Longtime Prince Albert Titan, Ben Zultok, will have to wrap up his junior career elsewhere. (File Photo/paNOW Staff)

By Rob Mahon

Zultok Reacts To Titans Folding

PJHL reigning scoring leader “shocked” as Titans forced to fold

Aug 16, 2022 | 8:00 AM

For the past three seasons, Ben Zultok has gotten to play hockey for his hometown team in the PJHL. For his final season of junior hockey, however, he’ll have to find a new home.

The leading scorer for the entire PJHL last season is hoping to crack the lineup of the Saskatoon Quakers this coming season, as the Prince Albert Titans are no more.

Zultok, born in 2001, is entering his last season of eligibility for the league.

“I was shocked for sure,” Zultok said. “I didn’t think they’d go anywhere. It was just shocking, I had no idea.”

Zultok has played hockey in Prince Albert for a long time, having played not only for the Titans but for the Raiders U18 and U15 AA teams. So if he plays in the PJHL this season, it will be the first time he’s done so outside of Prince Albert since he started playing competitive hockey.

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“It was upsetting seeing the team go down,” said Zultok. “They couldn’t do it anymore I guess. It just didn’t work. Then I got a call in the summer saying the team was down and I’d be picked somewhere else.”

In some ways, Zultok got lucky. He’s the reigning scoring champion of the league with 53 goals and 79 points in just 38 games, and his rights were picked up by the Quakers in a dispersal draft. Since he’s going to school in Saskatoon anyway, entering his fourth year of business studies, that worked out about as well as it could have.

“They’re only allowed two 21-year-olds on each team and I think they still have three,” Zultok said. “I guess I’ll have to fight for a spot.”

Still, the departure of the team leaves a hole in the hockey landscape in Prince Albert, leaving players who come up through the AA ranks as Zultok did with fewer options at the next level. And that’s a shame, because Zultok made some incredible memories with his team.

“Our road trips were always the best,” said Zultok. “We went down to Regina one weekend and we ended up winning both games. We ended up winning more games on the road I think this past season than we did at home. Every time we went down there, everyone was in such a good mood.”

The Titans franchise is in the hands of the PJHL while they wait for someone to take it over, but that won’t happen in time for the team to play in 2022-23.

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP