[{"id":30179,"date":"2026-07-22T16:42:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/?p=30179"},"modified":"2026-07-22T16:45:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:45:28","slug":"kisio-thrilled-to-bring-coaching-career-home-to-red-deer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/article\/kisio-thrilled-to-bring-coaching-career-home-to-red-deer","title":{"rendered":"Kisio thrilled to bring coaching career home to Red Deer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By DANNY RODE &#8211; <\/strong>The Kisio family has a history connected with Red Deer Rebels owner\/president\/General Manager Brent Sutter.<\/p>\n<p>The father, Kelly Kisio, was born in Wetaskiwin and played in the Alberta Junior Hockey League with the Red Deer Rustlers, spending the 1977-78 season with Sutter.<\/p>\n<p>After his pro career, Kelly joined the Calgary Hitmen, spending 19 years as GM, head coach and president of hockey operations and a rival to Sutter.<\/p>\n<p>Brent Kisio joined his father as an assistant coach with the Hitmen in the 2007-08 season after spending four years with the University of Nebraska-Omaha.<\/p>\n<p>The next 16 years Brent spent in the WHL \u2013 eight as an assistant coach with the Hitmen and eight as head coach with the Lethbridge Hurricanes.<\/p>\n<p>Once again as Sutter\u2019s rival.<\/p>\n<p>The two become very familiar with each other and it seemed a nice fit when the Rebels head coaching job opened up this year and Brent Kisio put in his application.<\/p>\n<p>Kisio spent the last three years as an assistant coach with the Henderson Silver Knights of the AHL. But he was looking for an opportunity to return home to Alberta.<\/p>\n<p>So, when Sutter offered him the job he was quick to accept.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m excited, really excited to be back where my family is,\u201d said Kisio in a telephone interview from his current home in Lethbridge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a daughter 16, and two boys aged 14 and 12 and I\u2019m excited to be back home and be around the family at this time in their growth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRed Deer is also home to me,\u201d noted Kisio, who grew up in Calgary and spent a lot of time in Sylvan Lake.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s great to be back home as a head coach with an organization I always looked up to and battled against. Now it\u2019s fun to be part of.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an opportunity to return home and be a head coach, be around my family and be part of a great organization. These opportunities don\u2019t come around very often. You don\u2019t get to coach back home. When you move away from home, move away from your family you appreciate the opportunity to be back home and be around them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He appreciated his time in the Vegas Golden Knights organization the last three years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing in Henderson was an awesome experience after being in junior for so long,\u201d he said. \u201cYou get the opportunity to see that next step towards the NHL. You see the guys who coached in junior try to take that step and realize it\u2019s right there. It\u2019s one injury, one phone call away. It taught me a lot from that standpoint in realizing how close it is if you push for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brent Kisio was born in Davos, Switzerland when Kelly played one year in the Swiss League in 1982-83. Kelly returned and spent over a decade in the NHL, finishing his career with the Calgary Flames.<\/p>\n<p>Brent came up through the Calgary minor hockey system before joining the Olds Grizzlys of the AJHL in 1999, spending nearly three seasons there before finishing the 2001-02 season with the Fort McMurray Oil Barons. He finished his junior career with the Vernon Vipers of the BCHL in 2002-03.<\/p>\n<p>During his early days in the WHL, Brent was in the background watching the coaching battles between his dad and Brent Sutter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was always fun to see those two as friends battle each other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Brent Sutter indicated he had several strong applications for the head coaching position.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had a number of awesome candidates,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a good process right to the end.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn Brent, he knows the league and he\u2019s had success with not always great teams at times. But he took them above and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe looks to be a great fit for where our team is at today with all the young kids we have coming in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe develops players and gets the most out of them. He communicates well but also holds them accountable but does it with respect. He\u2019s a good fit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brent Kisio will spend a lot of the next month going back and forth between Lethbridge and Henderson and will move to Red Deer in August.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s looking forward to meeting the players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve heard a lot about the young guys and the old guys,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will have a lot of younger guys playing key roles and after talking with the coaches, Brent and the staff, I\u2019m excited about that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll meet and learn more about the individuals and it\u2019ll go from there. It will be about developing those players.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brent did admit he will be learning after being away from the league for three years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThree years doesn\u2019t seem like much, but a lot has happened,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019m excited to see the changes and to see where everything is at and build from there. I know I\u2019m excited to be part of a great organization and I\u2019m lucky for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By DANNY RODE &#8211; The Kisio family has a history connected with Red Deer Rebels owner\/president\/General Manager Brent Sutter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":30181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[{"term_id":349,"name":"Brent Kisio","slug":"brent-kisio","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":349,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"}],"class_list":["post-30179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-brent-kisio","category-103","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/07\/22164214\/Brent-Kisio-Hurricanes.jpeg",1280,720,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30179"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30182,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30179\/revisions\/30182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":30175,"date":"2026-07-21T16:52:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/?p=30175"},"modified":"2026-07-21T16:57:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:57:19","slug":"rebels-announce-new-date-for-regular-season-home-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/article\/rebels-announce-new-date-for-regular-season-home-game","title":{"rendered":"Rebels announce new date for regular season home game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>RED DEER &#8211; The Red Deer Rebels today announced a change to the club&#8217;s 2026-27 Regular Season schedule.<\/p>\n<p>The Rebels will host the Brandon Wheat Kings at the Marchant Crane Centrium on Friday, November 27 at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>The game was originally scheduled for Saturday, November 28.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\"><strong><em>Rebels Season Tickets for 2026-26 are on sale now. <a href=\"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/season-tickets-2\/\">Click here<\/a> for details.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RED DEER &#8211; The Red Deer Rebels today announced a change to the club&#8217;s 2026-27 Regular Season schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":30176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-30175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-103","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/07\/21165119\/date-change.png",1080,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30175"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30178,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30175\/revisions\/30178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":30171,"date":"2026-07-14T17:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T17:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/?p=30171"},"modified":"2026-07-14T17:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T17:14:10","slug":"four-rebels-prospects-invited-to-canadas-national-under-17-development-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/article\/four-rebels-prospects-invited-to-canadas-national-under-17-development-camp","title":{"rendered":"Four Rebels prospects invited to Canada\u2019s national under-17 development camp"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Four Red Deer Rebels prospects have been invited to Canada\u2019s national under-17 development camp.<\/p>\n<p>Defenceman Nolan Wolitski and Owen Archer, forward Chace Turchak and goaltender Chase Nielson are among <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockeycanada.ca\/en-ca\/national-championships\/men\/world-u17\/2026\/development-camp\/dev-camp-roster\">80 players<\/a> from across the country who will take part in the camp, July 17-21 at the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex in Oakville, Ontario. Following camp, players will continue to be evaluated through the beginning of the 2026-27 season before the Canada Red and Canada White rosters are named ahead of the 2026 U17 World Challenge, scheduled for Nov. 1-7 in Oakville.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nolan Wolitski \u2013 Defence \u2013 Round 1, Pick 7 (signed)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The big six-foot-three, 180-pound St. Albert, AB resident posted 15 points in 27 games for Northern Alberta Xtreme U18 Prep (CSSHL). He added one point in seven playoff games and played for Team Alberta at the 2025 WHL Cup at the Marchant Crane Centrium. A dual Canada\/USA citizen who grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, Wolitski joined the Rebels as an Affiliate Player for the 2026 WHL Playoffs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chace Turchak \u2013 Forward \u2013 Round 2, Pick 30 (signed)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 5\u201911, 180-pound forward had a great season for his hometown Calgary Buffaloes U18 AAA (AEHL) in posting 45 points (13 goals, 32 assists) in 36 games. He followed that up with six points in four playoff tilts. Turchak also played for Alberta at the WHL Cup (1 goal, 1 assist in 5 games). He appeared in four regular season games with the Rebels and was on the club\u2019s playoff roster as an AP.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Owen Archer \u2013 Defence \u2013 Round 2, Pick 32 (signed)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, Archer has his 2025-26 season cut short due to injury. He played just seven games for the St. Albert Raiders U18 AAA (AEHL), picking up four points, then played for Alberta at the WHL Cup before missing the rest of the year. The six-foot-one, 200-pound blue liner brings an imposing presence after racking up 68 penalty minutes in just 19 games in his U15 AAA season in 2024-25.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chase Nielson \u2013 Goaltender \u2013 Round 3, Pick 56<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It was an outstanding season for the six-foot-one netminder from Fort McLeod, AB. Nielson posted a 12-5-1 record, 3.13 GAA and .913 save percentage for Southern Alberta Hockey Academy (SAHA) U17 Prep (CSSHL). He also appeared in two games for SAHA U18 Prep going 1-0-0 with a 1.31 GAA and .944 save percentage. In three games for Alberta at the WHL Cup he went 2-1 with a 2.50 GAA and .918 save percentage. Neilson was named the CSSHL U17 Prep Top Goaltender and to the First All-Star Team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four Red Deer Rebels prospects have been invited to Canada\u2019s national under-17 development camp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":30172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-30171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-103","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/07\/14171322\/U17-2026.png",1366,768,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30173,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30171\/revisions\/30173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":30164,"date":"2026-07-10T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T12:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/?p=30164"},"modified":"2026-07-10T18:02:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T18:02:24","slug":"rebels-acquire-draft-picks-from-thunderbirds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/article\/rebels-acquire-draft-picks-from-thunderbirds","title":{"rendered":"TRADE: Rebels acquire draft picks from Thunderbirds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>RED DEER \u2013 <\/strong>The Red Deer Rebels have completed a trade with the Seattle Thunderbirds.<\/p>\n<p>The Rebels acquire a sixth-round pick in the 2029 WHL Prospects Draft and a conditional third-round pick in the 2030 WHL Prospects Draft.<\/p>\n<p>The Thunderbirds receive the WHL playing rights to forward Cooper Soller, who was selected by the Rebels in round one, 18<sup>th<\/sup> overall at the 2023 WHL U.S. Priority Draft. The Los Angeles, California native was selected by the Tampa Bay Lightning in round five of the 2026 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RED DEER \u2013 The Red Deer Rebels have completed a trade with the Seattle Thunderbirds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":30076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-30164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-103","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/06\/02185424\/STOCK-2.png",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-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30164"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30168,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30164\/revisions\/30168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":30156,"date":"2026-07-08T16:07:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/?p=30156"},"modified":"2026-07-09T15:59:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:59:33","slug":"brent-kisio-named-rebels-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/article\/brent-kisio-named-rebels-head-coach","title":{"rendered":"Brent Kisio named Rebels Head Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>RED DEER \u2013 <\/strong>Red Deer Rebels Owner, President and General Manager Brent Sutter today announced the hiring of Brent Kisio as the club\u2019s new Head Coach.<\/p>\n<p>Kisio returns to the Western Hockey League to help lead the Rebels after three seasons as an assistant coach with the Henderson Silver Knights of the American Hockey League.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cWe are very excited to bring Brent to our organization. We believe it\u2019s a great fit for our team today and in the future with the good group of prospects we have in our organization,\u201d said Sutter.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cBrent has coached in our league for a long time and has had great success. With his coaching at the World Juniors, Hlinka Gretzky Cup and the last three years in the American Hockey League, all that experience will be a great asset to our hockey club.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cI\u2019m very excited to be coming back home and joining a great organization in the Red Deer Rebels. Thank you to Brent and Connie for the opportunity and I look forward to the challenge,\u201d says Kisio.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kisio was Head Coach of the Lethbridge Hurricanes from 2015-2023. He compiled a 267-176-44 coaching record in 484 regular season games and is the Hurricanes franchise leader in both wins and games coached. Lethbridge qualified for the WHL Playoffs in each of Kisio\u2019s seasons behind the bench, won a Central Division title in 2015-16, and made two appearances in the WHL Eastern Conference Final. He was the Eastern Conference nominee for WHL Coach of the Year in 2015-16.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to his time with the Hurricanes, Kisio was an Assistant\/Associate Coach with the Calgary Hitmen from 2007-15 and was also the team\u2019s assistant general manager during the 2014-15 season. During Kisio\u2019s tenure, the Hitmen won the Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL Champions in 2010 and appeared at the Memorial Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Kisio was Head Coach for Team Canada in a gold medal win at the 2018 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and served as Assistant Coach for Team Canada at the World Junior Championship in 2019 and 2023, winning gold in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Before starting his coaching career, Kisio played NCAA Division I hockey for four seasons with the University of Nebraska-Omaha. He played for the Olds Grizzlys (AJHL) from 1999-2002.