Diamond Energy Female Midget AAA Wildcats defenceman Kate Wagner saw her hockey career extended by another five years as, earlier this month, she signed on to play with the University of Calgary Dinos women's hockey team starting next season.

"I've been waiting for an opportunity like this for a while, and I'm really excited to get going with the next step in my life," said the Saskatoon-born Wagner. "It's going to be a harder level obviously, but I'm excited for it, and I'm going to bring everything I have."

The allure of the Dinos' program started a few previous pages in this year's calendar for for the 5-foot-10 defenceman.

"I went to their camp in the spring, and I really like their facilities, I liked their training centres, and it just kind of just seemed like a good fit there," she noted. "I have lots of family there also, so that helps, and it's not too far away from home."

The interest in Wagner by the Dinos program may have been piqued before their spring camp, after the then-Regina Rebels blueliner earned a first-team all-star at the 2017 Mac's Midget AAA Hockey Tournament in Calgary.

"I think it definitely did. Getting that award kind of got me out there a little bit more, and there were scouts at that tournament, so I think that definitely helped. That's a big step."

Wagner is now onto her third SFMAAAHL team in three years.

She spent her rookie season in 2016-17 with the Prince Albert Northern Bears, recording four goals and ten points in 28 games.

Then, in her aforementioned 2017-18 year in the provincial capital with the Rebels, Wagner posted seven points (2 G, 5 A), once again playing in all 28 games.

Shifting to the southwest for her final season seemed like a logical step to take.

"Out of all the years that I've kind of been playing and talking to coaches, talking to teams, I've never heard anything bad about Terry and this program," Wagner explained. "That was one of the biggest things that appealed to me. I've played with some of these other girls in Bantam back in Saskatoon, and it just felt like it was going to be a good fit, and I was going to have a good last year here."

The fit has seemed comfortable through six games, but some fine-tuning has been noted as needing to happen for the Wildcats to reach their full potential and goals for the season.

"I think we do need to step it up a bit. Since we played Saskatoon, these past few games have been decent, but we have more in us and we all know that. So, we need to work hard at practice, and these game coming up are going to be big for us."

Wagner explained that to round out her game at a level she deems dominant, some work remains as well.

"I think a big part of my game is sometimes I still over-handle the puck a bit, and that's going to be one of the main things I'm going to focus on. I know I use my size to my advantage, but I need to work more offensively.

"I think defensively I kind of have that under control. I can always go up from there too, but I think more offensively and making smart decisions - that's more what I'm going to be focusing on for the last half of the season here."

The Wildcats are now off from their league schedule until mid-November. The next weekend set on the regular-season schedule is a pair of home games at Fairview West arena on November 17-18.

Wagner and the Wildcats square off against her former team, the Regina Rebels, who Swift defeated, and lost to in a shootout on the road earlier this season.