 season.