<\/p>\n<p>The Rebels also announced that the rest of the club\u2019s coaching staff are returning for the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RED DEER \u2013 Red Deer Rebels Owner, President and General Manager Brent Sutter today announced the hiring of Brent Kisio as the club\u2019s new Head Coach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":30157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[{"term_id":349,"name":"Brent Kisio","slug":"brent-kisio","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":349,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"}],"class_list":["post-30156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-brent-kisio","category-103","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/07\/08160734\/Kisio-Brent1.jpg",2519,1417,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30156"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30163,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30156\/revisions\/30163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":30145,"date":"2026-07-07T15:56:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/?p=30145"},"modified":"2026-07-07T15:57:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:57:21","slug":"former-rebels-forward-vukie-mpofu-named-nashville-predators-assistant-gm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/article\/former-rebels-forward-vukie-mpofu-named-nashville-predators-assistant-gm","title":{"rendered":"Former Rebels forward Vukie Mpofu named Nashville Predators Assistant GM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Red Deer Rebels forward Vukie Mpofu has been named as the new Assistant General Manager for the Nashville Predators.<\/p>\n<p>Mpofu, who is from Saskatoon, joins the Predators after three seasons as Director of Hockey Operations and Legal Affairs for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Prior to that he worked in the front office of the Los Angeles Kings.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/predators\/news\/predators-hire-vukie-mpofu-as-assistant-general-manager-2026-07-07\">media release<\/a>, the Predators say the 30-year-old Mpofu will work alongside General Manager Chris MacFarland in all facets of the hockey operations department.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My wife and I are thrilled to join the Predators organization, and I want to thank Chris MacFarland for his trust and belief in me,\u201d Mpofu said in the media release. \u201cThe Predators are a world-class franchise with a promising future, and I&#8217;m grateful for the opportunity to help shape the next chapter here in Nashville. I look forward to working alongside two of the game&#8217;s best leaders in Chris and Rob Blake, and thank Mr. Haslam for entrusting me to be part of the management team they are assembling.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mpofu, who was born in the United Arab Emirates, played for the Rebels from 2012-14 and had 15 points in 69 games. He ended his playing career early to pursue his education and holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Saskatchewan and received his Juris Doctor from the UCLA School of Law with a specialization in Media, Entertainment, Technology and Sports Law.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Welcome to Smashville, Vukie! \ud83d\udc4b<\/p>\n<p>We&#39;ve hired Vukie Mpofu as Assistant General Manager. <\/p>\n<p>Full details \u00bb <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SKqeZhr28b\">https:\/\/t.co\/SKqeZhr28b<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/H8g9WoWK0g\">pic.twitter.com\/H8g9WoWK0g<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PredsNHL\/status\/2074493669600571810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 7, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Red Deer Rebels forward Vukie Mpofu has been named as the new Assistant General Manager for the Nashville Predators.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":30146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-30145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-103","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/07\/07155653\/Vukie.png",940,528,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30145"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30148,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30145\/revisions\/30148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":30138,"date":"2026-07-02T02:52:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T02:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/?p=30138"},"modified":"2026-07-02T02:52:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T02:52:19","slug":"lindgren-a-key-addition-to-rebels-defence-corps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/article\/lindgren-a-key-addition-to-rebels-defence-corps","title":{"rendered":"Lindgren a key addition to Rebels defence corps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By DANNY RODE &#8211;\u00a0<\/strong>The Red Deer Rebels got exactly who they were looking for in Tuesday&#8217;s CHL Import Draft.<\/p>\n<p>The Rebels went into the three-round draft looking for an older, experienced defenceman who could help led a younger defence.<\/p>\n<p>They got just that selecting 19-year-old Zeb Lindgren from Sweden 24th overall in the first round.<\/p>\n<p>They passed on the second and third rounds as Lindgren joins Slovakian Matus Lisy and Czech Jiri Kamas as the team\u2019s three imports, all of whom play on the back end.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was the age group we were looking at if it could possibly happen,\u201d said Rebels Owner\/President\/GM Brent Sutter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re still a pretty young team on defence. We had only one 19-year-old (Lisy) on the back end and we were trying to find an established guy who can bring leadership , play on our top pairing, skate really well and move the puck, and he fit all those traits.