Spencer Moe slicing through the Swift Current Bronco defence during action last season. Lucas Chudleigh/Apollo Multimedia

By Jeff D’Andrea

One Moe season

Moe grateful to play out his final major junior season with the Raiders

Mar 10, 2021 | 1:18 PM

While it took the Western Hockey League (WHL) close to a year to figure out how to get back on the ice during a pandemic, Spencer Moe was wondering if he would ever get to play for his beloved Prince Albert Raiders again.

Moe is currently the longest-serving Raider by a longshot, having played 264 games since joining the team in the 2016-17 season. After all the uncertainty, Moe said he’s grateful to be able to add to that total and finish out his major junior career playing for the team he’s grown with.

“It’s something special,” said Moe, who will play his overage season with the Raiders in the Regina hub centre. “It doesn’t happen much playing five years with one team. It will always be special to me. P.A. is my second home and I’m proud to say that.”

Since Moe was drafted in the 2015 WHL Bantam Draft, he has barely missed a game. After missing 11 games in his rookie year, Moe has missed just two games in his past 204 available regular-season games. He also didn’t miss any of the 30 playoff games the Raiders played in that time either.

A young Spencer Moe when he signed with the Raiders back in 2015, along with his father Doug. (Submitted photo/Prince Albert Raiders)

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When Moe came to the Raiders, he knew there was a lot of work ahead for the team. The team was coming off a disappointing year of missing the playoffs in 2015, after a pair of first-round exits. Moe said he’s glad to be a part of the journey from a fringe playoff team to the WHL champions in 2019.

“When I first got drafted, the team wasn’t succeeded as well as they wanted. I know we were in a rebuilding stage and I’m proud to be a part of that rebuilding stage. We really grew and we won that championship in the 2019 season,” Moe said. “We’re still going strong; we had a great team last year that I think could have gone to the finals again. We have another great team here, as well. It’s something special, I kind of knew I was going to be a part of the core, and someone to rely on later in my career.”

Moe credits Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid for much of his development both as a player and as a leader. Now that Habscheid is temporarily absent from the Raiders as he mourns the loss of his brother Robert, who died on Feb. 27, Moe has taken on more of a mentor role to some of the younger Raider players, like rookie forward Niall Crocker and Logan Linklater.

“Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. It’s been a while since we’ve all played a game,” Moe said when asked what his message is to the Raider rookies. “All you can really ask for is to play your best every game and every practice, and get better every day. Our motto in training camp has been ‘get better every day.’ I think it’s worked pretty well.”

Thanks to Carol

Up until this season, Moe was billeted with Carol Ring—who has taken in Raider players on-and-off since the Raiders were formed back in 1971. The Moe family designed, printed and framed a graphic of the players Carol had taken care of throughout the years, before she retired this year when it was apparent Moe would finish his career in the Regina hub and not return to Prince Albert.

When reflecting on what Carol Ring meant to him, Moe chuckled as he tried to find the right words to say.

“She’s done so much for me, I can’t thank her enough,” Moe said. “All the billeted players that have been there can all say that she took such good care of all her boys. She was always one step ahead of us when it comes to being there for us, for support or whatever. I will have amazing memories of being at Carol’s. The Ring family is great. We’ll always have these inside jokes…everything about Carol and the Ring family is just amazing. I have no words to describe how thankful I am and was to be with her.”

The Raiders are scheduled to play their first game on Friday against the Regina Pats.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW