The Virden Oil Capitals played an important role in Garrett Sambrook’s five-year junior hockey career.
The defenceman from Medora suited up for the major junior Western Hockey League’s the Brandon Wheat Kings and the Swift Current Broncos as well as the Junior A Oil Caps of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League. Sambrook played parts of three seasons in Virden. During the abbreviated 2020-2021 campaign, he capped his junior career with the Oil Caps
“The thing I will remember most about my time in Virden playing hockey would be how close and welcoming everyone in the organization is,” the 21-year-old Sambrook said. “I will always say Virden is where I had the most fun playing junior hockey and it is where I learned to love the game again. Even though the coaches and management made it evident it was a winning culture around the rink and a player was expected to work as hard as possible, it was always easy to want to get to the rink and put the work in.”
Sambrook started his junior career with the Wheat Kings as a 16-year-old. Health concerns – which eventually led to a diagnosis of epilepsy – prematurely halted his rookie season. He started the 20117-2018 campaign in Brandon. After appearing in 13 games, he was reassigned to Virden. Sambrook had eight assists in 21 games for the Oil Caps.
“Again, Virden is where I learned to love the game again,” he said. “I was coming off of a tough way to end my rookie season in Brandon with the medical issues that took lots of time to figure out through the summer. It felt like I was on the ‘outside looking in’ while I was in Brandon for the first half of that season, and any player knows how stressful and kind of annoying the feeling is. It’s tough to be your best when that voice is in your head, especially as a young player.
“The guys in Virden took me in from the beginning. They knew where I was at and what was going on at that time of the season. I gained confidence being put in positions during a game I never would have got the chance to play in while in Brandon. From there it, kind of just kept the momentum going through the summer. It was the biggest step forward I took in my junior career.”
In Virden, Sambrook was reunited with Troy Leslie. The latter is an Elkhorn product who taught and coached in Melita, near where Sambrook grew up. He was Sambrook’s first coach when he started playing at age 5. Leslie led the Oil Caps as head coach from 2012 to 2019.
“He’s been in my career from the beginning, and I can’t thank him enough for what he’s done for me,” Sambrook said. “Going to Virden, I was excited because I knew he was there. Troy was someone that I could go and talk with about anything. Just as important he knew what kind of a player I was.
“I remember turning a puck over in Neepawa once. I went back to the bench ready to get yelled at and hear about it. It never happened though, and I was surprised. I asked him the next day, ‘Aren’t you going to tell me how dumb that play was?’ He replied with ‘You’re a smart enough player to know when you screw up; you don’t need me in your ear yelling.’ I felt like I didn’t have to worry about screwing up after that and it benefited me big time.”
In 2018-2019, the blue liner’s strong play, which included three assists in seven games, prompted the Broncos to trade for his WHL rights and call him up. With Swift Current, Sambrook had 10 assists in 56 games in 2018-2019. The following season he scored his first WHL goal and accumulated five points in 37 contests for the Broncos.
Sambrook returned to Virden for his final junior campaign in 2020-2021. The 6-foot, 170-pounder played in three games before the season was paused and cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I loved the fact that I was looked upon to be one of the leaders of the ‘back end’ of the team,” Sambrook said of his final season. “It was nice being given responsibility to show younger players what junior is all about. I remember when I was 16 it was so much easier when an older guy stuck his arm out and helped you around the rink.”
The Oil Capitals will definitely miss Sambrook on the ice, in the dressing room, and in the community. He plans to study agronomy at the University of Manitoba and play hockey for school’s men’s squad. Virden head coach Tyson Ramsey said:
“Garrett was a very valuable player for our organization in his time here. He was not only a great player, but he was very dedicated to the Oil Caps off the ice as well. Garrett is a smooth skating, puck moving defenceman who could play in all situations. His hockey IQ is very high, and he works extremely hard. Off the ice Garrett was a leader in the dressing room and the community. He understood the importance of our hockey club to the community, and he was always willing to volunteer to help out. We are really going to miss Sammy and all he brought on and off the ice. We wish him all the best moving forward in his hockey and academic career.”