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s a real heady player, a smart player who was an NHL draft pick of the (New York) Rangers last year, so he fit what we were looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sutter added that Lindgren \u201cspeaks good English and has leadership abilities as he was captain of his team in Sweden. That character is nice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lindgren comes from Umea and played for Skelleftea AIK in Sweden\u2019s top U20 league. He had 19 points in 36 games, including six goals. He also played two games in Sweden\u2019s top professional league.<\/p>\n<p>He was selected by the Rangers in the fifth round of the 2025 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-30140\" src=\"https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/07\/02025202\/Zeb-Lindgren-HS-237x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"237\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/07\/02025202\/Zeb-Lindgren-HS-237x300.png 237w, https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/07\/02025202\/Zeb-Lindgren-HS-808x1024.png 808w, https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/07\/02025202\/Zeb-Lindgren-HS-768x973.png 768w, https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/07\/02025202\/Zeb-Lindgren-HS-1212x1536.png 1212w, https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/07\/02025202\/Zeb-Lindgren-HS.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 237px) 100vw, 237px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Lindgren also represented his country at the 2025 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and the 2025 World Junior A Challenge, winning medals in both.<\/p>\n<p>The fact the Rebels have three imports on the back end doesn\u2019t bother Sutter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not worried about that. We need the experience as going through our list we\u2019re young and the younger players need time to develop. We have some really good younger players. The 2010 and 2011 groups were really good on the back end. Both drafts were exceptional. We drafted some good D men, we just need to be patient.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Two of the younger players \u2013 17-year-old Graeme Pickering and 16-year-old Nolan Wolitski \u2013 have an excellent chance of making this year\u2019s roster.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPickering, and some of the other 17-year-olds can hopefully push to make the team and we have some good 16-year-olds including Wolitski, who was our top pick last year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why we needed a guy like Lindgren who is established and at six-foot-one, 200-pounds and can play big.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sutter indicated he had talks with the Rangers brass and they were excited to see him come to Red Deer and said he would be a good fit.<\/p>\n<p>Lindgren is currently at Ranger development camp in New York. So too is Rebels forward Kalder Varga, who received an invite after going unselected at last weekend&#8217;s NHL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>The lone Rebels player drafted last weekend was team captain Beckett Hamilton who went in the third round, 74th overall, to the Colorado Avalanche.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the teams in the NHL are good teams, but Colorado is an elite team and the way Beckett plays fits their game,\u201d Sutter said. \u201cWe figured he\u2019d go late in the second or early in the third and that\u2019s where he went.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe actually moved up the draft charts as he had a really good U18 tournament in Europe, which obviously helps. I know Colorado was high on him which showed in taking him where they did. That was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By DANNY RODE &#8211;\u00a0The Red Deer Rebels got exactly who they were looking for in Tuesday&#8217;s CHL Import Draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":30139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[{"term_id":347,"name":"Zeb Lindgren","slug":"zeb-lindgren","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":347,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"}],"class_list":["post-30138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-zeb-lindgren","category-103","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/07\/02024630\/Lindgren-SWE-Getty.png",1717,966,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30141,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30138\/revisions\/30141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":30119,"date":"2026-06-30T19:15:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T19:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/?p=30119"},"modified":"2026-06-30T20:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:05:14","slug":"rebels-unveil-2027-27-regular-season-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/article\/rebels-unveil-2027-27-regular-season-schedule","title":{"rendered":"Rebels unveil 2026-27 Regular Season Schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>RED DEER \u2013 <\/strong>The Red Deer Rebels are excited to announce their 68-game schedule for the 2026-27 Western Hockey League Regular Season, marking the 35<sup>th<\/sup> season in franchise history.<\/p>\n<p>It all begins Friday, September 18 when Rebels visit the Calgary Hitmen kicking off the final season of WHL hockey at the Scotiabank Saddledome.<\/p>\n<p>The Red Deer Advocate Home Opener goes the next night, Saturday, September 19 when the Rebels host the Edmonton Oil Kings at the Marchant Crane Centrium at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/schedule\/211\/295\/?view=grid\"><strong>VIEW THE ENTIRE SCHEDULE HERE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>After a successful debut last season, the Rebels will again be starting all Saturday home games at 6 p.m. aside from December 19 vs. Edmonton which is a 1 p.m. start. The Rebels will play 15 Saturday night home games in 2025-26. Friday and weeknight home games will continue starting at 7 p.m. Sixteen Rebels home games this season are on Saturdays with 10 on Fridays, six on Tuesdays, and two on Mondays.