Landon Kosior is shaping up to be a critical piece of the blueline, which projects as a strength for the Raiders this season. (File Photo/paNOW Staff)

By Rob Mahon

Kosior Final Season

Pickleball and pucks: defenceman Kosior prepares for one last shot with Raiders

Aug 16, 2022 | 1:00 PM

Experts will tell people that if they want their child to succeed in one sport, it’s better to teach them lots of other ones alongside it. Multi-sport athletes tend to have more success and fewer injuries.

Landon Kosior must’ve heard that same advice at some point, based on his summer.

Hockey will dominate the winter for the 20-year-old defenceman from Regina, and he’s still been skating this summer, but he picked up a slightly less conventional sport for the warmer months as well: pickleball.

“One of my friends plays college hockey in Colorado and I guess it’s big down there,” Kosior said. “He brought it home and we started playing that.”

On top of that, Kosior has kept up tennis and golf, but Raiders fan shouldn’t worry about him being rusty. Along with all the time he’s spent on other sports, he’s also been in the gym a great deal and also attended a development camp with the Los Angeles Kings for the second year in a row.

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“I think it was a lot better the second time around having been there before and knowing the routine,” said Kosior. “I felt a lot more comfortable and I think I performed better as a result of that.”

It will come as no surprise to those who’ve watched him play that his skating was among his standout skills. The previous year, Kosior earned praise from the coaches for it and this year he felt it was even more pronounced.

“That’s always been one of the strengths of my game,” Kosior said. “I think again, this year, I was able to show off my skating and I think that did help me stand out.”

It won’t be long before Kosior is back in Prince Albert as training camp is now just over two weeks away, and he’ll be one of the most experienced players on a team full of returnees. With so many players from last season’s push for the playoffs back, Kosior has faith in the group and what they can do when they’re all pulling the same direction.

“That’s huge experience for us,” he said. “It was almost like simulating playoffs this year. Even though we lost out in the first round, I’d say the last month of the season was playoffs too. We knew everything was on the line every game and we were fighting. I think that gave a lot of experience to a lot of guys on our team.”

Kosior will tell you he does not have any personal statistical goals for himself, but he is closing in on some unique statistical territory. With 18 goals last season, he would be the leading returning goal scorer among blueliners in the WHL, but it goes beyond that.

Before the 2019-20 season, Kosior was an undrafted player who played his way onto the radar and earned a spot on the team. Incredibly, he’s now on track to score more goals in the WHL than any other defenceman born in 2002. His 27 career goals have him just six back of Moose Jaw’s Daemon Hunt for the most in that birth year.

“I think I’ve come a long way,” said Kosior. “That’s just a testament to the coaches in P.A. and everything they do, especially, I was working with (now head coach Jeff Truitt) as the D coach the whole time. He helped me out, and I learned from a lot of great players. It’s been awesome. It couldn’t have gone any better for me coming to P.A.”

Last season, Kosior was in the hunt for a piece of Raiders’ history as well. Only three defencemen in the WHL history of the organization have scored 20 goals: Manny Viveiros, Josh Morrissey, and Jesse Lees. Kosior scored 18 and gets another crack at 20 this year, but he’s got bigger goals in mind.

“Scoring is great, but that’ll come with being a good team,” said Kosior. “The only goal coming into the year is winning a championship. That’s what everyone wants to do, and this is my last year to do it, so that’s my big goal.”

While he’s not looking beyond this season yet, Kosior is excited to know that teams in the professional ranks are looking at him, as evidenced by the time he’s spent the past two summers with the Kings. He went undrafted this summer, but as the WHL has learned, that’s never stopped him before.

“You always dream as a kid, you want to play at the highest level,” Kosior said. “It’s something that I dream about and it’s a goal of mine to be able to move up after this year to pro.”

Kosior is one six defencemen from last season’s team eligible to return for the coming campaign.

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP