Tarrington Wyonzek grew up playing hockey in Yorkton. He played all the way up to the midget division, but it was then when he realized that playing might not be the best option for him.
“I realized I wasn’t good enough hockey player to go anywhere with it, so I started focusing on the reffing side of things,” Wyonzek said.
Ever since, he’s been refereeing hockey games. He started here in Yorkton, reffing for Yorkton Minor Hockey. He started with novice games and worked his way up.
Now 24, Wyonzek lives in Regina and is still reffing. His career has evolved from minor hockey, to Western Hockey League games and Canadian Interuniversity Sport hockey games. And now, even further.
Wyonzek was one of eight prospect officials selected in North America to ref at the NHL level during this year’s preseason. He said he started working for this opportunity last year.
“I got selected to go to an NHL/CHL camp last year,” he said. “They bring in about 20 prospect officials from across North America.” He explained that the camps include a variety of aspects, from classroom to on-ice sessions focusing on game supervision, situations and coaching.
“I got selected [for this opportunity] through that. There were eight of us from that camp that got selected,” Wyonzek said. He, along with one other from Saskatchewan, were among the lucky eight.
The games took place over the weekend of Sept. 17-18. The games Wyonzek refereed were the ‘rookie camps,’ which are teams made up of rookie prospects of specific NHL teams.
He reffed three games in total, which included the teams from Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Calgary.
A few names that Wyonzek said made him a little star struck included Jesse Puljujarvi of the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames prospect Matthew Tkachuk. But, he said he quickly shook that off.
“When you get to that level, you just take a few breaths and keep calm. You do have a job to do out there,” he said.
“I’ve done some international tournaments within the past four years, and I’ve also done some national champs. I knew how to calm my nerves, but I was pretty nervous seeing the NHL jerseys and crests, and knowing all the games were all sold out..” he said. “But as soon as the puck drops you get into the groove and you forget about the nerves.”
Now, Wyonzek is back in Regina, and is refereeing games at the WHL and CIS level alongside his brother Tannum, who just got hired to ref in the WHL.
But, he’ll keep working hard in hopes of seeing the NHL ice again in the future.
“I’m hoping to get another shot at it, or hoping to get looked at for other projects from Hockey Canada down the road,” he said.
