The 2025–26 Capital Region Junior Hockey League season marked a step in the right direction for the Arborg Ice Dawgs.
Arborg began a new chapter this season with former Ice Dawg Jack Einarson stepping in as the club’s head coach after three seasons in an assistant role.
After starting the season 0–4, Arborg began to find its footing despite being one of the youngest groups in the league.
The Ice Dawgs climbed out of last place before the Christmas break, moving ahead of the North Winnipeg Satellites, who ultimately finished last. They then leapfrogged the Lundar Falcons late in the season, in part due to a three-game win streak in January.
The strong finish helped Arborg post a 7–18–0–2–3 record and finish fifth, up from sixth the previous season. Their momentum was slowed in the first round of the CRJHL playoffs when they faced the fourth-place La Broquerie Habs, who ended their season in a best-of-five series. Arborg did manage to steal Game 2 with a 4–3 win.
Einarson said the series loss was a valuable learning experience. With only one graduating player, he is optimistic about how the team will build on that experience in future seasons.
“It was nice to come on there at the end to get a little up in the standings,” Einarson said Thursday. “As for the improvements, we are a young team. We only had one overager — we had a lot of younger 16- and 17-year-olds — so a lot of it was just familiarity with that level of hockey. A lot of kids came from house league, just in Arborg, so I think the biggest thing was confidence growing — these young kids learning that they are able to play in this league. That was the biggest thing in the second half, when they believed in themselves.”
Einarson also said he learned a great deal about what it takes to be a head coach at the junior level. At 26, the Gimli product is one of the youngest head coaches in the league, despite being four years into coaching.
He said he has taken bits and pieces from previous head coaches to help shape his approach.
“Having the lead voice in the room instead of just kind of being a secondary voice — now you’re the one being heard most of the time — that was the biggest change for me,” he said.
One of the highlights of Arborg’s season was the standout play of rookie defenceman Tytan Johnson and second-year forward Brandon Burak, both of whom earned individual league awards.
Johnson received both the CRJHL Rookie of the Year and Top Defenceman awards after a record-breaking season on Arborg’s blue line.
His nine goals and 34 assists for 43 points set a CRJHL record for points by a defenceman in a single season, as he averaged 1.7 points per game as an 18-year-old.
Burak, meanwhile, earned CRJHL Most Valuable Player honours after building on his impressive rookie season in 2024–25, when he posted 27 goals and 14 assists.
In 2025–26, he recorded a league-best 32 goals and 22 assists for 54 points while appearing in all 30 regular-season games for the Ice Dawgs.
At 19, he remains eligible for two more seasons in the league.
“We had other guys chipping in as well who had great seasons, but those two were obviously huge pieces for us,” said Einarson. “They played power play, penalty kill, five-on-five. We had them out in the most important situations and they did very well, so they were a huge part of our team this year and will be going forward.”
Arborg will look to build on its progress in the off-season with spring camp and tryouts in the coming months ahead of puck drop in late September.
The club is also preparing to host its annual team awards banquet on April 24 at the Arborg Curling Club.
