Patience is paying off for Jayden Halbgeawachs and the Moose Jaw Warriors.

After failing to make the team as a 16-year-old, struggling in his 17-year-old season and then showing signs of improvement as an 18-year-old, Halbgewachs has taken his game to another level this season in Moose Jaw.

Through 33 games this season, the 19-year-old has a WHL-best 29 goals and 52 points, which puts him fifth in the league scoring race.

Both those totals surpass what Halbgewachs was able to do over his first 133 games in his WHL career.

“I’m just going out there with confidence, I’m playing with good linemates, so they help and the confidence that I bring to the ice, playing with speed, shooting the puck when I get the opportunity to and just playing to my skill set,” said Halbgewachs.

“Things are working for me right now and I hope for them to keep working.  I’m not so much focused on the goals, just going out there, playing a good game and the goals are going to happen when you’re doing that.”

Halbgewachs had a 10-game goal scoring streak snapped last Friday in the Warriors’ 5-4 win over the Regina Pats.  He rebounded with another goal and two points the next night to pull himself within one goal of 30 on the season with more than half the season left to play.

“If you say you saw this coming, no one is going to believe you,” said General Manager Alan Millar.  “We believed in Jayden from the time that we traded for him in the (Joel) Edmundson deal, patience was a virtue both for the hockey club and for Jayden, he was a smaller guy that had to get stronger and had to learn to play the pace of the game at the WHL level.”

The turning point for Halbgewachs came down the stretch and into the playoffs last season when he scored nine goals and finished with 15 points in ten playoff games.  That came after Halbgewachs saw his regular season totals jump from four goals and eight points in 59 games as a 17-year-old to 15 goals and 41 points in 69 games as an 18-year-old.

“Playoffs last year gave me a lot of confidence and I brought that forward to this year,” said Halbgewachs.  “I came into this year knowing that I wanted to do better than last year and I’ve proved myself so far, but I want to keep getting better and better each day.

“Confidence is definitely huge in this league, it took me a bit to get it, but now I have it and I can only go forward from here.”

The Warriors were expecting Halbgewachs to take on a bigger role this season and he’s come flying out of the gate, scoring a ton of highlight reel goals and consistently leading the Warriors' offence.

Halbgewachs had an eight-game point streak early in the season and then put together a ten-game goal streak over the past month when he scored 15 goals and had 27 points in total over that stretch.

He’s only been held without a point in nine games this season, while scoring multiple goals nine games, but still looking for his first hat trick.

The biggest change in Halbgewachs’ game over the past few seasons has been in his speed.  As a smaller forward — he stands in a five-foot-eight — Halbgewachs has had to use his speed to give him an edge on bigger players.  Increased lower body strength has helped in that category and led him being difficult to knock off the puck.

“Each year I go home and do power skating and go in the gym with my trainer and we work hard on legs and the core, so just preparing with the power skating teacher and in the gym is the best you can do, I did that a lot this summer and it helped me out a lot,” said Halbgewachs.

After his blazing start, the Warriors will be looking for more of the same from Halbgewachs in the second half as he teams up with Brett Howden and Brayden Burke to form a dangerous trio.

“Playing with those two is nice, both skilled guys, both can make plays and they can score as well,” said Halbgewachs.  “We’re clicking right now and it’s definitely fun playing with them.”

Halbgewachs and the Warriors return to the ice for practice on Boxing Day before they head to Swift Current to open the second half with a home-and-home against the Broncos.

The Warriors and Broncos face-off on Tuesday at the Credit Union Iplex and then on Wednesday at Mosaic Place.