10 WHL Things From Glen Erickson, Volume XX

Game #488 was played Monday afternoon which, by my counts, leaves 294 games remaining on the Western Hockey League’s regular season schedule. There appear to be a few certainties, but many, many questions remain.

1. Moneyball? – I couldn’t help but reflect on the movie starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill as the Medicine Hat Tigers 19-game winning streak came to an abrupt halt this past weekend. Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane was basically immortalized by the film for constructing a roster that would compete for the American League title. Despite an enigmatic chiseler of an owner who, if the movie can be believed, would likely crap a diamond at noon if he’d eaten a lump of coal for breakfast, Beane and the Athletics thrived on the field. I certainly don’t know the Tigers ownership group at all, but the team’s on-ice success of late pretty much has the fanbase cuckoo for Coco Puffs. The winning streak, which began November 22, was an amazing run and some of the individual performances by the players have been absolutely thrilling. The Tigers are 31-7-3-2 for 67 points atop the eastern conference standings.
2. THUD! – Saturday in the Gas City, the Prince Albert Raiders waltzed into Co-Op Place and handed the Tigers an 8-5 defeat, Medicine Hat’s first regulation loss since November 8. It was a tough week for the Tigers, coming off a home and home set with the Edmonton Oil Kings. An interesting scheduling quirk had Medicine Hat facing the other two powerhouses in the eastern conference three times in four nights last week. The Raiders, now 31-6-4 for 66 points have two games in hand on the Tigers. Medicine Hat knocked off the Raiders twice during its 19-game winning streak, 3-2 at the Art Hauser Centre November 29 on what might just be the flukiest game-winning goal scored league-wide this season, then a 7-1 drubbing in Medicine Hat December 3 when the Tigers chased Raiders starting goalie Michal Orsulak with four goals in the first 13 minutes. Indeed, Prince Albert arrived in the Gas City on the weekend with a chip on its shoulder and were full marks for the win.
3. Upper Echelon – The Tigers, Raiders and Oil Kings are the class of the eastern conference this season. They are the top three teams in the eastern conference standings with 67, 66 and 65 points respectively. The Calgary Hitmen are 14 points back. The Tigers and Oil Kings have met five times so far this season. Medicine Hat is 3-1-0-1. Edmonton is 2-2-0-1. The Central Division rivals meet three more times, twice in Edmonton. The Raiders and Oil Kings have met three times this season, two of the contests were decided in overtime. Edmonton has won twice, once in regulation time and once in extra time. The teams meet for the final time this season in March at Rogers Place in Edmonton. The Tigers and Raiders will renew acquaintances Saturday in Prince Albert, the fourth and final meeting between the teams during the regular season. Of note, the tilt will be the Raiders third game in three nights after two on the road, and also its fourth in five nights this week. Medicine Hat plays in Saskatoon the night before. Is there a clear favorite among the other eastern conference teams that can challenge the big three this season?
4. Best In The West – Over in the western conference, the Everett Silvertips lead the way at 33-6-2-1 for 69 points and top spot for now in the chase for the Scotty Munro Trophy. In fact, the ‘Tips finished first overall last season with 104 points. Who are the legit challengers in the western conference? Everett travels east in February, beginning its run through the Central Division on February 10 in Red Deer. The two games I’ve got marked on my calendar are February 11 in Edmonton against the Oil Kings, then February 14 in Medicine Hat. Those are your battles of the titans! The Silvertips will play five games on the road in seven nights. 
5. Game of the Week – Interesting to see how the Kelowna Rockets are trending, perhaps its litmus test takes place against the Silvertips Wednesday in Everett. The Rockets (21-14-4-2) have done plenty of roster-juggling, to be expected as the organization plans to host the 2026 Memorial Cup. Everett has been the best of the best for most of the current campaign. Both teams may not have its full compliment of imports in the lineup, unless Tomas Poletin (KEL) and Julius Miettinen (EVT) return from their day-to-day injury status. Regardless, it’s the final of four meetings between the teams this season and Everett has had its way with Kelowna so far. The Rockets have yet to beat the Silvertips, though the last two decisions in Everett’s favour were one-goals games. The Silvertips are the stingiest team in the DUB so far, surrendering a league-low 106 goals in 42 games. It’s actually a tough week for Kelowna, which rolls into Seattle Thursday before returning home to take on Penticton Saturday.