<\/p>\n<p>There will be two holiday matinee games at the Marchant Crane Centrium \u2013 Thanksgiving Monday vs. Edmonton (Oct. 12) and Family Day vs. Medicine Hat (Feb. 15). Puck drop for both games is 2 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Interconference play this season sees the Rebels head west for a six-game through the U.S. Division starting Friday, January 22, 2027, versus the Tri-City Americans and wrapping up Saturday, January 30 versus the Spokane Chiefs.<\/p>\n<p>The Rebels welcome B.C. Division teams to the Marchant Crane Centrium this season starting with the Victoria Royals on October 16. The Penticton Vees make their first ever visit to Red Deer on October 23. The Kamloops Blazers are in town on November 3 followed by the Prince George Cougars (December 4), Kelowna Rockets (January 19), and Vancouver Giants (March 5).<\/p>\n<p>Rebels Season Tickets for 2026-27 are now on sale at <strong>reddeerrebels.com\/season-tickets<\/strong>. Fans can also call Shaun Richer at 403-341-6000.<\/p>\n<p>Fans can watch all regular season and playoff games for free on their TV, laptop or mobile device via the <strong>Victory+<\/strong> app. <strong>106.7 REWIND Radio<\/strong> continues as the exclusive radio and streaming audio home for all Rebels broadcasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RED DEER \u2013 The Red Deer Rebels are excited to announce their 68-game schedule for the 2026-27 Western Hockey League Regular Season, marking the 35th season in franchise history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":30120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-30119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-103","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/06\/29175900\/schedule-release-crop.png",950,534,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30119"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30136,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30119\/revisions\/30136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":30131,"date":"2026-06-30T19:12:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T19:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/?p=30131"},"modified":"2026-06-30T19:12:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T19:12:20","slug":"state-of-the-western-hockey-league-june-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/article\/state-of-the-western-hockey-league-june-2026","title":{"rendered":"State of the Western Hockey League \u2013 June 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>Calgary, Alta. \u2013<\/strong> WHL Commissioner Dan Near issued today the following State of the Western Hockey League update following the successful conclusion of the 2025-26 WHL season, including changes to the WHL schedule and travel regulations aimed at improving the overall WHL Player Experience in response to feedback received directly through a survey of WHL players.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong><u>SUCCESSES, 2025-26<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>WHL continues to thrive in its local communities<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">More than 3.2 million fans attended regular season WHL games this year, representing a 4% increase from 2024-25. The WHL averaged 4,144 attendees per game in the regular season, representing the highest average attendance of any Junior League in the world.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>WHL enjoys strong showing at 2026 NHL Draft <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">With four WHL players being selected in the top 10, the WHL led the way early in the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft. Of the first 100 players selected, 23 hailed from the WHL. The next highest total from any development league was the Ontario Hockey League with 16.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Overall, the WHL saw 37 current players and two alumni selected in the 2026 NHL Draft, with the mark of 39 serving as the WHL\u2019s best total in over 15 seasons, since 43 players were selected in the 2010 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>WHL on Victory+ sets records in 2025-26<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">The first regular season of the WHL on Victory+ was a resounding success, with average regular season viewership increasing by over 50 per cent year over year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">The 2026 WHL Playoffs on Victory+ saw a 63-per-cent jump in average viewership, with WHL Playoff action generating audiences rivalling that of historical linear cable broadcasts.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">WHL on Victory+ is set to return FOR FREE once again in 2026-27.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>Kelowna Rockets host sold out Memorial Cup presented by Kubota<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">The 2026 Memorial Cup presented by Kubota was a smashing success in Kelowna, B.C., with every game of the tournament sold out at Prospera Place.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Hosted in conjunction with the CHL\u2019s 50th Anniversary Season, the sport of hockey congregated in the beautiful Okanagan and enjoyed fantastic weather and competitive hockey featuring the WHL Champion Everett Silvertips, OHL Champion Kitchener Rangers, QMJHL Champion Chicoutimi Sagueneens, and host Kelowna Rockets.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>Everett Silvertips win franchise-first WHL Championship<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">In May, the Everett Silvertips capped a historic season by hoisting the Ed Chynoweth Cup for the first time in franchise history, defeating the Eastern Conference champion Prince Albert Raiders in five games.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Seattle Kraken prospect Julius Miettinen was named WHL Playoff MVP, finishing tied for the lead in playoff scoring with 27 points.