[{"id":35628,"date":"2026-06-03T12:59:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T16:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/?p=35628"},"modified":"2026-06-03T12:59:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T16:59:43","slug":"dayne-beuker-signs-with-hurricanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/article\/dayne-beuker-signs-with-hurricanes","title":{"rendered":"Dayne Beuker Signs with Hurricanes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – <\/strong>The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club has announced the signing of 2008-born forward Dayne Beuker to a Western Hockey League Scholarship and Development Agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cDayne is a talented player who has competed successfully on the international level, and we are pleased that he has chosen to continue his development with our organization,\u201d said Hurricanes Interim General Manager Barclay Parneta. \u201cWe are also grateful that Dayne and his family have trusted us with the next steps in his development. He brings a strong skill set and character to our group, and we believe he will be an important part of our future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beuker, 18, was originally drafted by the Hurricanes in the first-round (14th<\/sup> overall) in the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft. The product of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, holds a dual citizenship and has spent the last two seasons with US National Development Program. In 2025-2026, he recorded 61 points (20g-41a) along with 18 penalty minutes in a combined 87 regular season games with the USNTDP U18 program finishing seventh in team scoring. Beuker collected 18 points (6g-12a) along with two penalty minutes and a plus-7 rating in 25 games with USNTDP in United States Hockey League competition. He is ranked 76th<\/sup> among North American skaters by the National Hockey League Central Scouting Service on their Final Rankings for the 2026 NHL Entry Draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really excited to join the Hurricanes. They have a great organization that has produced a lot of high-end players, they have great a coaching staff, management group and an awesome fan base,\u201d said Beuker. \u201cI think Lethbridge is a great place to develop. From the staff, to the facility, to the trainers, they offer it all. Being able to compete against a lot of good players in practice and to play a lot of games, this is a great situation for me to grow as a player.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 5\u201910, 170-pound forward appeared suited up for the USNTDP at the 2025 CHL-USA Prospects Challenge which was held in Calgary and Lethbridge in November. Beuker recorded one goal and four penalty minutes in the three contests. He also represented the United States at the World Under-18 Championships in April where he collected five points (2g-3a) along with a plus-5 rating in five contests finishing fourth in American scoring.<\/p>\n

In two seasons with the USNTDP, Beuker recorded a combined 118 points (38g-80a) along with 36 penalty minutes in 180 regular season games at both the U17 and U18 levels. In his draft year, the right-shot centre racked up 103 points (47g-56a) along with 10 penalty minutes in 30 regular season games with the Humboldt Broncos U15 AA program before amassing a whopping 28 points (11g-17a) and four penalty minutes in nine post-season games leading the Broncos to a SAAHL U15 Championship. In the year after being drafted by Lethbridge, Beuker had a standout 2023-2024 season finishing with 84 points (41g-43a) in 44 regular season games before adding 11 points (4g-7a) in 10 playoff contests. That year, he led the Blazers to a SMAAAHL Championship while leading the league in goals, assists and points. He was also named a SMAAAHL First Team All-Star, the Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year and Top Forward as a 15-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really looking forward to playing in front of the fans. I played there last year for the CHL-USA Prospects Challenge and it was awesome,\u201d added Beuker. \u201cI know a couple of the guys on the team having played with them growing up. It seems like a great group and I\u2019m excited to get to work with them<\/p>\n

I\u2019m really grateful to get this opportunity to part of the Hurricanes organization, I\u2019m excited to get to play for Matt Anholt, and I\u2019m really excited to get things started with the Hurricanes. I can\u2019t wait for camp; it will be very important for our group to set foundations of ethic, teamwork and play structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beuker is the son of WHL alumnus Dean Beuker who spent parts of five seasons in the league with the Tri-City Americans, Portland Winterhawks and Regina Pats before embarking on a four-year career in CIS hockey with the University of Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n

\u201cFull credit goes to our entire hockey staff for the work they have done in building relationships and creating an environment that players want to be a part of. I would also like to recognize Pete Anholt, who played a significant role in identifying and bringing a player of Dayne\u2019s caliber into our system,\u201d added Parneta. \u201cWe look forward to welcoming Dayne and his family to Lethbridge and seeing him in a Hurricanes jersey this fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Season Tickets for the 2026-2027 season, which will mark the Hurricanes 40th<\/sup> Anniversary season in Lethbridge, are now on sale with Loyalty Pricing available until July 2nd<\/sup> at 5:00pm. Premium Season Tickets are also available for an additional $250 per seat. Season Tickets can be purchased by visiting the Yates Memorial Theatre and VisitLethbridge.com Arena Ticket Centre, by calling 403-329-SEAT (7328) or online at www.visitlethbridgearena.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club has announced the signing of 2008-born forward Dayne Beuker to a Western Hockey League Scholarship and Development Agreement. \u201cDayne is a talented player who has competed successfully on the international level, and we are pleased that he has chosen to continue his development with our organization,\u201d said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":371,"featured_media":35629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1301],"tags":[{"term_id":1367,"name":"WHL Scholarship & Development Agreement","slug":"whl-scholarship-development-agreement","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1367,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":11,"filter":"raw","term_order":"192"},{"term_id":1097,"name":"Dayne Beuker","slug":"dayne-beuker","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1107,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw","term_order":"590"}],"class_list":["post-35628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-whl-scholarship-development-agreement","tag-dayne-beuker","category-1301","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2026\/06\/03110015\/Beuker-signed_web.jpg",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":35621,"date":"2026-05-28T13:11:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T17:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/?p=35621"},"modified":"2026-05-28T13:11:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T17:11:57","slug":"hurricanes-sign-ronan-gow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/article\/hurricanes-sign-ronan-gow","title":{"rendered":"Hurricanes Sign Ronan Gow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – <\/strong>The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club have announced the signing of 2011-born forward Ronan Gow to a Western Hockey League Scholarship and Development Agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot to me and my family to sign with the Hurricanes. We have a family connection to hockey in Lethbridge. My Great Grandpa played for the Native Sons, my Uncle played for the Broncos, and my dad Tyler was also drafted by the Hurricanes; so it\u2019s pretty cool that I got drafted by Lethbridge as well, and I\u2019m really excited for the chance to play there,\u201d said Gow.<\/p>\n

