[{"id":54709,"date":"2026-07-02T16:12:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T20:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/?p=54709"},"modified":"2026-07-06T12:51:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T16:51:37","slug":"wild-alumnus-kaszupski-stays-in-the-game-in-gaming-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/article\/wild-alumnus-kaszupski-stays-in-the-game-in-gaming-industry","title":{"rendered":"Wild Alumnus Kaszupski “Stays in the Game” in Gaming Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>LAS VEGAS, Nev. – <\/strong>Wenatchee Wild alumnus Joe Kaszupski has always enjoyed being involved in the game…growing up in the Las Vegas area, that game was hockey. Today, the action he’s focused on is in casinos across the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n

The game – hockey, that is – was far from foreign to Kaszupski growing up in the late 1990s and 2000s, though Nevada would not get a National Hockey League team until 2017. The city had hosted a legendary exhibition game in the Caesars Palace parking lot in 1991 that featured goals from Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri, and once counted the International Hockey League’s Las Vegas Thunder and ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers among its home teams. Since ice was harder to come by in Las Vegas then, Kaszupski instead fell in love with the sport outdoors on dry land.<\/p>\n

“I grew up in Henderson (just outside of Las Vegas), and honestly started playing roller hockey at a really young age,” said Kaszupski. “I played youth hockey here in Vegas until about 16s. I remember going to Thunder games at a pretty young age, and then we grew up with the Wranglers in town. Once I got older, I got to skate with some of those guys in the summertime.”<\/p>\n

Eventually, staying in Las Vegas and continuing his development at home was no longer an option – after playing in the AAA ranks with the North American Prospects Hockey League’s Nevada Stars and Las Vegas Storm 16-and-Under teams, he joined the Los Angeles Jr. Kings 18U team in search of a new challenge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>That challenge opened up his eyes – and quite a few doors – to junior hockey opportunities. The 2011-12 Jr. Kings team made a run to the USA Hockey national title game, before falling by a goal to Shattuck-St. Mary’s on the final day. The first door that opened in junior hockey led him to Bismarck, North Dakota, playing seven games for the Bobcats before returning to Los Angeles to finish the following season.<\/p>\n

He would play the entire 2013-14 season with the Wild, suiting up for 46 games and notching 10 points, including six goals. Fortunately, he had a little help getting the lay of the land – former Stars and Storm teammate Joe Sullivan came to Wenatchee from the North American Hockey League’s Aberdeen Wings midway through the 2012-13 season and helped the Wild reach the Robertson Cup championship game.<\/p>\n

The final stop before college was a little more far-flung – Kaszupski played 10 more games with the Wild in the fall of 2014 before shifting to the Kenai River Brown Bears for the bulk of his 20-year-old season. Playing 1,500 miles from Wenatchee and 2,300 miles from home in Las Vegas, life in southern Alaska is a little different – during the winter, the sun often rises after 10 a.m. and sets in mid-afternoon, and snowy and overcast days are common. He admits that one of his first purchases after arriving in October was a winter jacket, something rarely needed in southern Nevada.<\/p>\n

“My body didn’t adjust too well – I ended up getting pneumonia and having to spend a couple of nights in the hospital,” said Kaszupski. “My doctors told me, ‘You have no Vitamin D in your body.’ It was a bit of a culture shock when I first got up there. My billet parents up there were an unbelievable family – I still talk to them, and they helped me adjust to the different lifestyle. It was a ton of fun living up there – just a different world, something I’d never been familiar with, but the people up there are amazing.”<\/p>\n

Kaszupski’s first two years of college hockey weren’t just a new opportunity for him – they were a new opportunity for his entire program. His NCAA Division III commitment to Endicott College in Massachusetts took him to a program that was transitioning from club hockey to NCAA competition, beginning NCAA play just as Kaszupski arrived in 2015.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Gulls made a strong first impression during his freshman season, winning 16 games and reaching the ECAC Northeast championship game. The following year, they won 24 games, including a first-round NCAA Tournament upset of fourth-ranked Hobart and a double-overtime battle in the regional final. After playing in 22 games and posting nine points as a freshman, though, Kaszupski only appeared in one contest as a sophomore, suiting up for an early-season matchup against Salve Regina University.<\/p>\n