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>WHL stars secure Canadian Hockey League Awards in June<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Four representatives from the WHL came home with hardware from the 2026 CHL Awards in Toronto earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Medicine Hat Tigers defenceman and Montreal Canadiens prospect Bryce Pickford was named CHL Defenceman of the Year, while Everett Silvertips Head Coach Steve Hamilton was presented with the CHL Brian Kilrea Coach of the Year Award. Medicine Hat Tigers forward Markus Ruck was crowned CHL Top Scorer, while Portland Winterhawks forward Alex Weiermair was named CHL Scholastic Player of the Year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>2026 WHL Prospects Game presented by Showpass<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">The brand-new WHL Prospects Game made its debut in Langley, B.C., with 40 NHL Draft-eligible prospects putting on an entertaining showcase in front of hundreds of NHL scouts and a near sold-out crowd at the Langley Events Centre, home of the Vancouver Giants, while tens of thousands more watched free on Victory+.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Team East defeated Team West in overtime, thanks to Prince Albert Raiders defenceman Daxon Rudolph, who scored the game-winning goal. The product of Lacombe, Alta., went on to be the first defenceman selected in the 2026 NHL Draft, when he was chosen by the Buffalo Sabres with the fourth-overall pick.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>WHL Scholarship<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">The 2025-26 campaign served as the 33rd year of the WHL Scholarship program. This season, 370 WHL graduate players have been awarded WHL Scholarships, representing an investment of over $40 million by WHL Clubs. This season, WHL Clubs have contributed nearly $3 million to the 370 WHL graduates utilizing the WHL Scholarship.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Administered by the WHL Office, WHL Scholarships are solely funded by WHL member Clubs. Every player who plays in the WHL is eligible to receive the WHL Scholarship. For every season played in the WHL, players receive a guaranteed, full year of WHL Scholarship, including tuition, textbooks, and compulsory fees to a post-secondary institution of their choice. The WHL Scholarship is a full guaranteed academic scholarship with no requirement to play university hockey to qualify.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong><u>NEW FOR 2026-27<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>One week extension of WHL Regular Season Schedule<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Beginning with the 2026-27 WHL Regular Season, the WHL regular season schedule will extend by one week. The decompressed schedule will create additional rest and recovery for players, opportunity for additional strength and conditioning, and support the athletes\u2019 educational priorities.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">The 2026-27 WHL Regular Season begins Friday, September 18, and will end one week later than has been historically scheduled. The final day of the 2026-27 WHL Regular Season will be contested Sunday, March 28, 2027.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">The 2027 WHL Playoffs are scheduled to begin Wednesday, March 31. The WHL tiebreaker game will no longer be used to break a tie for the eighth seed in a conference.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">The decision to decompress the WHL schedule was approved by the WHL Board of Governors and WHL General Managers in association with a variety of initiatives to continue to augment the WHL Player Experience, to enhance player development, and to adapt to the changing hockey landscape.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>Air Travel for Select Road Games<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Beginning with the 2026-27 WHL Regular Season, WHL Clubs will be permitted to travel via air for one (1) set of road games to start and return home, under the following parameters:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<li>Trip by bus must be greater than 10 hours;<\/li>\n<li>Applies to out-of-conference travel only<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">The decision to allow WHL Clubs to fly for one (1) set of road games was approved by the WHL Board of Governors in association with a variety of initiatives to continue to augment the WHL Player Experience, to enhance player development, and to adapt to the changing hockey landscape.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>\u2018No Return\u2019 Three-on-Three Overtime Pilot<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">The 2026 WHL Preseason will feature a pilot project aimed at enhancing the fan experience of three-on-three overtime.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Under the \u2018No Return\u2019 three-on-three overtime format, once a team has gained the blueline, a player cannot deliberately carry, pass, or shoot the puck outside the blueline. Should this occur, play will immediately be whistled down (unless the opposing team collects the puck first) and the resulting face-off will occur in the defensive zone of the offending team with no line change permitted. The team benefitting from the offensive zone faceoff will have the opportunity to select which circle the faceoff occurs in.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">\u2018No Return\u2019 three-on-three overtime has been contemplated in early anticipation of changing coaching strategies during three-on-three overtimes that are highly conservative and may potentially reduce the excitement of the extra period. Key measures for this pilot will include the number of shot attempts and scoring chances in overtime and the percentage of game outcomes determined by overtime prior to a shootout.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">All 2026 WHL Preseason games, regardless of final score, will feature \u2018No Return\u2019 three-on-three overtime to allow all Clubs the opportunity to pilot the rule.