Gow, 15, was selected by the Hurricanes in the third-round (50th<\/sup> overall) in the 2026 WHL Prospects Draft. The Nanaimo, British Columbia, product had a standout 2025-2026 season with the Delta Hockey Academy U15 Prep team where he recorded 52 points (26g-26a) along with 22 penalty minutes in 30 regular season games. He added five points (2g-3a) along with four penalty minutes in three post-season games. Gow also appeared in four regular season games being held pointless while adding one assist in three playoff games with the Delta Hockey Academy U17 Prep team last season. He was named to the 2025-2026 CSSHL U15 First All-Star Team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very excited to get Ronan signed to a WHL contract. He\u2019s a very competitive player who we were thrilled to be able to select in the third-round,\u201d said Hurricanes Head Scout Garry Carson. \u201cRonan is the type of player that we think will be a very good WHLer with a strong two-way game who can score at a high level. He is a great leader who also served as Captain in Delta last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 6\u20191, 175-pound forward finished the 2025-2026 season leading the Delta U15 Prep team in goals (26) while finishing second in points (52). Gow also was tied in team points in the post-season. He served as Captain for the U15 team. During last season, he recorded three points (2g-1a) and two penalty minutes in five games with the Delta U15 Prep team as the John Reid Memorial Tournament. He added five points (3g-2a) and two penalty minutes in four games with Team Black at the 2026 BC Cup while collecting six points (2g-4a) in six games with First Class U15 team at the Toronto Exposure Cup U15 tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait to get things started with the Hurricanes. I\u2019ve heard great things about the organization, the coaches, and the city,\u201d added Gow. \u201cIt will be nice to meet everyone, get to camp, and start competing. I can\u2019t wait for camp to start; it\u2019s something I\u2019ve been looking forward to for a long time and I\u2019m excited to learn from the older guys and the coaches to push myself against really good competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gow totaled 14 points (7g-7a) along with 14 penalty minutes during the 2024-2025 season with the Delta U15 Prep team while adding two goals in five playoff games helping the U15 team to a CSSHL Championship in 2025. He joins forward Artello Forestal as the two players already signed from the 2011-born age group.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very excited that Ronan has chosen to continue his development with the Lethbridge Hurricanes,\u201d said Lethbridge Hurricanes Interim General Manager Barclay Parneta. \u201cRonan is a player we believe has a very bright future, and we are looking forward to helping him take the next steps both on and off the ice. We appreciate the trust he and his family have placed in our organization, and we are excited to see him in a Hurricanes jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Season Tickets for the 2026-2027 season, which will mark the Hurricanes 40th<\/sup> Anniversary season in Lethbridge, are now on sale with Loyalty Pricing available until July 2nd<\/sup> at 5:00pm. Premium Season Tickets are also available for an additional $250 per seat. Season Tickets can be purchased by visiting the Yates Memorial Theatre and VisitLethbridge.com Arena Ticket Centre, by calling 403-329-SEAT (7328) or online at www.visitlethbridgearena.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club have announced the signing of 2011-born forward Ronan Gow to a Western Hockey League Scholarship and Development Agreement. \u201cIt means a lot to me and my family to sign with the Hurricanes. We have a family connection to hockey in Lethbridge. My Great Grandpa played for the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":371,"featured_media":35622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1301],"tags":[{"term_id":1556,"name":"Ronan Gow","slug":"ronan-gow","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1556,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"2"},{"term_id":1083,"name":"WHL Scholarship and Development Agreement","slug":"whl-scholarship-and-development-agreement","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1093,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1456"}],"class_list":["post-35621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-ronan-gow","tag-whl-scholarship-and-development-agreement","category-1301","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2026\/05\/28115925\/Gow_signed-web.jpg",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":35618,"date":"2026-05-21T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/?p=35618"},"modified":"2026-05-21T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T15:00:00","slug":"hurricanes-execute-three-team-trade-with-wheat-kings-broncos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/article\/hurricanes-execute-three-team-trade-with-wheat-kings-broncos","title":{"rendered":"Hurricanes Execute Three Team Trade with Wheat Kings, Broncos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – <\/strong>The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club announced they have acquired the WHL playing rights to 2007-born forward Jake Stuart and a fifth-round draft pick in the 2028 Western Hockey League Prospects Draft in a three-team trade with the Brandon Wheat Kings and Swift Current Broncos.<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes additionally traded 2007-born forward Hudson Kibblewhite to the Broncos while sending a seventh-round draft pick in the 2028 WHL Draft to the Wheat Kings. Swift Current also traded 2007-born defenceman Josh McGregor to Brandon in the trade.<\/p>\n

Stuart, 19, was originally selected second overall by the Wheat Kings in the 2022 WHL US Priority Draft. The Manhatten Beach, California, product has split the 2025-2026 season with the Muskegon Lumberjacks and Sioux Falls Stampede in the United States Hockey League where he collected 16 points (6g-10a) along with 31 penalty minutes in 51 regular season games. He has also tallied one assist in eight post-season games having helped the Stampede to the USHL Championship Series. Stuart has a commitment to the University of Denver.<\/p>\n

The 5\u20199, 165-pound forward previously spent two seasons with the US National Development Program where he appeared in a combined 132 regular season games collecting 42 points (24g-18a) along with 46 penalty minutes with the NTDP U17 and U18 programs. Last year, Stuart amassed 31 points (17g-14a) along with 36 penalty minutes in 67 regular season games at the U18 level. He is the older brother of Hurricanes prospect Logan Stuart and the son of former NHL defenceman and Regina Pat and Calgary Hitmen alumnus Brad Stuart.<\/p>\n

Kibblewhite, 19, was originally acquired from the Saskatoon Blades in August of 2025. The Vernon, British Columbia, product appeared in 53 regular season games setting career highs in goals, assists and points while finishing sixth in Hurricanes scoring with 29 points (14g-15a) along with two penalty minutes. He finished fifth in goals while serving as an alternate captain. Kibblewhite has skated in 143 regular season games with the Blades and Hurricanes totaling 51 points (27g-24a) along with 14 penalty minutes.<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes would like to thank Hudson for his contributions to the organization and wish him well moving forward.<\/p>\n

Season Tickets for the 2026-2027 season, which will mark the Hurricanes 40th<\/sup> Anniversary season in Lethbridge, are now on sale with Loyalty Pricing available until July 2nd<\/sup> at 5:00pm. Premium Season Tickets are also available for an additional $250 per seat. Season Tickets can be purchased by visiting the Yates Memorial Theatre and VisitLethbridge.com Arena Ticket Centre, by calling 403-329-SEAT (7328) or online at www.visitlethbridgearena.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club announced they have acquired the WHL playing rights to 2007-born forward Jake Stuart and a fifth-round draft pick in the 2028 Western Hockey League Prospects Draft in a three-team trade with the Brandon Wheat Kings and Swift Current Broncos. The Hurricanes additionally traded 2007-born forward Hudson Kibblewhite…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":371,"featured_media":35619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1301],"tags":[{"term_id":1563,"name":"Jake Stuart","slug":"jake-stuart","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1563,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1"},{"term_id":1504,"name":"hudson kibblewhite","slug":"hudson-kibblewhite","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1504,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":23,"filter":"raw","term_order":"60"},{"term_id":526,"name":"Trade","slug":"trade","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":531,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":53,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1369"}],"class_list":["post-35618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-jake-stuart","tag-hudson-kibblewhite","tag-trade","category-1301","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2026\/05\/20165747\/Kibblewhite_TRADE_web.jpg",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":35614,"date":"2026-05-19T11:59:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/?p=35614"},"modified":"2026-05-19T11:59:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:59:32","slug":"forestal-signs-with-hurricanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/article\/forestal-signs-with-hurricanes","title":{"rendered":"Forestal Signs with Hurricanes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – <\/strong>The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club have announced the signing of 2011-born forward Artello Forestal to a Western Hockey League Scholarship and Development Agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a special moment for me and my family,\u201d said Forestal. \u201cSigning with the Hurricanes means a lot to me. I\u2019ve worked hard to reach this level, and I\u2019m honoured to be part of this organization. It\u2019s exciting to officially sign, and I can\u2019t wait to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forestal, 14, was drafted by the Hurricanes in the first-round (14th<\/sup> overall) in the 2026 WHL Prospects Draft. The Edmonton, Alberta, product was the ninth forward selected in the first round of the draft. He had a great 2025-2026 season with OHA Edmonton U15 Prep where he collected 47 points (22g-25a) along with 22 penalty minutes in 21 regular season games. Forestal finished fourth in team scoring while sitting second in team goals. He added four points (2g-2a) along with 16 penalty minutes in three post-season games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very excited to have a building block like Artello join our organization,\u201d said Hurricanes Interim General Manager Barclay Parneta. \u201cHe is an exciting player that the people of Lethbridge will enjoy watching. Full marks to our scouting staff for the amount of work they put into evaluating Artello throughout the season. He continually showed the skill set, compete level, and character traits we highly value in a Hurricanes player.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 5\u201910, 147-pound centre totaled 16 points (9g-7a) along with two penalty minutes with First Class U15 at the TED U15 tournament with OHA Edmonton U15 Prep where he finished second in team and tournament scoring. Forestal also represented Alberta at the 2026 Alberta Cup in Red Deer where he racked up nine points (5g-4a) with four penalty minutes leading Alberta Gold in scoring while finishing second in tournament scoring. He also finished fourth in tournament scoring collecting 12 points (7g-5a) in six games at the John Reid Invitational tournament.<\/p>\n

