10 WHL Things

By Glen Erickson

What’s the oft-used saying; “All good things come to an end”? It’s been 42 straight weeks of Western Hockey League chatter – among other sundry topics – emanating from the cone of silence in my comfortable Gas City confines. Yes, some weeks resulted in a better performance than others, but I didn’t necessarily get smart from week to week. Sometimes edgy. Did you expect anything less? Opinionated? Of course! Befuddled by occasional hockey world nonsense? Certainly! Buoyed by the many personal stories of triumph? Absolutely! The frequent strolls down memory lane were always enjoyable, too. I’m not sure what the future holds, but I know it’s in my hands, I just don’t know what I want to do with it. Hey, life happens…to and for all of us! What’s the new RP Show mantra? Just go with it…

1 – We Are The Champions – The London Knights defeated the Medicine Hat Tigers, 4-1 in the Memorial Cup final. London, which avenged its loss a year ago in the finale to the Saginaw Spirit, were in complete control throughout the contest. The Tigers did spend some time in the attacking zone on the night but couldn’t consistently get shots through to former WHL goaltender Austin Elliott. By the way, Elliott, a WHL castoff back in October, went a tidy 52-3-1 this season as a member of the Knights. The current edition of the Knights boasts four first round NHL draft picks and were on a mission all season long. London played a total of 90 games this season, compiling a record of 75-13-2. This includes a 16-1 run through the Ontario Hockey league playoffs. Indeed, this national championship campaign was no fluke. London joins the Kamloops Blazers, Windsor Spitfires and Cornwall Royals with three Memorial Cup titles.

2 – Hurry Up & Wait – History certainly repeated itself in Rimouski. I hated the Tigers having four-and-a-half days off after clinching a spot in Sunday’s final back on Tuesday. Sure, maybe that helped with any bumps and bruises, but it sure as heck doesn’t help on the momentum side of things, especially when your opponents are still playing. Back in 2009, in Rimouski, the Kelowna Rockets earned a spot in the final on Tuesday of that Memorial Cup week, only to twiddle their thumbs until the Sunday. The break wasn’t enough for their starting goaltender to overcome an athletic hernia, and the Rockets dropped the finale, 4-1 to the Windsor Spitfires. The Tigers suffered a similar fate, by the same score, in the same city, to the OHL representative.

3 – Trooper Got It Right – One thing many Medicine Hat Tigers fans will soon have to acknowledge is the reality the current group really wasn’t together for very long. For certain, they were ‘here for a good time, not a long time’. I don’t see this as a roster built from the ground up at all over the past few seasons with an eye on capturing the Memorial Cup. No, this was a small core group of serviceable Tigers prospects, players who survived that less-than-memorable 11-win season back in 2021-2022. It was supplemented by the all-stars added this season. Where would this Tigers team have finished without the likes of Bryce Pickford, Jonas Woo, Matthew Ward, Ryder Ritchie, Harrison Meneghin, Tanner Molendyk, Misha Volotovskii, and even depth forwards Marcus Pacheco and Ethan Neutens. Kudos to the Tigers brain trust, which took a solid roster and turned it into an all-star team in pretty short order over the past eight months. It wasn’t just good management. It was a master class! Now, a new core group takes over.

4 – Where’s Gavin? – With respect to the animated character “Waldo”, who can be a bugger to locate from time to time, the off-season will be rife with questions as to where Gavin McKenna will play next season. The Tigers have a real good thing going right now and there is potential for the core group to embark on another championship run together. It’s happened before in the Gas City, back in 1987 and 1988 when the Tigers won consecutive Memorial Cup titles. Stay tuned!

5 – Looking Back – A few tidbits from the Memorial Cup media guide. Four players share the record for the most Memorial Cups won as a player, including one of my all-time favourite WHL personalities, Ryan Huska. The current Calgary Flames bench boss, Huska played on three Kamloops Blazers team that won the national title, then added another Memorial Cup as an assistant coach with the 2004 Kelowna Rockets…Spokane Chiefs forward Kerry Toporowski still holds the record for penalty minutes in the tournament with 63, set in 1991 when the Chiefs ran roughshod over the field in its undefeated run at the event in Quebec City…The best goals against average? Kelowna Rockets Kelly Guard at 0.75 in 2004…This record will be very tough to topple. The most consecutive appearances in the tournament is four straight seasons by the New Westminster Bruins in 1975, ’76, ’77 and ’78…Oh, how the game has changed! The record for the most goals scored by a team at the tournament is 29, shared by the Prince Albert Raiders (1985) and the Cornwall Royals (1981)…The most shots on goals in a Memorial Cup game is 64, set by the Kelowna Rockets in 2005, a game they lost 3-2 in overtime to the Ottawa 67’s.

6 – Looking Forward – The 2025-2026 season will usher in a new look, particularly in the B.C. Division with the addition of the league’s 23^rd team, the expansion Penticton Vees. I think the WHL wins big time with the addition of the South Okanagan Events Centre as a spiffy new venue, one that many players will already be very familiar with through their respective academy exploits in recent years. In my experience, at a couple of Vancouver Canucks Young Stars tournaments years ago, it’s also a facility with good working space for media. Visitors and players alike will also be able to take in some of the rich history on display as the SOEC houses the BC Hockey Hall of Fame. Among the 2025 inductees is former Prince George Cougars defenceman Dan Hamuis.

