In the off-season, second-year men's hockey head coach Gordon Burnett was clear in his recruiting goals.
 
"Our focus was to try and bring home Winnipeg guys and Manitoba guys that were playing elsewhere in the country, and fill other positions where we couldn't accomplish that," he said.
 
"One of our goals was scoring, and the other was goaltending. Those were pretty clear areas that needed to be addressed in recruiting."
 
Burnett went to work, securing the commitment of nine of the WHL's top Manitoba-born players. Seven of those playmakers came at the forward position, in an effort to improve the Herd's depth at the position.
 
"We were the lowest scoring team in the country last year," he added. "We feel like we've addressed some of those needs in our recruiting."
 
One of the key pieces added to Manitoba's roster was 5'9", 170-pound sniper Skyler Bruce, who Burnett was quite familiar with, having previously been on the WHL staff that drafted him.
 
Bruce, a Winnipeg native, lit up the Canadian Sport School Hockey League [CSSHL] to the tune of 104 points over two seasons, and was selected in the second round of the 2018 WHL Prospects Draft by Kootenay.
 
"Skyler Bruce, he can score," said Burnett.
 
"He's a little smaller, but he's got a heck of a shot. I was in Kootenay when we drafted him in the second round, and I watched his progression as a player. He's a good young man, and he's very popular with his friends."
 
Kootenay ultimately moved operations to Winnipeg, giving Bruce the chance to play at the highest level of Canadian amateur hockey in front of his friends and family. He was fortunate to have 20-plus year NHL veteran James Patrick as his coach for most of junior, which was a game-changer.
 
"Playing at home was one of the coolest experiences ever. We had such a great coach in James Patrick. You have that many years of NHL experience, how are you not going to know the game? A lot of the guys on the team were students of the game as well, and were learning from James Patrick," recalled Bruce.
 
"When I was called up at 15, I think they were one of the last place teams. They were in a rebuild with Peyton Krebs as their captain. As they slowly started getting these key players like [first round NHL Draft pick Conor] Geekie, [first round pick Zach] Benson, [ECHL veteran Owen] Pederson, [AHL pro] Ben Zloty, [first round NHL Draft pick] Carson Lambos, one of my good buddies, [third round NHL Draft pick] Mikey Milne, everyone believed we could win."
 
Bruce was on the Ice's roster in 2021-22, when they had a WHL-leading 53 regular season wins, making a run to the conference final.
 
A student of the game, Bruce had a career-high 37 points that season, while Milne, along with first round NHL Draft pick Matthew Savoie and sixth round pick Connor McClennon all had over 80 points. Savoie led the way with 90, while McClennon had a team-leading 43 goals.
 
Learning from players of a similar stature (Savoie is 5'9", 179, McClennon is 5'8", 170) helped Bruce to thrive, collecting tools for his toolkit along the way.
 
"It's not all about how hard you work. You have to have some form of IQ to go with that. Some of those guys can skate a million miles an hour. They're not going to do that the whole game, because you're going to be exhausted. They definitely taught me how to think the game," said Bruce.
 
"I think I learned different aspects. With where I'm at on the power play is where McClennon used to play, and that's exactly how I'm trying to play. [Zach] Benson's passing and his head fakes and movements, I try to do that in games as well, and Savoie's speed. I try to take my stride into account. When I watched him skate it was more lateral when he was doing his cross-overs. Even when you look at Connor McDavid, he's more lateral when he's skating. I definitely picked out things from each player that I try to emulate."
 
Playing in the WHL as a young teenager also helped Bruce adjust to the speed and strength of next level hockey. The jump to U SPORTS has been a challenge, but it's been aided by his prior experience playing against grown men.
 
The evidence is clear after one week of regular season play.
 
Bruce scored a power play goal in his first career U SPORTS action against perennial powerhouse Alberta, and he added an assist for a two-point night. Look for the clinical finisher to be at it again on Manitoba's top line when the Herd host Regina this weekend.
 
"I think in the first game our power play was really strong. The U of A, they're a great team and we have a lot to learn. These were the first two games of the regular season with a whole new team. It's a learning curve, and we're going to learn as the season goes. This weekend is going to be a good opportunity for us to show what we've got."