Forestal, who is a December 2011 born forward, is a late birthday and won\u2019t be eligible until the 2030 National Hockey League Entry Draft. During the 2024-2025 season, he recorded 44 points (22g-22a) along with 10 penalty minutes in 28 regular season games with the OHA Edmonton U15 Prep team during the 2024-2025 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thrilled that Artello has signed with the Hurricanes,\u201d said Hurricanes Head Scout Garry Carson. \u201cHe\u2019s a player that we were really excited about going into the draft and we were happy to be able to select him at 14th<\/sup> overall. Artello is a special player and will be a very good Hurricane, and we\u2019re excited that he will be a part of our organization moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forestal is the first player from the 2026 WHL Draft class to sign with the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

Season Tickets for the 2025-2026 season, which will mark the Hurricanes 40th<\/sup> Anniversary season in Lethbridge, are now on sale with Loyalty Pricing available until July 2nd<\/sup> at 5:00pm. Premium Season Tickets are also available for an additional $250 per seat. Season Tickets can be purchased by visiting the Yates Memorial Theatre and VisitLethbridge.com Arena Ticket Centre, by calling 403-329-SEAT (7328) or online at www.visitlethbridgearena.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club have announced the signing of 2011-born forward Artello Forestal to a Western Hockey League Scholarship and Development Agreement. \u201cThis is a special moment for me and my family,\u201d said Forestal. \u201cSigning with the Hurricanes means a lot to me. I\u2019ve worked hard to reach this level, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":371,"featured_media":35615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1301],"tags":[{"term_id":1555,"name":"Artello Forestal","slug":"artello-forestal","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1555,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw","term_order":"9"},{"term_id":1367,"name":"WHL Scholarship & Development Agreement","slug":"whl-scholarship-development-agreement","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1367,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":11,"filter":"raw","term_order":"192"}],"class_list":["post-35614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-artello-forestal","tag-whl-scholarship-development-agreement","category-1301","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2026\/05\/19114731\/Forestal_signed_WEB.jpg",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":35609,"date":"2026-05-07T17:32:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T21:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/?p=35609"},"modified":"2026-05-07T17:32:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T21:32:28","slug":"hurricanes-select-eight-players-in-2026-whl-prospects-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/article\/hurricanes-select-eight-players-in-2026-whl-prospects-draft","title":{"rendered":"Hurricanes Select Eight Players in 2026 WHL Prospects Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – <\/strong>The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club selected a total of eight 2011-born players in the 2026 Western Hockey League Prospects Draft, including four forwards, three defenceman and one goaltender.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Hurricanes selected forward Artello Forestal with the 14th<\/sup> overall selection in the first-round of the draft. The Edmonton, Alberta, product appeared in 21 regular season games with OHA Edmonton U15 Prep team where he totaled 47 points (22g-25a) along with 22 penalty minutes. Forestal added four points (2g-2a) along with 16 penalty minutes in three playoff games. He also collected nine points (5g-4a) with four penalty minutes with Team Alberta Gold at the 2026 Alberta Cup after racking up 12 points (7g-5a) and six penalty minutes at the John Reid Memorial with OHA Edmonton U15 Prep.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were really impressed by his ability to put the puck in the net every opportunity that he got, he sees the ice very well and makes his linemates around him play well too,\u201d said Hurricanes Head Scout Garry Carson on Wednesday. \u201cWe really stressed that we wanted way more speed and skill in this draft and Artello is one of those players who has the attributes that we were looking for. We needed to add more scoring to our group moving forward and he will bring that to our lineup right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u2018Canes opened the second day with their first selection by picking 2011-born forward Ronan Gow in the third-round (50th<\/sup> overall). The Nanaimo, British Columbia, product appeared in 30 regular season games with the Delta U15 Prep team amassing 52 points (26g-26a) along with 22 penalty minutes. The 6\u20191, 175-pound centre finished second in points while leading Delta U15 Prep in goals. He also finished 13th<\/sup> in league scoring with his 52 points. Gow also served as Captain of the Delta U15 Prep team during the 2025-2026 season. He added five points (2g-3a) and four penalty minutes in three post-season games.<\/p>\n

With their second third-round pick, the Hurricanes selected defenceman Evan Cuthbertson. The Kamloops, British Columbia, product spent the 2025-2026 season with the Yale U15 Prep team where he collected 12 points (2g-10a) along with six penalty minutes in just 16 regular season games. He also collected three points (1g-2a) in five playoff games. The 6\u20191, 150-pound rearguard recorded 21 points (6g-15a) along with two penalty minutes in 16 games with Thompson of the BC U15 league during the 2024-2025 season.<\/p>\n

Lethbridge had a pair of fourth-round draft picks. The \u2018Canes selected American forward CJ Dornfeld with the 70th<\/sup> overall pick. The St. Paul, Minnesota, product had a standout season with the Woodbury Bantam AA team where he finished the season with an impressive 92 points (36g-56a) along with 100 penalty minutes in 61 contests. The 6\u20191, 185-pound forward finished third in team scoring while leading his team in penalty minutes while ending the campaign sitting 15th<\/sup> in league scoring with 92 points.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Canes then selected American goaltender Chay Ekblad with the 77th<\/sup> overall selection in the sixth round. The Williston, North Dakota, product spent the 2025-2026 season with Fox Motors 14 team in the T1EHL14 league. In 13 regular season games, he posted a 3-5-2-0 record with a 3.34 goals against average and one shutout. The 6\u20192, 159-pound netminder also appeared in two playoff games with Fox Motors 14.<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes continued with two sixth-round draft picks. First, Lethbridge selected forward Knox Kehler with the 116th<\/sup> overall pick. The Yellow Head County, Alberta, product amassed 44 points (21g-23a) along with 74 penalty minutes in 33 regular season games with the St. Albert Sabres of the ABU15A league. He added an impressive 22 points (13g-9a) along with 16 penalty minutes in just nine playoff games with the Sabres while adding 10 points (6g-4a) along with 10 penalty minutes in the AEHL U15 AAA Provincials. The 6\u20191, 181-pound forward is the son of former WHLer Joff Kehler who played five seasons with the Spokane Chiefs from 1999 to 2004.<\/p>\n

