Everett secure first ever WHL Championship
The Western Hockey League has a fresh face at the top.
For the first time in franchise history, the Everett Silvertips have claimed the Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL champions after a Game 5 win over the Prince Albert Raiders.
It was third time lucky for the Tips who have twice previously played for a WHL title – they reached the finals in 2003 in their debut season and again in 2018. But 2026 was the year they got to the top.
HISTORY. MADE. 🏆@WHLsilvertips | #WHLChampionship | #FeedingTheFuture pic.twitter.com/qfGH8Iw0fF
— Western Hockey League (@TheWHL) May 16, 2026
Julius Miettinen (SEA) was named WHL Playoffs MVP after a postseason in which he led all skaters with 14 goals and tied first with 27 points.
Fellow Finn Matias Vanhanen tallied 24 points while his 12 goals ranked second. Landon DuPont (2027) finished with 22 points as did Carter Bear (DET) as four of the top five point-getters this postseason were Silvertips.
Between the pipes, Anders Miller won all 16 games for the Silvertips and in the process registered a 1.91 GAA and .932 save percentage, both of which led the league among qualified netminders.
As WHL champions, the Silvertips will join the Kelowna Rockets as well as the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers and eventual QMJHL winner at the 2026 Memorial Cup presented by Kubota that will take place May 21 – May 31.
Throughout the regular season, the Silvertips were the CHL’s top club. They spent all 26 weeks inside the CHL Top 10 that included 10 weeks at no. 1. In all, they had a CHL and franchise best 57 wins and 117 points each of which ranked tied for the 12th-highest single-season totals in CHL history. Furthermore, their .860 points percentage was the seventh-best mark all-time in the CHL and the highest by a WHL club since 1978-79. Everett was equally dominant on the road, tying for the second-most road wins in CHL history with 29, and finished the year with just eight regulation losses — tied for the eighth-fewest in a single season in CHL history.
The Silvertips stormed through the first round of the WHL Playoffs after a four-game sweep of Portland where they outscored the Winterhawks 25-5. In Round 2, they disposed of Kelowna in five games before they eliminated Penticton in the minimum four games in the WHL Western Conference Championship Series.
Everett dropped Game 1 of the WHL Championship Series 4-2 on home ice but rebounded in Game 2 to take a 6-2 decision behind a four-point (1G/ 3A) effort from Miettinen. The Finn would score the game-winner in a 3-2 victory in Game 3 while five different skaters had goals in a 5-2 Game 4 decision. In Game 5 Shea Busch (FLA) had a hat-trick as the ‘Tips finished the series off in style with a 7-2 victory.
Steve Hamilton’s team will make its Memorial Cup debut on May 23 when they play either Moncton or Chicoutimi while on May 25 they will tackle Kitchener. They close out the round-robin with an all-WHL clash against Kelowna on May 27.
The 2026 Memorial Cup presented by Kubota is scheduled for May 21-31 in Kelowna, B.C. Every game of the 2026 Memorial Cup will air in Canada on TSN and RDS, with live streaming available on TSN.ca, the TSN app, RDS.ca, and the RDS app. In the United States, fans can watch every game on NHL Network, while viewers outside Canada can stream the tournament live on Victory+.
2026 Memorial Cup schedule:
May 22 – Game 1: Kitchener vs. Kelowna — 9:00pm ET / 6:00pm PT
May 23 – Game 2: Everett vs. QMJHL — 9:00pm ET / 6:00pm PT
May 24 – Game 3: Kelowna vs. QMJHL — 9:00pm ET / 6:00pm PT
May 25 – Game 4: Everett vs. Kitchener — 9:00pm ET / 6:00pm PT
May 26 – Game 5: QMJHL vs. Kitchener — 9:00pm ET / 6:00pm PT
May 27 – Game 6: Kelowna vs. Everett — 9:00pm ET / 6:00pm PT
May 28 – Tie-breaker (if necessary) — 9:00pm ET / 6:00pm PT
May 29 – Semi-final — 9:00pm ET / 6:00pm PT
May 31 – Final — 7:00pm ET / 4:00pm PT