6. Streaking – Meanwhile, the Penticton Vees now take over as the hottest team in the DUB, winners of 11 straight games. The Vees took care of business on the weekend, knocking off the new-look Vancouver Giants 4-2 in Langley before edging the Calgary Hitmen 4-3 in overtime at the South Okanagan Events Centre. Rookie forward Jacob Kvasnicka, 18, from Minnesota has been a great find, leading the Vees with 23 goals and 32 assists through 40 games. Overage forward Ryden Evers from Burnaby, in his first WHL season, has chipped in with 25 goals and 27 helpers in 42 games. Penticton, allowed four 20-year-old players this season as an expansion team, is the oldest team in the DUB based on average age. At this point, the 26-9-4-3 Vees are showing no signs of slowing down.
7. Head Shots – What’s up with all of this? Really, not a great week for DUB players and of course, a busy week for the league office personnel doling out suspensions. There were five separate incidents where checking-to-the-head infractions resulted in supplementary discipline. Five! The suspensions levied totalled 14 games, with Nathan Brown (PORT) and Yaroslav Bryzgalov (MH) being told to sit out four games each. Prior to January 10 this season, there were a total of three suspensions for checking-to-the-head. Two fouls that really irritate me are checking-to-the head and checking-from-behind. Sometimes I wonder about players. Is it fashionable to recognize when an opponent is vulnerable, and slow up? Or, is it preferred to look for opportunities to obliterate an opponent when one is vulnerable?
8. Winning – How much does winning matter? Attendance figures pretty much confirm it does, in a big way! Last season, the Medicine Hat Tigers averaged 3,865 fans per game for its 34 regular season dates. During its run to the WHL league title, the Tigers played nine playoff games and averaged 5,837 per contest. Ka-ching! That’s about a 34% increase by my count. Indeed, excitement and winning fills bandwagons everywhere! During the 2023-2024 season, the Saskatoon Blades drew an average of 5,166 through 34 regular season home games. During its playoff run that included nine home dates, average attendance was a whopping 9,332. That’s about a 42% increase. That post-season included the legendary eastern conference final series against the Moose Jaw Warriors that went seven games, six of which were decided in overtime.
9. Playin’ The Pipes – Interesting to look over the most recent Central Scouting rankings for the 2026 NHL Draft, set for Buffalo, New York, June 26-27. It’s the goalies that really caught my eye. There are nine WHL netminders among those in the Midterm rankings. One of them, Parker Snell of the Edmonton Oil Kings, is the only Canadian. Five are from Czechia and three hail from the United States. By my count, at the 2025 NHL Draft, nine WHL players were selected in the first round, including Canadian-born goaltender Josh Ravensbergen of the Prince George Cougars. If I scanned things with any accuracy, the only other WHL goalie selected was Burke Hood of the Vancouver Giants in the sixth round. In the WHL’s release last week, the indication is that 78 players “developed” in the league have been ranked. Among the top 32 North American skaters, ranked 10 of the 12 with ties to the WHL are playing in the league this season. One of them, defenceman Ben MacBeath of the Calgary Hitmen, has played 40 games this season, his first in the DUB.
10. Mistakes – Ever made one? Or, a few? So, what’s the body count here at this point? Including 42 weekly submissions last season and now this edition, which is number 20 this season, that’s somewhere in the range of 620 different topics and a word count of well over 155,000. And yes, I’ve made some boo-boos along the way, erroneously referring to a player’s list of teams or messing up a compilation of statistics. I do my best to proof and edit prior to submitting to The RP Show website. It’s a fair expectation for all of us to do this with some efficiency, especially for me as freelance writer cashing cheques for these online contributions to the tune of millions of dollars each year. But, I do not have access to jump in and make edits or corrections, nor do I choose to bother RP with much of this, though I would if there were ever anything egregious. Hey, if I fumble, I have to own it. The errors shouldn’t happen, of course, and thankfully they are not plentiful. But I can assure you all, there is a list! I’ll just continue to try and elevate my slugging percentage.

(Glen Erickson is a freelance hockey writer based in Medicine Hat, AB)