With their second pick of the sixth-round, the \u2018Canes chose defenceman Kai Genereaux with the 120th<\/sup> overall selection. The Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, product skated in 30 regular season games with the Calgary Edge U15 Prep team where he finished with 13 points (4g-9a) along with 30 penalty minutes. The 6\u20191, 166-pound rearguard added six penalty minutes in two playoffs games with Edge U15. Genereaux collected 20 points (6g-14a) with 34 penalty minutes with the Lloydminster Athletics 14U of the JPHL.<\/p>\n

In the seventh round, the Hurricanes made their final selection of the draft by choosing defenceman Rowen Norrie. The Calgary, Alberta, product had 15 points (2g-13a) along with 60 penalty minutes in 34 regular season games with the Calgary Bisons U15 AAA team. He added one assist in three post-season games. The 6\u20191, 165-pound blueliner also appeared in one game with the CBHA Hawks U16 AA team and one game with the Calgary Bulls U17 club during the 2025-2026 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very pleased with how this draft went for us and are excited about the eight players that we selected,\u201d said Hurricanes Head Scout Garry Carson. \u201cOur group had an objective and a plan for this year\u2019s draft in adding a lot of skill and speed to our team and we feel that we accomplished that. The blend of high-end scoring ability, mixed with the three puck moving defenceman and an exciting goaltender, we feel that this group has a lot of potential and we are excited for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes also made four trades during the draft. Lethbridge traded the 154th<\/sup> and 160th<\/sup> overall picks in the 2026 draft to the Saskatoon Blades in exchange for a sixth-round draft pick in 2028 and an eighth-round draft pick in 2029. The \u2018Canes also dealt their 150th<\/sup> overall pick to the Swift Current Broncos for a sixth-round pick in the 2028 draft before acquiring an eighth-round draft pick in the 2028 draft from the Kamloops Blazers in exchange for the 174th<\/sup> overall pick. Finally, the Hurricanes flipped their 185th<\/sup> overall pick to the Edmonton Oil Kings for a ninth-round draft pick in 2029.<\/p>\n

Season Tickets for the 2025-2026 season, which will mark the Hurricanes 40th<\/sup> Anniversary season in Lethbridge, are now on sale with Loyalty Pricing available until July 2nd<\/sup> at 5:00pm. Premium Season Tickets are also available for an additional $250 per seat. Season Tickets can be purchased by visiting the Yates Memorial Theatre and VisitLethbridge.com Arena Ticket Centre, by calling 403-329-SEAT (7328) or online at www.visitlethbridgearena.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club selected a total of eight 2011-born players in the 2026 Western Hockey League Prospects Draft, including four forwards, three defenceman and one goaltender. On Wednesday, the Hurricanes selected forward Artello Forestal with the 14th overall selection in the first-round of the draft. The Edmonton, Alberta, product appeared…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":371,"featured_media":35604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1301],"tags":[{"term_id":1556,"name":"Ronan Gow","slug":"ronan-gow","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1556,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"2"},{"term_id":1557,"name":"Evan Cuthbertson","slug":"evan-cuthbertson","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1557,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"3"},{"term_id":1558,"name":"CJ Dornfeld","slug":"cj-dornfeld","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1558,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"4"},{"term_id":1559,"name":"Chay Ekblad","slug":"chay-ekblad","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1559,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"5"},{"term_id":1560,"name":"Knox Kehler","slug":"knox-kehler","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1560,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"6"},{"term_id":1561,"name":"Kai Genereaux","slug":"kai-genereaux","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1561,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"7"},{"term_id":1562,"name":"Rowen Norrie","slug":"rowen-norrie","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1562,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"8"},{"term_id":1555,"name":"Artello Forestal","slug":"artello-forestal","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1555,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw","term_order":"9"},{"term_id":1554,"name":"2026 WHL Prospects Draft","slug":"2026-whl-prospects-draft","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1554,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"10"}],"class_list":["post-35609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-ronan-gow","tag-evan-cuthbertson","tag-cj-dornfeld","tag-chay-ekblad","tag-knox-kehler","tag-kai-genereaux","tag-rowen-norrie","tag-artello-forestal","tag-2026-whl-prospects-draft","category-1301","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2026\/05\/05171328\/26Draft_recap.jpg",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":35606,"date":"2026-05-06T22:17:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T02:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/?p=35606"},"modified":"2026-05-06T22:17:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T02:17:19","slug":"hurricanes-select-artello-forestal-in-first-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/article\/hurricanes-select-artello-forestal-in-first-round","title":{"rendered":"Hurricanes Select Artello Forestal in First Round"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – <\/strong>The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club announced on Wednesday they have selected 2011-born forward Artello Forestal in the first-round of the 2026 Western Hockey League Prospects Draft.<\/p>\n

Forestal, 14, was selected with the 14th<\/sup> overall pick in the 2026 WHL Draft. The Edmonton, Alberta, product had an impressive 2025-2026 season collecting 47 points (22g-25a) along with 22 penalty minutes in 21 regular season games with the OHA Edmonton U15 Prep team. He also added four points (2g-2a) and 16 penalty minutes in three post-season games with OHA Edmonton. Forestal, was born in December of 2011, is a late birthday which makes him not eligible until the 2030 National Hockey League Entry Draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were really impressed by his ability to put the puck in the net every opportunity that he got, he sees the ice very well and makes his linemates around him play well too,\u201d said Hurricanes Head Scout Garry Carson. \u201cWe really stressed that we wanted way more speed and skill in this draft and Artello is one of those players who has the attributes that we were looking for. We needed to add more scoring to our group moving forward and he will bring that to our lineup right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the 2025-2026 season, the 5\u201910, 147-pound centre totaled 16 points (9g-7a) along with two penalty minutes with First Class U15 at the TED U15 tournament. He also collected nine points (5g-4a) with four penalty minutes with Team Alberta Gold at the 2026 Alberta Cup after racking up 12 points (7g-5a) and six penalty minutes at the John Reid Memorial with OHA Edmonton U15 Prep. Last year, Forestal recorded 44 points (22g-22a) along with 10 penalty minutes in 28 regular season games with the OHA Edmonton U15 Prep team during the 2024-2025 season.<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes will hold 10 selections in round two through seven, including two third-round picks, two fourth-round picks, two sixth-round picks and four selections in the seventh round. Lethbridge also holds picks in round eight to 15.<\/p>\n

The WHL will hold Day 2 of the Prospects Draft which will feature rounds two through 15 on Thursday, May 7th<\/sup> beginning at 10:00am MT., Fans can follow the rest of the draft online by visiting www.whl.ca\/draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Season Tickets for the 2025-2026 season, which will mark the Hurricanes 40th<\/sup> Anniversary season in Lethbridge, are now on sale with Loyalty Pricing available until July 2nd<\/sup> at 5:00pm. Premium Season Tickets are also available for an additional $250 per seat. Season Tickets can be purchased by visiting the Yates Memorial Theatre and VisitLethbridge.com Arena Ticket Centre, by calling 403-329-SEAT (7328) or online at www.visitlethbridgearena.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club announced on Wednesday they have selected 2011-born forward Artello Forestal in the first-round of the 2026 Western Hockey League Prospects Draft. Forestal, 14, was selected with the 14th overall pick in the 2026 WHL Draft. The Edmonton, Alberta, product had an impressive 2025-2026 season collecting 47 points…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":371,"featured_media":35608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1301],"tags":[{"term_id":1555,"name":"Artello Forestal","slug":"artello-forestal","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1555,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw","term_order":"9"},{"term_id":949,"name":"WHL Prospects Draft","slug":"whl-prospects-draft","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":958,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":7,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1453"}],"class_list":["post-35606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-artello-forestal","tag-whl-prospects-draft","category-1301","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2026\/05\/06221705\/Forestal-scaled.jpg",2560,1440,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":35603,"date":"2026-05-05T17:54:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T21:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/?p=35603"},"modified":"2026-05-05T17:54:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T21:54:22","slug":"2026-whl-draft-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/article\/2026-whl-draft-preview","title":{"rendered":"2026 WHL Draft Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lethbridge Hurricanes will embark on arguably one of the most important drafts in recent history for the organization on Wednesday and Thursday when the Western Hockey League holds the 2026 WHL Prospects Draft.<\/p>\n

The Prospects Draft will begin on Wednesday. May 6th<\/sup> when the league will hold its first round with a live draft show streamed free on Victory+ beginning with the pre-draft show starting at 5:30pm MT. The league will then host rounds two through 15 on Thursday, May 7th<\/sup> beginning at 10:00am MT.<\/p>\n

In 2026, players born in the United States will be eligible for the Prospects Draft after the WHL abandoned the two-round US Priority Draft which was held for six years from 2020 until 2025. Players eligible for the WHL Prospects Draft\u00a0 are 2011-born players who reside in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes enter the 2026 WHL Draft owning a total of 19 draft picks in the 15-round draft, including 12 picks in the first eight rounds. Lethbridge\u2019s first selection will be with Saskatoon\u2019s pick, 14th<\/sup> overall, which was acquired from the Kelowna Rockets in November in the Shane Smith and Vojtech Cihar trade. The \u2018Canes will also hold a total of two third-round picks, two fourth-round picks, two sixth-round picks and four seventh-round selections. The following is all the draft picks held by the Hurricanes:<\/p>\n

1st<\/sup> Round \u2013 14th<\/sup> overall (via Saskatoon \u2013 acquired from Kelowna in Smith & Cihar trade)
\n3rd<\/sup> Round \u2013 50th<\/sup> overall (via Wenatchee \u2013 acquired from Spokane in Wormald trade)
\n3rd<\/sup> Round \u2013 58th<\/sup> overall (via Spokane \u2013 acquired from Spokane in Wormald trade)
\n4th<\/sup> round \u2013 70th<\/sup> overall (Lethbridge \u2013 re-acquired from Spokane in Wormald trade)
\n4th<\/sup> round \u2013 77th<\/sup> overall (via Regina \u2013 acquired from Kelowna in Smith & Cihar trade)
\n6th<\/sup> round \u2013 116th<\/sup> overall (Lethbridge \u2013 re-acquired from Kelowna in Smith & Cihar trade)
\n6th<\/sup> round \u2013 120th<\/sup> overall (via Moose Jaw \u2013 acquired from Moose Jaw in Ziprick trade)
\n7th<\/sup> round \u2013 139th<\/sup> overall (Lethbridge)
\n7th<\/sup> round \u2013 150th<\/sup> overall (via Spokane \u2013 acquired from Spokane in Gizowski trade)
\n7th<\/sup> round \u2013 154th<\/sup> overall (via Calgary \u2013 acquired from Moose Jaw in Petersen trade)
\n7th<\/sup> round \u2013 160th<\/sup> overall (via Prince Albert \u2013 acquired from Prince Albert in Fabrizi trade)
\n8th<\/sup> round \u2013 174th<\/sup> overall (via Kamloops \u2013 acquired from Kamloops in Olsen trade)
\n9th<\/sup> round \u2013 185th<\/sup> overall (Lethbridge)
\n10th<\/sup> round \u2013 208th<\/sup> overall (Lethbridge)
\n11th<\/sup> round \u2013 231st<\/sup> overall (Lethbridge)
\n12th<\/sup> round \u2013 254th<\/sup> overall (Lethbridge)
\n13th<\/sup> round \u2013 277th<\/sup> overall (Lethbridge)
\n14th<\/sup> round \u2013 300th<\/sup> overall (Lethbridge)
\n15th<\/sup> round \u2013 323rd<\/sup> overall (Lethbridge)<\/p>\n

The likelihood of the Hurricanes, or any other team for that matter, selecting a player with every pick they hold is very rare with most teams passing by the time the 10th<\/sup> round opens. In fact, the most recent draft in 2025, there were only 13 players selected in rounds 11 through 15.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that you can\u2019t find a late bloomer or \u2018draft surprise\u2019 in the later rounds; current Hurricanes forward Kayden Longley was the last player taken in in the 2021 WHL Draft when he was selected by the Kelowna Rockets in the 13th<\/sup> round, 281st<\/sup> overall; the previous 21 selections were passed on.<\/p>\n

Other noteworthy players that were selected in the final rounds of the WHL Prospects Draft include:<\/p>\n

2023 \u2013 11th<\/sup> round, 236th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Riley Thorpe (MJ)
\n2021 \u2013 12th <\/sup>round, 259th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Ismail Abougouche (KEL)
\n2019 \u2013 11th<\/sup> round, 234th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Marcus Nguyen (POR)
\n2019 \u2013 13th<\/sup> round, 286th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Max Hildebrand (PA)
\n2017 \u2013 10th<\/sup> round, 212th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Daylan Kuefler (KAM)
\n2015 \u2013 10th<\/sup> round, 211th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Max Paddock (REG)
\n2015 \u2013 10th<\/sup> round, 215th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Adam Evanoff (MJ)<\/p>\n

While you can occasionally find steals as the draft goes, the first-round picks are where teams make their money and typically select players that will shape the future of the team for years to come. Lethbridge\u2019s recent history of first-round selections include:<\/p>\n

2024 \u2013 13th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Tyden Lafournaise
\n2023 \u2013 14th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Dayne Beuker
\n2022 \u2013 11th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Will Sharpe
\n2021 \u2013 10th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Miguel Marques
\n2021 \u2013 17th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Tristen Doyle
\n2020 \u2013 16th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Cole Miller
\n2018 \u2013 8th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Zack Stringer
\n2017 \u2013 16th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Noah Boyko
\n2016 \u2013 19th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Dylan Cozens
\n2015 \u2013 2nd<\/sup> overall \u2013 Calen Addison
\n2014 \u2013 2nd<\/sup> overall \u2013 Jordy Bellerive
\n2013 \u2013 17th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Stuart Skinner<\/p>\n

