10 WHL Things, Volume XXIII
Photo: Spokane Sports
By Glen Erickson
Another busy week in the Western Hockey League. We’re well past the halfway mark in the regular season and playoff races will begin heating up. It’s also no surprise the upper echelon teams are continuing to establish dominance. Read on if you dare!
1 – “It Happens” – Sometimes a guy just zigs when he’s supposed to zag! I made a couple of boo-boos last week, one of which was suggesting the WNITD marquee matchup on January 22 would feature the Medicine Hat Tigers visiting the Everett Silvertips. Well, the Tigers won’t yet be in Washington State. It’ll be January 29 when those two conference powers faceoff at Angel of the Winds Arena. However, we do get to watch the Silvertips this week, it’s just that they’ll be on the road at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena to take on the Chiefs. This could fairly be termed a marquee matchup, too. After all, they’re the top two teams in the WHL’s weekly power rankings. The U.S Division rivals have split their first two contests, both played in Everett. Spokane won 4-3 in a shootout back in November, then the Silvertips won 4-2 on January 10, the day after the WHL trade deadline. The questions begs at my end; when will overage forward Austin Roest make his 2024-2025 regular season debut for Everett?
2 – Chiefs Are Contenders – I enjoyed a conversation with Chiefs general manager Matt Bardsley last week. He’s bullish on his current roster, likes what he sees from the young, explosive group and is excited about the addition of Andrew Cristall, who currently leads the WHL in scoring. “I think it shows our team that we feel we can win this year,” Bardsley said of the trade deadline deal with Kelowna. “I think our team could be just as good next year as well. So, I felt that we could still add for this year, once we knew that we weren’t hosting the Memorial Cup. I remember watching Andrew in his 15-year-old season and just felt that he was going to be a pretty special player in the league. Then seeing him throughout the years, he’s such a good player. I think his game has really developed. He’s always been a very highly skilled player, but his play away from the puck and his commitment, you could really see his game evolve. We’re really excited to be able to add a player of his caliber to our group with guys like Berkly Catton and Shea Van Olm. It’s going to be a really neat second half.”
3 – Chiefs Chatter – I asked Bardsley about the mood in Spokane when it was announced Kelowna had been awarded the 2026 Memorial Cup. “We felt good about our presentation,” Bardsley said. “I believe on the business side, I think we could have certainly been a great host for people coming in to watch, for the teams in the tournament. We felt really good about it. When we were told that we didn’t win the bid, like the other teams, there was disappointment. But you know going in there were five teams bidding and I think everybody had a good opportunity or a good reason to believe that they could be a strong host. So, yeah, we were disappointed. But the committee made their decision, and I know that Kelowna will be a good host. They’ll do a great job.”
4 – Memorial Cup Saga – There are those residing north of the 49th parallel who continue to insist that if Kelowna hadn’t won the bid to host the 2026 Memorial Cup, it should’ve been southern Alberta’s event by default. I mean, we can navel gaze all we like up here, assuming just because the 2024 tournament was held in Saginaw, Michigan, the CHL wouldn’t have chosen another host city in the United States so soon afterward. But in fairness, the Spokane bid was very strong and in fact, it was the bid Kelowna Rockets general manager Bruce Hamilton suggested he was most concerned about during his group’s pursuit to secure host status. The Chiefs play in a storied facility that also accommodates NCAA basketball. The building is situated in a great location, walking distance to the very tourist-friendly area near Riverfront Park. The Greater Spokane area includes about 450,000 people and is home to a fully functioning international airport. Roster construction? Have a look at how good the team is this season, and while you’re at it, take note of how they’re built for the 2025-2026 campaign. Indeed, gotta think Spokane was definitely in the hunt.
5 – A Player’s Hockey Road Map – I continue to marvel at how things have evolved in Tyson Jugnauth’s junior hockey journey. Selected in the first round of the 2019 WHL Draft, 21st overall by the Swift Current Broncos, Jugnauth chose instead to stay close to home in the Okanagan Valley where he played in the BCHL for the Westside Warriors in West Kelowna. His success in junior A hockey led to a scholarship at the University of Wisconsin, a program that plucked Westside Warriors alum and eventual two-time Stanley Cup champion Justin Schultz from the Okanagan about a decade earlier. After a season and a bit with the Badgers, Jugnauth apparently had had enough and amid reports of issues with ice time in certain roles, he left the NCAA for the Portland Winterhawks. Since his arrival in the Rose City, he has been outstanding, a consistent offensive producer from the back end. But that’s only part of the story, one that includes some pretty astute general managing along the way.
6 – Draft Day All Over Again – The Kamloops Blazers made a somewhat curious pick at the 2021 WHL Draft, selecting Jugnauth in the seventh round. (Bardsley suggested Swift Current had relinquished Jugnauth’s rights.) The Blazers used the 147th overall pick which, coincidentally, was acquired from Portland when the teams swapped some picks at the 2019 WHL Draft. Whether Kamloops was just rolling the dice or had some reliable information on Jugnauth, 21 other teams certainly could have chosen to burn a late round selection on the then 17-year-old who was skating in the BCHL. It was also an oddity that Kamloops selected Jugnauth on December 9, 2021, not the usual spring date for the WHL Draft. The event was moved because not much of anything was normal at the time amid all the pandemic over reactions. Alas, it would be almost two years to the day, December 6, 2023, that 147th overall pick came into play again between the same two western conference teams.