“I got labrum surgery that second year out there, so I didn’t finish the year, but the first season was awesome,” said Kaszupski. “We had a team of 30 freshmen, which was a blast. We were all on the same level, going into the experience together, and we had a really tight squad. Being in the Boston area is a ton of fun – it’s a great sports town.”<\/p>\n

With hopes of spending more time with family, Kaszupski made the move back home, and immediately caught on with a UNLV team beginning a memorable climb of its own. The arrival of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights and the opening of their City National Arena practice facility in 2017 allowed the Skatin’ Rebels to climb to ACHA Division I, the top level of collegiate club hockey in the United States. Since then, the program has continued its climb, upsetting defending NCAA champion Denver in December of 2024 on the way to its first ACHA national championship last spring.<\/p>\n

The Rebels quickly took advantage of their new opportunity, and Kaszupski enjoyed the opportunity to play in front of hometown friends and family for the first time since high school. UNLV spent time in the top 10 during both of Kaszupski’s seasons in the program and took the 13th seed into the national tournament both years. Unfortunately, both 13th seeds proved unlucky, with losses to fourth-seeded Ohio University in both the 2018 and 2019 brackets.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kaszupski graduated from UNLV with a political science degree, but quickly learned that he wanted to take his career in a new direction coming out of college. A season with the Golden Knights as a part-time marketing coordinator and several years in the real estate field led him to his current position with Bluberi Gaming, serving the slot-machine vendor as an account executive for casinos in a four-state territory made much more familiar by his time with the Wild.<\/p>\n

As for hockey, it has quickly become second nature for sports fans in Las Vegas – in fact, no team has seen the Stanley Cup awarded on its home ice more often over the last nine years than Vegas, and the Golden Knights won one of those Cups for themselves in 2023. Even though hockey is no longer Kaszupski’s “day job,” he is still as interested in – and excited about – the sport in his hometown as ever.<\/p>\n

“I was actually in Europe for one of my best friend’s weddings (during last month’s Stanley Cup Final), and the boys and I were staying up until 3 a.m. to watch the games,” said Kaszupski, who is newly-engaged himself. “It was an unbelievable Final – obviously, we would have loved a different outcome, but I can’t complain. I didn’t think we’d even have a team growing up, so the fact that we’ve done as well as we have and we’ve gotten a Cup, I’ve got no complaints.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Wenatchee Wild alumnus Joe Kaszupski has always enjoyed being involved in the game…growing up in the Las Vegas area, that game was hockey. Today, the action he’s focused on is in casinos across the Pacific Northwest. The game – hockey, that is – was far from foreign to Kaszupski growing up…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":368,"featured_media":54710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-54709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-53","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/66\/2026\/06\/30142243\/2025-26-Where-Are-They-Now-Joe-Kaszupski.jpg",1920,1440,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/368"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54709"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54779,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54709\/revisions\/54779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":54704,"date":"2026-06-30T15:56:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T19:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/?p=54704"},"modified":"2026-06-30T17:55:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:55:31","slug":"wenatchee-wild-announce-2026-27-regular-season-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/article\/wenatchee-wild-announce-2026-27-regular-season-schedule","title":{"rendered":"Wenatchee Wild Announce 2026-27 Regular Season Schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"

2026-27 REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/h2>\n
\n

WENATCHEE, Wash. \u2013<\/strong> Over the last week, the Wenatchee Wild have been able to share pieces of their 2026-27 schedule, revealing their home opener last week and announcing their preseason schedule Monday morning. The regular-season schedule has now come into focus, with the announcement of the full 68-game slate Tuesday afternoon. The WHL unveiled its full regular-season schedule leaguewide Tuesday, totaling 782 games among the 23 member clubs.<\/p>\n

As previously announced, the team will open a 34-game schedule at Town Toyota Center with its home opener on Saturday, September 19 against the Seattle Thunderbirds. The Wild will face Seattle and each of the other U.S. Division teams four times at home and four times on the road in 2026-27, with 40 of the 68 games on this year\u2019s schedule to be played against divisional opponents. They will take care of two of their eight battles against the defending Ed Chynoweth Cup champion Everett Silvertips in a home-and-home weekend set to end the month.<\/p>\n