Other notable first-round picks in Hurricanes history include:<\/p>\n

2012 \u2013 4th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Giorgio Estephan
\n2006 \u2013 7th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Carter Ashton
\n2004 \u2013 4th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Dwight King
\n2000 \u2013 6th<\/sup> overall \u2013 Brent Seabrook<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes ended the 2025-2026 season with a record of 17-47-3-1 in their 68-game schedule failing to qualify for the WHL Playoffs for the first time since 2015. Lethbridge\u2019s own pick, which turned into the first overall pick, was traded to the Kelowna Rockets in January of 2025 in the Caden Price trade. Despite not owning their own first-round pick, the Hurricanes will select in the first round holding the 14th<\/sup> overall pick, a pick selection which has proved to produce some impressive talent in the history of the WHL Draft, including:<\/p>\n

2024 \u2013 Chase Surkan (Brandon)
\n2023 \u2013 Dayne Beuker (Lethbridge)
\n2022 \u2013 Connor Schmidt (Moose Jaw)
\n2021 \u2013 Ryder Ritchie (Prince Albert)
\n2020 \u2013 Zach Benson (Winnipeg)
\n2019 \u2013 Mathew Ward (Swift Current)
\n2015 \u2013 Dawson Barteaux (Red Deer)
\n2014 \u2013 Jaret Anderson-Dolan (Spokane)
\n2011 \u2013 Brayden Point (Moose Jaw)
\n2009 \u2013 Hunter Shinkaruk (Medicine Hat)
\n2004 \u2013 Tyson Sexsmith (Vancouver)
\n1999 \u2013 Kyle Brodziak (Moose Jaw)
\n1993 \u2013 Josh Holden (Regina)<\/p>\n

Other notable players taken over the years with selections held by the Hurricanes in this year\u2019s WHL Draft include:<\/p>\n

50th – 2008 – Cain Franson (Vancouver)
\n58th – 2024 – Leif Oaten (Lethbridge)
\n58th – 2020 – Aiden Oiring (Winnipeg)
\n58th – 2019 – Kyle Chyzowski (Portland)
\n58th – 2017 – Dylan Garand (Kamloops)
\n58th – 2014 – Nick Henry (Regina)
\n58th – 1996 – Jamie Lundmark (Moose Jaw)
\n70th – 2022 – Brayden Klimpke (Saskatoon)
\n70th – 2012 – Noah Juulsen (Everett)
\n77th – 2014 – Brett Davis (Lethbridge)
\n77th – 2013 – Cale Fleury (Kootenay)
\n77th – 2009 – Jaimen Yakubowski (Lethbridge)
\n120th – 2022 – Ethan Bibeau (Prince Albert)
\n120th – 2019 – Daniel Hauser (Winnipeg)<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s draft will be the first under the vision of new Interim General Manager Barclay Parneta. The former head man with the Vancouver Giants was hired as a Senior Advisor by the Hurricanes at the start of the 2025-2026 season before he replaced Peter Anholt following the long-time GM\u2019s resignation in January.<\/p>\n

Parneta has spent a long time in the Western Hockey League spending the previous seven years as the General Manager with the Giants, but his time also includes eight years as the Head Scout \/ Assistant General Manager with the Tri-City Americans which came after seven years as an Amateur Scout in the National Hockey League with the Phoenix Coyotes and St. Louis Blues.<\/p>\n

During his time as both a General Manager and Head Scout, Parneta has made some important picks over the years, including:<\/p>\n

6th<\/sup> overall \u2013 2023 \u2013 Ryan Lin (Vancouver)
\n7th<\/sup> overall \u2013 2022 \u2013 Cameron Schmidt (Vancouver)
\n19th<\/sup> overall \u2013 2022 \u2013 Aaron Obobaifo (Vancouver)
\n119th<\/sup> overall \u2013 2022 \u2013 Burke Hood (Vancouver)
\n10th<\/sup> overall \u2013 2020 \u2013 Mazden Leslie (Vancouver)
\n32nd<\/sup> overall \u2013 2020 \u2013 Ty Halaburda (Vancouver)
\n56th<\/sup> overall \u2013 2020 \u2013 Ethan Semeniuk (Vancouver)<\/p>\n

With the Giants, Parneta also made WHL history selecting standout women\u2019s player Chloe Primerano in the 2021 WHL Draft, making her the first ever female selected in the draft.<\/p>\n

In his time with the Americans, the draft success continued with many highlighted selections including:<\/p>\n

80th<\/sup> overall \u2013 2018 \u2013 Tyson Greenway
\n102nd<\/sup> overall \u2013 2018 \u2013 Parker Bell
\n53rd<\/sup> overall \u2013 2017 \u2013 Talyn Boyko
\n6th<\/sup> overall \u2013 2016 \u2013 Sasha Mutala
\n7th<\/sup> overall \u2013 2015 \u2013 Carson Focht
\n7th<\/sup> overall \u2013 2014 \u2013 Michael Rasmussen
\n44th<\/sup> overall \u2013 2014 \u2013 Kyle Olson
\n49th<\/sup> overall \u2013 2014 \u2013 Brett Leason
\n115th<\/sup> overall \u2013 2014 \u2013 Riley Sawchuk
\n63rd<\/sup> overall \u2013 2013 \u2013 Dylan Coghlan
\n89th<\/sup> overall \u2013 2013 \u2013 Morgan Geekie
\n21st<\/sup> overall \u2013 2012 \u2013 Parker Wotherspoon
\n175th<\/sup> overall \u2013 2012 \u2013 Jordan Topping
\n211th<\/sup> overall \u2013 2011 \u2013 Brandon Carlo<\/p>\n

Parneta will guide the Hurricanes into the future as they hope to land a top-end talent at pick #14 and continue to add to a prospect pool which includes Cohen Pentney, Reid Soper, Matteo Di Stefano, Liam McFadden, Luka Samu, Graham Gard, among others.<\/p>\n

Regardless of whom the \u2018Canes brass will select in the first round of the 2026 WHL Prospects Draft, it will mark the first time since the 2014 draft that a new General Manager will oversee the draft for Lethbridge.<\/p>\n

Fans can follow along with the FREE WHL Draft Show beginning at 5:30pm MT on Wednesday on Victory+ (www.victoryplus.com) or follow Round 1 and Rounds 2-15 on Thursday by visiting www.whl.ca\/draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

