10 WHL Things, Volume XXX

By Glen Erickson

Plenty of late season drama in the hunt for playoff seeding and a trip down memory lane to make that point. Some crummy news out of the pacific northwest this past week and a change behind the bench amid the race for a division title on the prairies. Not too many slow news days in the Western Hockey League as the regular season schedule winds down. Read on if you dare!

1 – Turn About Is Fair Play – It wasn’t long ago the Prince George Cougars trailed the Victoria Royals in the B.C. Division standings by nine points. At the time, the Cougars had two games in hand, which they won enroute to embarking on a seven-game winning streak. The run included four straight wins on the road. Fast forward a couple of weeks and check out the standings now, where Prince George and Victoria are tied atop the division with 82 points. But now it’s the Royals that have two games in hand on the Cougars. Can they match the Cougars with a pair of GIH wins? Victoria has six games remaining, five of which are on the road. Prince George has four games to play, all of which are scheduled for the friendly confines of the CN Centre.

2 – East Division Doldrums – A peek at the race for top spot in the East Division confirms the Prince Albert Raiders, Saskatoon Blades and Brandon Wheat Kings have all clinched playoff berths. Swift Current will join them at some point this week. But the Raiders, Blades and Wheat Kings have not been able to create much distance from each other. Prince Albert has a one-point lead atop the standings, but the Blades 5-4-0-1 record in its last ten games is the best among the three division rivals. To the division winner go the spoils! That is, second place seeding in the eastern conference playoffs. Home ice advantage in round one is another perk and that’s typically good for business.

3 – McCallum McBusy – It kind of came and went without much fanfare, but the Blades played 10 games in February and goaltender Ethan McCallum played the last nine of them. He’s also played in four of five games in March. Number one netminder Evan Gardner, the Columbus Blue Jackets prospect, had been sidelined until he skated back into the crease last Wednesday in relief of McCallum against the Swift Current Broncos. McCallum inherited the entire workload with Gardner on the shelf, becoming the go-to-guy in the Bridge City while Gardner recovered. The Brandon, Manitoba-native was obtained by the Blades when they sent a couple fourth round draft picks to Medicine Hat on October 28, amid the Tigers early season goal crease version of musical chairs. McCallum, the Tigers second round pick at the 2021 WHL Draft, 39^th overall, played 23 games in his rookie season before becoming expendable in the Gas City. The 6’4, 198-pounder has appeared in 22 games for the Blades, compiling an 11-10-0-3 record while helping to keep Saskatoon in the hunt for first place in the East Division.

4 – Raiders Fire Truitt – I wondered aloud with a few pundits that the Prince Albert faithful would not be at all pleased after the Raiders dropped both ends of a weekend doubleheader to the Blades. But no, I didn’t see this coming. On Monday, the Raiders jettisoned head coach Jeff Truitt. Consecutive losses to a fierce divisional and geographical rival would have the wolf at the door at almost any point in the season, but amid the race for first place, I suppose something had to give. Truitt is a good Saskatchewan lad and has enjoyed success in the WHL. That includes a pair of league titles, one with the Raiders and one with the Kelowna Rockets. And yes, his name is etched on the Memorial Cup, too. The Raiders will have a chance to collect it this week with three road games against Central Division teams, a journey that will see the team at least avoid a pair of league powers in both Medicine Hat and Calgary. That doesn’t mean this will be an easy trio of games, but perhaps it provides an opportunity for the group to kind of galvanize itself. Ryan McDonald, in his fourth season with the Raiders, has been named interim head coach.

5 – Kamloops Playoff Run – With so much attention focused on divisional leaders league-wide and the chase for conference titles, it can be easy to ignore the battles for playoff positions at the other end of the spectrum. Who will be on the outside looking in? Out west, the Seattle Thunderbirds, Wenatchee Wild and Kamloops Blazers remain in the hunt for eighth place in the conference, but the T-Birds have a leg up, currently leading by three points. Wenatchee probably has the toughest schedule, with two games against both Prince George and Everett. Might we see a tie-breaker game this season? It would appear the Wild’s trip to Kamloops on Wednesday is of the “must-win” variety, for both teams. Kamloops, with six games to play, probably has to win out. It seems unlikely, but I’ve seen it before.

6 – Memory Lane, Blazers Style – It was February 2, 2019 and the Blazers limped out of Kelowna after dropping a 2-1 verdict in overtime to the Rockets. Neither team had much that season, which is why their games head-to-head were generally competitive. However, I recall this particular contest was likely the worst played WHL game I covered that season and in fact, I opined in my game coverage piece that the two best players on the ice were probably a pair of 15-year-old affiliate players, Logan Stankoven and Trevor Wong. (Any chance those names ring a bell?) After the win, Kelowna looked to be in complete control in the race for the eighth and final western conference playoff position. But then the Blazers went bonkers down the stretch, collecting 11 points in its final six games to erase the Rockets seven-point advantage in the standings and force a tie-breaker game. The Rockets actually needed an overtime win in its final game to keep up with the smokin’ hot Blazers. Kamloops hosted the tie breaker, based on its better head-to-head record during the regular season and won the game by a 5-1 count before a raucous, sell-out crowd at Sandman Centre, an incredibly electric atmosphere. It was a riveting late-season turnaround by the Blazers that captured the imagination of the entire Okanagan Valley, fueled in part by frustration emanating from many in Kamloops after Kelowna had been awarded the 2020 Memorial Cup tournament. The animosity continued to percolate throughout the 2019-2020 season as the Blazers roster was rounding into shape to become one of the best in the WHL. Can the Blazers do it all over again these next couple of weeks? It would be a great story! I am not counting them out until the numbers absolutely confirm they’re done.