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Following the 2026 WHL Preseason, WHL General Managers will vote on the implementation of \u2018No Return\u2019 Three-on-Three Overtime for the 2026-27 WHL Regular Season.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>First Round of WHL Playoffs \u2013 Best-of-Five Series<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Beginning in 2027, the first round of the WHL Playoffs will be contested as best-of-five series.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">To accommodate the extra week in the regular season, this change will allow the playoffs to be completed on its existing schedule for the WHL Champion to participate in the Memorial Cup.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">The WHL Playoffs will begin Wednesday, March 31, 2027, and the first-round format will vary based on the geography of the competing teams, availability of facilities, and preferences of the higher-seeded Club. The following formats are currently approved, pending WHL approval of each instance:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<li>1-2-1-1 (A-H-A-H)<\/li>\n<li>2-3 (A-H) for longer distance series<\/li>\n<li>2-2-1 (H-A-H)<\/li>\n<li>1-1-1-1-1 (H-A-H-A-H) for close distance series only<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><em>H = Home<br \/>\nA = Away<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>About the Western Hockey League<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Regarded as the world\u2019s finest development league for junior hockey players, the Western Hockey League (WHL) head office is based in Calgary, Alberta. The WHL consists of 23 member Clubs with 17 located in Western Canada and six in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. A member of the Canadian Hockey League, the WHL has been a leading supplier of talent for the National Hockey League for over 50 years. The WHL is also the leading provider of hockey scholarships with over 375 graduates each year receiving WHL Scholarships to pursue a post-secondary education of their choice. Each season, WHL players also form the nucleus of Canada\u2019s National Junior Hockey Team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WHL Commissioner Dan Near issued today the following State of the Western Hockey League update following the successful conclusion of the 2025-26 WHL season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":30132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-30131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-103","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/30111016\/State-of-the-League_1920.png",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-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30133,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30131\/revisions\/30133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":30124,"date":"2026-06-30T15:59:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T15:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/?p=30124"},"modified":"2026-06-30T16:11:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T16:11:28","slug":"rebels-select-swedish-defenceman-zeb-lindgren-at-2026-chl-import-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/article\/rebels-select-swedish-defenceman-zeb-lindgren-at-2026-chl-import-draft","title":{"rendered":"Rebels select Swedish defenceman Zeb Lindgren at 2026 CHL Import Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>RED DEER \u2013 <\/strong>The Red Deer Rebels selected Swedish defenceman Zeb Lindgren with the 24<sup>th<\/sup> overall pick in round one of today\u2019s 2026 CHL Import Draft.<\/p>\n<p>Lindgren hails from Ume\u00e5, Sweden and played for Skelleftea AIK in the country\u2019s top U20 league. He was the team\u2019s captain and had 19 points in 36 games, including six goals and 13 assists. Lindgren also appeared in two games in Sweden\u2019s top professional league, the SHL.<\/p>\n<p>The six-foot-one, 198-pound blue liner represented Sweden at the 2025 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and the 2025 World Junior A Challenge, winning medals at both events.<\/p>\n<p>Lindgren was selected by the New York Rangers in round five of the 2025 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>The Rebels passed on their second and third round picks at today\u2019s draft as Slovakian defenceman Matus Lisy and Czech blue liner Jiri Kamas will both be back with the club for the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Zeb Lindgren<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>Defence<br \/>\n<\/strong>Hometown: Ume\u00e5, Sweden<br \/>\nDate of Birth: April 14, 2007 (Age 19)<br \/>\nHeight: 6\u20191<br \/>\nWeight: 198<br \/>\nShoots: Left<br \/>\n2025-26 Team: Skellefte\u00e5 AIK U20<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RED DEER \u2013 The Red Deer Rebels selected Swedish defenceman Zeb Lindgren with the 24th overall pick in round one of today\u2019s 2026 CHL Import Draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":30126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[{"term_id":348,"name":"CHL Impoprt Draft","slug":"chl-impoprt-draft","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":348,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"},{"term_id":347,"name":"Zeb Lindgren","slug":"zeb-lindgren","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":347,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"}],"class_list":["post-30124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-chl-impoprt-draft","tag-zeb-lindgren","category-103","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/06\/30155813\/Zeb-Lindgren-Sweden-1536x1229-1.jpg",1536,864,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30124"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30127,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30124\/revisions\/30127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-rebels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}]