– Dustin Forbes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lethbridge Hurricanes will embark on arguably one of the most important drafts in recent history for the organization on Wednesday and Thursday when the Western Hockey League holds the 2026 WHL Prospects Draft. The Prospects Draft will begin on Wednesday. May 6th when the league will hold its first round with a live draft…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":371,"featured_media":35605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1301],"tags":[{"term_id":1554,"name":"2026 WHL Prospects Draft","slug":"2026-whl-prospects-draft","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1554,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"10"}],"class_list":["post-35603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-2026-whl-prospects-draft","category-1301","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2026\/05\/05171331\/26Draft_preview.jpg",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":35593,"date":"2026-04-16T16:02:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/?p=35593"},"modified":"2026-04-16T18:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T22:00:13","slug":"heger-lesiuk-listed-on-final-rankings-by-nhl-central-scouting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/article\/heger-lesiuk-listed-on-final-rankings-by-nhl-central-scouting","title":{"rendered":"Heger, Lesiuk Listed on Final Rankings by NHL Central Scouting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – <\/strong>The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club have announced that 2007-born defenceman Kyle Heger and 2008-born forward Gavin Lesiuk have been listed in the Final Rankings by the National Hockey League Central Scouting Service for the 2026 NHL Entry Draft.<\/p>\n

Heger, 18, was ranked 66th<\/sup> among North American Skaters. The Eagan, Minnesota, product was acquired by the Hurricanes from the Medicine Hat Tigers prior to the 2026 Western Hockey League Trade Deadline. He appeared in 64 regular season games collecting 35 points (11g-24a) along with 37 penalty minutes split between the \u2018Canes and Tigers during his rookie campaign in 2025-2026. Heger totaled 20 points (6g-14a) along with 12 penalty minutes in 29 regular games with Lethbridge following the trade.<\/p>\n

The 6\u20191, 192-pound rearguard finished fifth in Hurricanes scoring during the 2025-2026 season while leading all defenceman with his 35 points. Heger ranked tied for sixth among first-year WHL defenceman in scoring. He was named a co-winner of the Hurricanes Hardest Working Player while also a co-winner of the Hurricanes Top Defenceman Award. Heger was previously ranked 67th<\/sup> by NHL Central Scouting on the Midterm Rankings in January.<\/p>\n

Lesiuk, 18, was ranked 189th<\/sup> among North American Skaters. The Duncan, British Columbia, product set a new career high during the 2025-2026 season collecting 14 points (9g-5a) along with a team-high 106 penalty minutes in 63 regular season games. The former second-round draft pick of the Hurricanes has appeared in 96 career regular season games amassing 19 points (10g-9a) along with 128 penalty minutes.<\/p>\n

The 6\u20194, 216-pound forward ended his sophomore season sitting seventh in the WHL in penalty minutes while sitting second among players from the Eastern Conference. Lesiuk became the first Hurricane since Landen Ward in 2023-2024 to hit the century mark in penalty minutes while becoming just the seventh player for Lethbridge in the last decade to record over 100-PIMS in a season. He was previously ranked 177th<\/sup> by NHL Central Scouting on the Midterm Rankings.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Hurricanes prospects Landon Hafele (64th<\/sup>), Dayne Beuker (76th<\/sup>) and Logan Stuart (127th<\/sup>) were also ranked among North American skaters while Filip Novak (22nd<\/sup>) was ranked among European skaters.<\/p>\n

A total of 88 Western Hockey League players were listed by NHL Central Scouting on the Final Rankings, including 80 skaters and eight goaltenders. The 2026 NHL Draft will take place on June 26-27, 2026 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo.<\/p>\n

Season Tickets for the 2025-2026 season, which will mark the Hurricanes 40th<\/sup> Anniversary season in Lethbridge, are now on sale with Loyalty Pricing available until July 2nd<\/sup> at 5:00pm. Premium Season Tickets are also available for an additional $250 per seat. Season Tickets can be purchased by visiting the Yates Memorial Theatre and VisitLethbridge.com Arena Ticket Centre, by calling 403-329-SEAT (7328) or online at www.visitlethbridgearena.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club have announced that 2007-born defenceman Kyle Heger and 2008-born forward Gavin Lesiuk have been listed in the Final Rankings by the National Hockey League Central Scouting Service for the 2026 NHL Entry Draft. Heger, 18, was ranked 66th among North American Skaters. The Eagan, Minnesota, product was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":371,"featured_media":35594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1301],"tags":[{"term_id":1552,"name":"Landon Hafele","slug":"landon-hafele","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1552,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"11"},{"term_id":1553,"name":"Final Rankings","slug":"final-rankings","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1553,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"12"},{"term_id":1541,"name":"Kyle Heger","slug":"kyle-heger","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1541,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":13,"filter":"raw","term_order":"23"},{"term_id":1499,"name":"Filip Novak","slug":"filip-novak","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1499,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"62"},{"term_id":1097,"name":"Dayne Beuker","slug":"dayne-beuker","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1107,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw","term_order":"590"},{"term_id":1099,"name":"Gavin Lesiuk","slug":"gavin-lesiuk","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1109,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":21,"filter":"raw","term_order":"715"},{"term_id":1095,"name":"Logan Stuart","slug":"logan-stuart","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1105,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"927"},{"term_id":647,"name":"NHL Central Scouting","slug":"nhl-central-scouting","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":652,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":12,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1004"}],"class_list":["post-35593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-landon-hafele","tag-final-rankings","tag-kyle-heger","tag-filip-novak","tag-dayne-beuker","tag-gavin-lesiuk","tag-logan-stuart","tag-nhl-central-scouting","category-1301","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2026\/04\/16154435\/2526_NHL-CS_Final_web.jpg",2400,1500,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":35591,"date":"2026-04-13T13:52:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/?p=35591"},"modified":"2026-04-13T13:52:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:52:24","slug":"oaten-named-to-world-u18-championship-preliminary-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/article\/oaten-named-to-world-u18-championship-preliminary-roster","title":{"rendered":"Oaten Named to World U18 Championship Preliminary Roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – <\/strong>The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club are proud to announce that Hockey Canada has named 2009-born goaltender Leif Oaten to the Preliminary Roster for the 2026 IIHF World Under-18 Championship.<\/p>\n

Oaten, 16, was one of three goaltenders named to the preliminary roster by Hockey Canada. The Calgary, AB, product is one of 23 players named to the roster which includes nine players from the Western Hockey League. He previously represented Canada at the 2025 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge where he led Canada Red to a Gold medal finishing the tournament with a 3-0-1 record while collecting a 2.95 goals against average and a .905 save percentage. He was named a tournament all-star for Canada Red, posting 38-saves in the Gold medal game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to congratulate Leif on earning the opportunity to compete for a spot on Canada\u2019s U18 team,\u201d said Hurricanes Interim General Manager Barclay Parneta. \u201cLeif is a young goaltender with a very bright future ahead of him, and this selection is a testament to his work ethic, character, and performance both with our club and on the international stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 6\u20193, 194-pound goaltender was originally drafted in the third-round (58th<\/sup> overall) in the 2024 WHL Prospects Draft. Oaten appeared in 31 regular season games with the Hurricanes posting a record of 6-19-2-0 with a 4.23 goals against average and a .876 save percentage with one shutout during the 2025-2026 season. He finished the campaign 10th<\/sup> among rookie netminders in the WHL in games played (31) and was the lone 16-year-old goaltender in the league. Oaten posted an impressive 2.87 GAA and a .909 SV% with one shutout while collecting a record of 6-4-0-0 in 10 home contests last season with the \u2018Canes.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeif has represented his country and the Hurricanes with pride, and we are excited to watch him take this step. We wish him the very best through this process and look forward to him bringing that experience back to continue helping build and strengthen our program,\u201d added Parneta.<\/p>\n