7 – The Deal – Midway through the 2023-2024 season, the Winterhawks sent four future draft picks to Kamloops for Jugnauth’s WHL rights. The day after the deal, Jugnauth signed with Portland. The trade enabled the Blazers to recoup some draft capital they had spent in its build up to hosting the 2023 Memorial Cup. For Portland, they landed an immediate 200-foot contributor in the 19-year-old Jugnauth, a capable rearguard who had been playing with and against high-level, mature, division one athletes in the NCAA’s Big Ten Conference. Since joining the Winterhawks, Jugnauth has scored 18 goals and 83 assists in 82 regular season games. In Portland’s run to the WHL Championship Final last season against Moose Jaw, he chipped in with 4 goals and 12 assists in 18 games. Jugnauth, who will celebrate his 21st birthday on April 17, leads all WHL defenceman in scoring so far this season with 61 points, 12 points ahead of Prince Albert Raiders blueliner, Lukas Dragicevic. Jugnauth, selected by the Seattle Kraken in the fourth round, 100th overall at the 2022 NHL Draft, plans to return to the Big Ten as he has committed to Michigan State University for the 2025-2026 season.
8 – Central Percolating – The Calgary Hitmen had won six straight games before being shutout 3-0 at the Saddledome by the Medicine Hat Tigers Friday night. In fact, the Hitmen had held serve for awhile, winning 11 straight games on home ice until the Tigers spoiled the party. Harrison Meneghin earned the shutout stopping 20 shots while watching his fellow overage counterpart Daniel Hauser handle 50 shots on the night. Both teams played without some serious star power. Veterans Carter Yakemchuk and Lucas Hansen did not dress for the Hitmen, while the Tigers were without Andrew Basha and haven’t had Cayden Lindstrom in the lineup at all this season. In the return match Saturday at Co-Op Place in the Gas City, in front of the Tigers third largest crowd of the season, Medicine Hat erased a 2-0 third period deficit and prevailed 3-2 in an eight-round shootout. Calgary finished its three-in-three weekend with a 4-1 win over the Regina Pats. The Tigers host the Pats Tuesday, then embark on its six-game U.S Division road trip.
9 – Raiders Rampage – Don’t look now, but the Prince Albert Raiders could wind up as the number two seed in the eastern conference playoffs. The Raiders have won four straight games and have gone 13-7 in its last 20. The acquisition of goaltender Dimitri Fortin and forward Rilen Kovacevic from Moose Jaw in separate deals, and defenceman Matteo Fabrizi from Red Deer has added some valuable, veteran depth. Meanwhile, word out of Prince Albert is 20-year-old goalie Max Hildebrand has pretty much been impersonating a 4’ X 6’ piece of plywood in the Raiders cage of late. The Raiders trail the first place Saskatoon Blades by two points and have two games in hand. The two northern Saskatchewan rivals play each other twice this weekend. Could Prince Albert win the East Division, its first since capturing the league championship for the 2018-2019 season?
10 – Can I Get A Ruling – With the WHL’s routinely unbalanced schedule, East Division teams host U.S. Division teams this season and travel to the B.C. Division locales. But, if you give the WHL schedule a real close look, you might notice an odd quirk associated with the Brandon Wheat Kings current road trip through the B.C. Division. On Friday, the Wheaties ventured into the United States and dropped a 5-3 decision to the Silvertips in Everett. It’s the second time the teams have met this season. Everett won in Brandon 4-1, back on October 8. Brandon is the only East Division team that will play a game in a U.S Division city this regular season. I’m just curious how this all came to pass. Every other East Division team is scheduled to play only the B.C. Division opponents when they travel out west this season. It’s one of those things that make me go, hmmm…
RANDOMS – I still haven’t figured out what planet I must have been orbiting when I wrote that the Victoria Royals only had two overage players on its roster, and perhaps they might look to add a third? The reality is Brandon Lisowsky, Kenta Isogai and Brayden Boehm may very well form the most dynamic overage forward trio in the entire league. Way to go, Glennie! Man, it’s no fun cleaning up after yourself when you soil the sheets…Speaking of the B.C. Division-leading Royals, they were anything but gracious hosts on the weekend as they outscored the Kamloops Blazers 14-2, enroute to sweeping a weekend doubleheader with a pair of 7-1 victories. Meanwhile, the Prince George Cougars dropped its games in Spokane and Everett…A nice little run for the Lethbridge Hurricanes through Washington State on its mini-U.S. Division road trip last week. The ’Canes picked up three wins in four nights over Tri City, Wenatchee and Spokane. The tilt in Spokane, a 4-2 ‘Canes victory, attracted over 8,600 fans on Military Appreciation Night. Lethbridge has won its last seven games…Have you noticed the Central Division standings following the weekend’s activities? It’s a logjam, a three-point gap between the top three teams; a five-point gap between the top four teams. The Oil Kings quietly took care of business with a couple of wins in Saskatchewan on the weekend. Calgary, Lethbridge and Edmonton all have games in hand on first place Medicine Hat, but remember, “GIH” don’t mean anything unless you win them!
(Glen Erickson is a freelance hockey writer based in Medicine Hat, AB)
