A circuitous route has landed an Okotoks hockey star a stone’s throw from home.
After finishing a five-year career in the Western Hockey League Okotokian Dakota Krebs is graduating to the University of Calgary where he’ll compete for the Dinos men’s hockey team at the U Sports level.
“I was looking at a bunch of schools and U of C was always consistently there,” said Krebs. “I decided U of C was probably the best choice, it has really good programs at the school and they also gave me a really good opportunity to play for their team as well.
“It just kind of felt right and I got a good vibe from the coaching staff and I got to meet a bunch of their players as well.”
After going undrafted, Krebs — the eldest of three brothers playing in the league — worked his way onto the Tri City Americans lineup as a 16-year-old, launching a five-year career in the Dub where he produced 13 goals and 62 points over 308 games.
“When I didn’t get drafted ‘I was like, I hate the WHL, I’m going to go college (route),” Krebs said with a laugh. “But things changed when I went to my first WHL camp. I saw the guys that got drafted and the guys I was competing with, the guys in the lineup already and if I played well enough that wasn’t that far away.
“My first year I didn’t have a single point, played 40 games and was just happy with being there and having that opportunity. I worked hard the next summer, had a good year after that and got traded to Calgary and it’s kind of crazy how everything snowballed.”
Krebs was able to skate close to home for parts of three seasons after being acquired by the Calgary Hitmen in a mid-season transaction in the 2017-18 season.
In his final two seasons of junior the affable blueliner served as alternate captain for Calgary.
“It’s a cool story to tell younger guys, guys that don’t get drafted or guys who feel a little discouraged with a little failure,” he said. “Being able to hit that 300 game mark as a listed player, it’s a really awesome accomplishment.
“I will still be living in Calgary. But I’m really close to my family and love being there so I thought Calgary was the right spot for me.”
The 6-foot-4 blueliner is applying for the business program at the university.
He got some help getting to the U of C from an Okotoks friend, who is lifelong educator.
“Bernie (Hitmen education advisor Bernie Bajnok) here in Calgary would be his first point of contact and once he started to make decisions (Dakota) reached out to me,” said Stacey Meyer, the WHL’s manager of education services. “I’ve got a bit of a connection, I live in Okotoks, I know the family a little bit and they reached out to me and had a few questions.
“But essentially, my job is just to give him the information he needs to make a really informed choice of where he wants to go to school. And a kid like Dakota, it’s really easy for us because A) it’s not about whether he has the grades or not, it’s not about whether he’s going to have to take some upgrading or not. He’s a kid that’s already got some university courses under his belt, he did while he was playing.”
Krebs, a 2017 graduate of Foothills Composite, was able to get a head start on his university studies by taking classes while south of the border online through Athabasca University as well as in-person studies for classes at Calgary’s St. Mary’s University.
The WHL’s robust scholarship program pays for one year of tuition and mandatory fees, including the always pricey textbooks, per season in the league which in Krebs’ case amounts to five years.
“It’s been in the league for over (25) years at various levels and it’s probably over the last five or six years that it has probably become the premier scholarship program in that they have the ability now to offer the kids more scholarships,” said Meyer, a former principal and assistant superintendent with Foothills School Division. “So some of those kids that went high in the Bantam Draft, they’ll be offered an extra-year of scholarship to sign a Standard Player Agreement with a team.
“So probably 90 per cent of our kids that play as a 16-year-old until they’re 20 are coming out with a five-year degree, some of them are finishing in four years and starting their master’s and it’s all paid for.”
For Krebs, the scholarship program offers the major junior players the best of both worlds.
“Going into the WHL my first goal was obviously to sign a contract, that still could happen — but having those years in my back pocket — and for me, it’s kind of the best deal in the world,” he said. “You’re living the dream, playing in front of so many fans every night and you’re playing with your buddies and you have this schooling that’s guaranteed for every year you play, there’s no little loopholes or anything.
“You have this money that’s going to be set for the rest of your life and it’s one of those deals that I‘m so thankful for, it’s free money and I’m definitely going to utilize that scholarship.”
Academic success runs in the family.
Dakota’s younger brother Dru, a freshman defenceman on the Medicine Hat Tigers, was his team’s Academic Player of the Year while middle brother Peyton, the Winnipeg ICE captain and Vegas Golden Knights prospect, was an honour’s student in his Grade 12 year last season.
All three had an opportunity to play against each other during the 2019-20 season, something they won’t soon forget.
“It was super awesome to have all three of us in the league,” Krebs said. “It was super cool for us as a family.”
All together under the same roof in their Okotoks home, the brothers are pushing one another in their training during the COVID-19 pandemic, making the most of the new-found free time.
“We’re all really dialled in on wanting to get our bodies better for next season,” Krebs said. “We’ve had this little bit of extra time since COVID, usually we wouldn’t get this time, so we’re really trying to use this time to get stronger and set ourselves up for next season and just live healthy lives as well.”