Canada will look for their third-straight gold medal at the World U18 Championship having won the tournament in 2024 and 2025. Since it\u2019s inception in 1999, Canada has won the World U18 Championship on six occasions (2003, 2008, 2013, 2021, 2024 and 2025). The 2026 IIHF World Under-18 Championships will take place in Trencin and Bratislava, Slovakia beginning on Wednesday, April 22nd<\/sup> running through until Sunday, May 2nd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Season Tickets for the 2025-2026 season, which will mark the Hurricanes 40th<\/sup> Anniversary season in Lethbridge, are now on sale with Loyalty Pricing available until July 2nd<\/sup> at 5:00pm. Premium Season Tickets are also available for an additional $250 per seat. Season Tickets can be purchased by visiting the Yates Memorial Theatre and VisitLethbridge.com Arena Ticket Centre, by calling 403-329-SEAT (7328) or online at www.visitlethbridgearena.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club are proud to announce that Hockey Canada has named 2009-born goaltender Leif Oaten to the Preliminary Roster for the 2026 IIHF World Under-18 Championship. Oaten, 16, was one of three goaltenders named to the preliminary roster by Hockey Canada. The Calgary, AB, product is one of 23…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":371,"featured_media":35592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1301],"tags":[{"term_id":1551,"name":"World U18 Championship","slug":"world-u18-championship","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1551,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"13"},{"term_id":1390,"name":"Leif Oaten","slug":"leif-oaten","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1390,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":49,"filter":"raw","term_order":"160"},{"term_id":446,"name":"Hockey Canada","slug":"hockey-canada","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":448,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":17,"filter":"raw","term_order":"758"}],"class_list":["post-35591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-world-u18-championship","tag-leif-oaten","tag-hockey-canada","category-1301","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2026\/04\/13135217\/Oaten-U18_web.jpg",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":35589,"date":"2026-04-10T12:09:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T16:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/?p=35589"},"modified":"2026-04-10T12:09:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T16:09:33","slug":"aasman-anholt-named-to-world-under-18-championship-canadian-coaching-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/article\/aasman-anholt-named-to-world-under-18-championship-canadian-coaching-staff","title":{"rendered":"Aasman, Anholt Named to World Under-18 Championship Canadian Coaching Staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – <\/strong>The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club are proud to announce that Hockey Canada has named head coach Matt Anholt and assistant coach Ryan Aasman to the coaching staff of Canada\u2019s Men\u2019s hockey team for the 2026 IIHF World Under-18 Championship.<\/p>\n

Anholt, 31, will serve as an Assistant Coach for the World U18 Championship. He will represent Hockey Canada for the third time, first at the U18 level. He has previously represented Canada at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in 2024 and 2025 serving as an Assistant Coach in both tournaments. In 2025, Anholt helped lead Canada Red to a Silver medal in Truro, Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n

The Prince Albert, SK, product was named the Hurricanes head coach on June 25, 2025. Anholt has been a member of the \u2018Canes coaching staff for the past eight seasons, serving in various roles including Skills Coach, Assistant Coach, Associate Head Coach and Assistant General Manager. He led Lethbridge to a record of 17-47-3-1 in his first season as Head Coach during the 2025-2026 regular season and has amassed a record of 22-51-3-1 record as Hurricanes bench boss.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to sincerely congratulate both Matt and Ryan on being selection to represent Canada at the U18 World Championships. This is an outstanding and well-earned opportunity and to be a part of Team Canada at this level speaks volumes about the reputation they\u2019ve built and the trajectory they are on in our game,\u201d said Hurricanes Interim General Manager Barclay Parneta who has also represented Hockey Canada at various levels during his career.<\/p>\n

Aasman, 34, will also serve as a Video Coach for the World U18 Championship. He will represent Hockey Canada for the second time after first serving as a Video Coach for Canada Red at the 2022 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Langley, British Columbia, where he captured a Silver medal. He also worked as a camp coach at the 2025 U17 development camp in Calgary.<\/p>\n

The Medicine Hat, AB, was originally hired by the Hurricanes as a Video Coach prior to the 2021-2022 season. Aasman has spent the last five seasons with the \u2018Canes with the last four as an Assistant Coach. Prior to joining the Hurricanes, he served as the head coach of the Calgary Northstars U18 AAA team after one year with the Alberta Junior Hockey League\u2019s Grande Prairie Stom where he served as Interim Head Coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are incredibly proud of both Matt and Ryan and know that they will not only contribute to Canada\u2019s success, but also return with invaluable experience, knowledge and perspective that will have a direct and lasting impact on the continued growth and development of the Lethbridge Hurricanes,\u201d added Parneta.<\/p>\n

Anholt and Aasman will serve on the Canadian coaching staff under to former St. Lous Blues head coach Drew Bannister who will serve as head coach. Moose Jaw Warriors head coach Mark O\u2019Leary and Kamloops Blazers goaltending coach Dan De Palma have also been named to the staff. In addition, Red Deer Rebels athletic therapist Terence Robertson will serve on the staff. Canada will look for their third-straight gold medal at the World U18 Championship having won the tournament in 2024 and 2025. Since it\u2019s inception in 1999, Canada has won the World U18 Championship on six occasions (2003, 2008, 2013, 2021, 2024 and 2025).<\/p>\n

The 2026 IIHF World Under-18 Championships will take place in Trencin and Bratislava, Slovakia beginning on Wednesday, April 22nd<\/sup> running through until Sunday, May 2nd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Season Tickets for the 2025-2026 season, which will mark the Hurricanes 40th<\/sup> Anniversary season in Lethbridge, are now on sale with Loyalty Pricing available until July 2nd<\/sup> at 5:00pm. Premium Season Tickets are also available for an additional $250 per seat. Season Tickets can be purchased by visiting the Yates Memorial Theatre and VisitLethbridge.com Arena Ticket Centre, by calling 403-329-SEAT (7328) or online at www.visitlethbridgearena.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lethbridge, AB – The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey Club are proud to announce that Hockey Canada has named head coach Matt Anholt and assistant coach Ryan Aasman to the coaching staff of Canada\u2019s Men\u2019s hockey team for the 2026 IIHF World Under-18 Championship. Anholt, 31, will serve as an Assistant Coach for the World U18 Championship.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":371,"featured_media":35590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1301],"tags":[{"term_id":1551,"name":"World U18 Championship","slug":"world-u18-championship","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1551,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"13"},{"term_id":446,"name":"Hockey Canada","slug":"hockey-canada","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":448,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":17,"filter":"raw","term_order":"758"},{"term_id":712,"name":"Matt Anholt","slug":"matt-anholt","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":717,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":8,"filter":"raw","term_order":"951"},{"term_id":960,"name":"Ryan Aasman","slug":"ryan-aasman","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":969,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":6,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1192"}],"class_list":["post-35589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-world-u18-championship","tag-hockey-canada","tag-matt-anholt","tag-ryan-aasman","category-1301","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2026\/04\/10114521\/Matty-Azer-U18_web.jpg",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-hurricanes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}]