The Wild begin October with three divisional road games before enjoying their longest homestand since the club joined the Western Hockey League in 2023. Wenatchee will play nine consecutive games on home ice, the first time Town Toyota Center has hosted nine straight Wild home games since a nine-game homestand in the spring of 2014 when the team was in the North American Hockey League. Seven of the nine games on that homestand will be played against Canadian opponents, with five opponents not scheduled to visit Wenatchee this season outside of that stretch.<\/p>\n

The Wild embark on a seven-game road swing immediately afterward, facing the Penticton Vees on Sunday, November 8 before visiting all six East Division clubs over a two-week span. Wenatchee\u2019s much-anticipated Thanksgiving weekend contests mark the club\u2019s return from the road, with a Black Friday tilt in the Wolves\u2019 Den against the Kelowna Rockets and a Saturday game against the Penticton Vees.<\/p>\n

Seven home games are scheduled between Thanksgiving and Christmas, including this year\u2019s only visit from the Calgary Hitmen on December 15. Spokane\u2019s December 18 visit ends the holiday home slate, while the Wild go into the holiday break off a road game the following night in Kelowna. Everett stops by on New Year\u2019s Eve to resume the home schedule, while games against the Central Division\u2019s Edmonton Oil Kings and Red Deer Rebels and a back-to-back home weekend against Seattle highlight January\u2019s home schedule. February and March each feature four home games, with 15 of this season\u2019s final 23 regular-season games set to be played on the road.<\/p>\n

Once again this year, 30 of the 34 home games are scheduled for weekends. Saturdays will be an especially home-heavy night this season, with 14 home games slated for Saturday nights. Wenatchee kicks off nine weekends with Friday night home games, and closes out the weekend with a Sunday home game on seven occasions. One of the four weeknight games is the New Year\u2019s Eve matchup against Everett, which will begin at a special time of 5 p.m. All Friday home games are slated for 7 p.m. starts, while Sunday games will get underway at 4 p.m. All remaining home games except for New Year\u2019s Eve are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

The promotional schedule for the Wild is also rapidly coming together, with many popular promotions set to return this season. The popular \u201cMore Cowbell\u201d giveaway presented by Ag Supply returns for the second home game September 26 against Everett, as does the team\u2019s FANtastic FANale for the last home game of the season against the Silvertips on March 27. Traditional jersey auction nights for Military Appreciation Night, Guns & Hoses, and Hockey Fights Cancer all return this season, as do holiday favorites like Ugly Sweater Night and the annual Teddy Bear Toss. Further details on the team\u2019s promotional schedule and single-game ticket availability will be announced throughout the summer.<\/p>\n

Wenatchee\u2019s preseason schedule announced last Monday features five exhibition games to lead the team into 2025-26, including a rookie game in the \u201cWolves\u2019 Den\u201d to kick off the preseason on Monday, August 31. Wenatchee\u2019s annual Kids Day game returns Saturday, September 5 against Tri-City \u2013 all five preseason games will be played within the state of Washington against Western Conference foes.<\/p>\n

Season tickets and three-game packs are currently on sale for the 2026-27 season. To purchase tickets, or for more information, call 509-888-7825 or stop into the team\u2019s office at Town Toyota Center. Updated news and information on Wild hockey are always available through the team\u2019s website and on the team\u2019s social media platforms on Facebook<\/strong><\/a>, X<\/strong><\/a>, Instagram<\/strong><\/a> and YouTube<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2026-27 REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE WENATCHEE, Wash. \u2013 Over the last week, the Wenatchee Wild have been able to share pieces of their 2026-27 schedule, revealing their home opener last week and announcing their preseason schedule Monday morning. The regular-season schedule has now come into focus, with the announcement of the full 68-game slate Tuesday afternoon.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":368,"featured_media":54705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-54704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-53","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/66\/2026\/06\/30120006\/Schedule-Website-Tile-26-27-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-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/368"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54704"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54715,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54704\/revisions\/54715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":54701,"date":"2026-06-27T18:09:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T22:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/?p=54701"},"modified":"2026-06-27T18:09:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T22:09:51","slug":"wenatchee-wild-goaltender-tvrznik-selected-in-nhl-draft-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/article\/wenatchee-wild-goaltender-tvrznik-selected-in-nhl-draft-saturday","title":{"rendered":"Wenatchee Wild Goaltender Tvrznik Selected in NHL Draft Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2013<\/strong> The Wenatchee Wild, proud members of the Western Hockey League (WHL), are excited to announce the selection of 2007-born goaltender Tobias Tvrznik<\/strong><\/a> in this weekend\u2019s National Hockey League Draft. Tvrznik was chosen with a late fourth-round pick, going to the Colorado Avalanche at 126th<\/sup> overall.<\/p>\n