7 – Kelowna Woes – Perhaps the most exciting action to take place on the ice at Prospera Place this winter came and went last week in form of the 2025 Montana’s Brier. Indeed, the portion of the regular season played in the 2025 calendar year has been historic for the Kelowna Rockets, but not in a good way. While the roster was battered and bruised during the first half of the season, leading to a fire sale of sorts at the WHL trade deadline, injuries have continued to mount, and not just bumps and bruises. Alas, the western conference standings confirm that the Rockets are what their record is, having produced a paltry 3-24-2-1 record in 2025. I think I have the numbers correct, but it was rather a dizzying process looking over the schedule and results. On its road trip through Alberta while the Brier took over in Kelowna, the Rockets lost all five games and in the process were outscored 35 to 11. As I shoulder-check from my workstation to admire my happily bought-and-paid-for Kelowna Rockets 2020 Memorial Cup souvenir jersey, it pains me to see this all materialize as Kelowna is destined to secure a lottery pick at the 2025 WHL Draft. This is an organization I respect immensely. The Rockets brass sure has its hands full heading into the 2025-2026 WHL season, a campaign that will culminate with the city of Kelowna hosting the 2026 Memorial Cup.

8 – Injury Bug – A serious incident on the weekend in Portland as Everett Silvertips forward Carter Bear suffered what appeared to be a skate cut of sorts to one of his legs. The Silvertips reported it as a “laceration” on the weekend, but the player was apparently able to travel home with the team after a visit to hospital in Portland. Word surfaced Monday that Bear suffered a lacerated achilles, which sadly just sounds both painful and gruesome, and he’s gone for the season. Bear is among the top WHL prospects for the 2025 NHL Draft and he has been among the WHL’s top scorers for most of the season. Coming off a 57-point rookie season a year ago, Bear has scored 40 goals and added 42 assists in 56 games this season. He is ranked 11^th overall among North American skaters (fourth among WHLers) in the Central Scouting mid-season rankings. It is always best for the league when its star players are healthy and productive during the post-season. For the Silvertips, which potentially could write a wire-to-wire success story as WHL regular season champions, a prolonged stretch with Bear out of the lineup is a huge jolt to its playoff aspirations. On the other hand, the ‘Tips have finally gotten 20-year-old forward Austin Roest back in the lineup. Regardless, it looks like some line juggling is destined to continue in Everett.

9 – WHL Scholarship Program – While it is frequently promoted by the league and there is plenty of awareness, it also seems to exist in some ways as kind of a best-kept-secret. But just to make the point, a total of 50 WHL alumni took part in the Canada West University men’s hockey championship series this past weekend in Saskatoon. The U of S Huskies won the title over the Mount Royal University Cougars with a 3-0 win in the final game of the best-of-three championship finale. I was in Saskatoon on the weekend and noted that on Saturday night, while the Blades were clinching a post-season berth with its 4-1 win over the Raiders in front of 5,330 exuberant fans at SaskTel Centre, game two of the Canada West final took place across the South Saskatchewan River in front of a capacity crowd of 3,103 at Merlis Belsher Place on the university campus. An examination of the two rosters confirms what informed junior hockey fans already know. That is, the WHL continues to feed USPORTS hockey with incredible talent. The players continue to compete among their age class after junior hockey and as they grow and mature into their mid-20’s, the quality of play naturally improves. It has baffled me for many years how this high quality of hockey, played from coast to coast across Canada consisting of numerous college and geographical rivalries, continues to roll along without any kind of significant television consideration from national broadcasters.

10 – RANDOMS – It’s official. There will not be a 50-win team in the WHL this season…A big one Wednesday night for fans of streaming WHL games. The WNITD contest features the Silvertips in Spokane to battle the Chiefs…Anything new on the WHL expansion front these days? Interesting how quickly chatter on the topic has tapered off…Tyson Jugnauth of the Portland Winterhawks will not be caught. The 20-year-old rearguard leads all defenceman in scoring with 83 points. His closest pursuer is Mazden Leslie of the Vancouver Giants with 68 points…The rookie scoring race is much tighter, with Everett defenceman Landon Dupont leading with 57 points. Kamloops Blazers forward Tommy Lafreniere is two points back. The durable Lafreniere, who leads all rookies with 24 goals, has appeared in all 62 games so far this season…Everett has been outshot only three times this season and have not lost in regulation time when leading after two periods…The Lethbridge Hurricanes are 24-0-0-0 when leading after 40 minutes…The Medicine Hat Tigers have scored two shorthanded goals in a game five times this season, but Portland leads the league with a total of 16 shorties. Prince Albert has yet to score shorthanded through 62 games…The high-scoring Spokane Chiefs have surrendered 16 shorthanded goals this season, the most in the WHL…Tigers forward Gavin McKenna has scored at least a point in 36 straight games.

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