Moose Jaw Express Pedersen Column

Rod Pedersen’s 10 Sports Things (& More)

Reprinted with permission of the Moose Jaw Express newspaper:

1 – IN THE HANGAR: The puck drops on the 2026-27 Western Hockey League season this weekend. The Moose Jaw Warriors host the Saskatoon Blades in their home opener Saturday at 6:00 pm in the Temple Gardens Centre. The Tribe went 0-6 in the preseason but nobody is worried. Any good hockey man will tell you exhibition games are for evaluation only and there’s a reason the games don’t count in the standings. Read on…

2 – LET ‘ER RIP: Warriors GM Jason Ripplinger is as good of a hockey man as there is and had this to say about the month of September. “I thought we utilized our preseason to the fullest by giving young players a chance to showcase themselves so we know where they are this year and in the future,” Ripplinger told the MJ Express. “No question, our record did not look good on paper during the preseason but you don’t win championships in September. We had a lot of rookies in every game.”

3 – LET ‘ER RIP PART II: Ripplinger will forever be known as the GM responsible for leading the Warriors to the 2024 Western Hockey League championship. But he’s never been one to put his feet up. Jason’s excited for this season, and taste the postseason again for the first time since 2024. “As for the season there is so much turnover in the league, it’s hard to project where your team will be at,” Ripplinger continued. “But I think if the team works hard, gets better every day, and they buy into what Scott King and his coaching staff is teaching, we could have good team success this year.”

4 – BC DIVISION: Over our last two columns we’ve published the results of polls of media and scouts for standing predictions for the East & Central Divisions. This week, here are the results of our poll of Western Conference divisions beginning with BC: 1) Penticton, 2) Victoria, 3) Prince George, 4) Kelowna, 5) Vancouver, 6) Kamloops.

5 – US DIVISION: 1) Spokane, 2) Everett, 3) Seattle, 4) Portland, 5) Tri-City, 6) Wenatchee.

6 – CRAIGS LIST: This week TSN announced its latest rankings for the 2027 NHL Draft and alert readers pointed out they were way off what we published in this space two weeks ago (perhaps we were fooled by A-I?) Regardless, former Everett Silvertips d-man Landon DuPont – now of the Michigan Wolverines – was ranked #1, by a mile, and is being compared to Colorado blueliner Cale Makar. The highest current Dub player is Seattle forward Brock England at #10, followed by Prince Albert d-man Brock Cripps at #11 and Brandon forward Jaxon Jacobson at #13. We don’t mind people pointing out our errors, for two reasons: 1) We want to put out accurate info and 2) It tells me who’s reading! 😉

7 – BABS: The #1 storyline going into the 2026-27 NHL season is Mike Babcock, and if the Saskatoon native can lead the Edmonton Oilers to their sixth Stanley Cup title in franchise history. After all, that’s what Babs was hired to do and the clock’s ticking on Connor McDavid’s two-year “Wait & See” bridge contract. Babcock’s first coaching job was with the Moose Jaw Warriors from 1991-93. Who remembers?

8 – DUB HUB: The WHL has announced three rule changes: 1) Coaches challenges on missed offsides for goals, 2) Referees can now use video review for major and match penalties, and 3) Puck possessing-teams in 3-on-3 OT can no longer “retreat” out of the attacking zone or into the defending zone without the play being blown dead.

9 – WCBL: Ballots are out for the 2026 Western Canadian Baseball League awards. It’ll be a shock if Miller Express skipper Michael Gonzalez of West New York, New Jersey isn’t named Coach of the Year. In his first season he guided the Millers to a franchise record 42 wins, including a club record 14-game winning streak. Sure, Saskatoon’s Joe Carnahan led the Berries to their first league title, but that was the best team money could buy. 🙂

10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS: A man who is always available to others is never available to himself. … Still can’t believe Rogers killed Hockey Night In Canada. … RIP to Barry Melrose, the former LA Kings coach and ESPN hockey analyst from Kelvington, SK who passed away at age 70 after a battle with Parkinsons Disease. … Count your blessings and be grateful everyday. … AND HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?

(For Moose Jaw sporting tips and scoops, email Rod at pedersenmedia@outlook.com)