7 – The Exodus Begins – News broke last week from Vancouver Island that star forward Cole Reschny and outstanding rookie rearguard Keaton Verhoeff have committed to the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks for the 2025-2026 season. (Remember the rich history of the UND Fighting Sioux, until somebody somewhere figured that wasn’t a cool name anymore?) Looks like defenceman Jackson Smith of the Tri City Americans, who I think could be the first WHLer selected at the 2025 NHL Draft, is apparently on his way to Penn State University next season. Reschny is projected to hear his name called in the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft and Verhoeff is roundly viewed as the WHL’s top prospect for the 2026 NHL Draft, not named Gavin McKenna. These players would have been incredibly important building blocks for the Royals and Americans, certain to be stars next season in the WHL.

8 – Not Newsworthy, Yet – Interestingly, all season long the WHL content creators were quick to announce NCAA signings when it was overage players making the jump, but these might take them awhile. Sure, they’ve been busy at the Memorial Cup, but these are by now, 10-minute press release creations and nothing landed on the WHL website Monday or beforehand. In any event, this is not good news for the WHL and in particular, the Amerks and Victoria Royals. How will the WHL react? To use words by long-time prospects guru, Guy Flaming of The Pipeline Show, “What message do you have for the season ticket holders of the Victoria Royals?” 

9 – 2025 NHL Draft – Look for a very definite Hollywood flair this time around as the NHL Draft takes place in Los Angeles at the Peacock Theatre, June 27-28. I get the hype typically surrounds the number one pick overall, but I firmly believe the most sought-after selection has to be #32. That’s the draft position reserved for the most recent Stanley Cup champion. Of course, the non-playoff teams will not likely agree with this! The New York Islanders will choose first in 2025 after an unlikely win at the NHL Draft Lottery, a somewhat complicated system that appears designed to prevent a team from tanking. On average this millennium, a total of six WHL players hear their names in the first round and the total Dub body count runs about 30 to 35 players over the two days and seven rounds. Tri City defenceman Jackson Smith and Brandon Wheat Kings forward Roger McQueen are pegged by many prognosticators as the top WHL prospects.

10 – RANDOMS – I know we all love our super stars. Junior hockey teams, especially in this era of content creation, love to promote star power. Fanbases love to fawn over the super stars. Even though the WHL might begin to lose a few of the super-duper, elite-type players, the game itself will continue to be competitive, the product will have great value in every WHL locale, and I believe any version of the league will continue to flourish…Is it time to blow things up and bring the 20-year-old limit up to five players per team? The calibre of play wouldn’t suffer one bit. Let the 15- and 16-year-olds figure out where they want to play, without taking a spot from a player committed to the league…Major junior hockey types can now safely admit it’s golf season. I love it! There’s nothing like our annual junket up to Waskesiu in Prince Albert National Park for the Senior Lobstick golf tournament. It’s my happy place…What’s your opinion on a golf course adding a random single player to your threesome? Or, another deuce when you are only a twosome? It’s never really bothered me, as I’ve met some pretty interesting people from around the world. I could count the crummy experiences on my thumbs, and not have to use them both. I have some friends who absolutely lose their minds when this happens, and I chirp them incessantly about it. If the pro shop sent out Tom Brady to join them, some people would pissed off it wasn’t Wayne Gretzky. Goodness; imagine having to share?…I would be remiss to exit for now after 40-some weeks without a comment or two on my opinion of the state of affairs in our fine country. Never has the continental divide among Canadians been so vast, with national unity seemingly a thing of the past. Sure, we will always find pockets of security, contentment and optimism, particularly in western Canada among friends and colleagues, but make no mistake, we’ve allowed a colossal mess of it all to evolve by straying from big-picture thinking. The seeds of division have been sown with incredible efficiency by selfish, narrow-minded leaders in all walks of life, particularly during the past decade of spectacular national nonchalance. Readin’, Writin’ and ‘Rithmetic used to be absolute priorities in an education system that for many, many years was focused on – education – until modern-day curriculums that contain too much emphasis on bizarre, mind-bending topics that impact a ridiculously small percentage of our population…Healthcare in Canada has become a management-laden money pit, light years beyond repair due a collective, nationwide, pharma-based, decision-making disorder, save for occasional urgent care triumphs. Demographic information for effective long-term planning was categorically ignored for decades across Canada and that is beginning to bite many of us hard, right in our wrinkled old asses…If green projects like solar and wind generate so much accessible, affordable energy, why does it all require taxpayer subsidy – and back up systems powered by fossil fuels?…These days, securing a full-time job in the public service comes across as an absolute lottery win, while the spirt of entrepreneurship slowly flickers from our consciousness. Canada Post managers are responsible for operating a business that lost over $2.1-billion over the last three years. And, the employees believe there is still plenty of chicken on the bone. It’s insane…How are the CBC’s financials lookin’?…Never in our country have so many done so little and received so much…I will have a terrific summer, despite the impending, unavoidable future of discontent…It wouldn’t bother me at all to see the Memorial Cup and Stanley Cup reside together in Canada for the next year. Both trophies had homes south of the 49^th parallel when the hockey season concluded a year ago…How ‘bout them ‘Riders?

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