A native of Litomerice, Czechia, Tvrznik is coming off a standout season as a WHL rookie, earning a finalist nod for the Del Wilson Memorial Trophy, which is awarded annually to the WHL\u2019s Goaltender of the Year. He was also selected as the Western Conference\u2019s Second Team All-Star goaltender. He earned his 2025-26 accolades with 16 wins, while carrying some of the top marks on the circuit. He finished the regular season with a .913 save percentage, good for third on the league leaderboard while facing the ninth-most shots in the league, and picked up his first WHL shutout February 6 in a 2-0 defeat of the Victoria Royals.<\/p>\n

The 10th<\/sup> overall selection in last year\u2019s Canadian Hockey League Import Draft, Tvrznik began his WHL career with a 60-save showing against the Everett Silvertips on September 20, tying a 29-year-old franchise record dating back to the WHL team\u2019s inaugural season as the Edmonton ICE in 1996, the first of his seven games this season with 40 points or more. He would also add an NCAA Division I commitment to Ohio State University late in the season, and was nominated to the inaugural WHL Prospects Game Presented by Showpass before being forced to bow out due to injury.<\/p>\n

Tvrznik was especially prominent on the NHL draft radar of late, earning an invitation to the league\u2019s annual Scouting Combine at the start of this month. He came into the weekend ranked among the top eight draft-eligible North American goaltenders on NHL Central Scouting\u2019s final ranking list.<\/p>\n

Both Wenatchee\u2019s current Western Hockey League franchise and the Valley\u2019s former Junior \u201cA\u201d club are well-acquainted with seeing players taken in the NHL Draft. Tvrznik becomes the 45th<\/sup> player from the current WHL team to go in the NHL Draft since its inaugural season in 1996-97. Eight of the former Junior \u201cA\u201d team\u2019s players heard their own names called in the draft during Wenatchee\u2019s time in the North American Hockey League and British Columbia Hockey League from 2008 to 2023.<\/p>\n

The Wenatchee Wild congratulate Tobias Tvrznik on his selection in this weekend\u2019s National Hockey League Draft, and wish him continued success as the 2026-27 season nears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2013 The Wenatchee Wild, proud members of the Western Hockey League (WHL), are excited to announce the selection of 2007-born goaltender Tobias Tvrznik in this weekend\u2019s National Hockey League Draft. Tvrznik was chosen with a late fourth-round pick, going to the Colorado Avalanche at 126th overall. A native of Litomerice, Czechia, Tvrznik is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":368,"featured_media":54702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[{"term_id":118,"name":"Tobias Tvrznik","slug":"tobias-tvrznik","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":118,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":43,"filter":"raw","term_order":"45"}],"class_list":["post-54701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-tobias-tvrznik","category-53","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/66\/2026\/06\/27180916\/Tvrznik-NHL-copy.jpg",1080,1350,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/368"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":54687,"date":"2026-06-26T14:21:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T18:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/?p=54687"},"modified":"2026-06-26T14:31:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T18:31:46","slug":"2026-nhl-draft-preview-wild-players-poised-to-be-selected-in-buffalo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/article\/2026-nhl-draft-preview-wild-players-poised-to-be-selected-in-buffalo","title":{"rendered":"2026 NHL Draft Preview: Wild Players Poised to Be Selected in Buffalo"},"content":{"rendered":"

WENATCHEE, Wash. \u2013 <\/strong>This weekend, 223 of the world\u2019s top young hockey players will hear their names called as part of the National Hockey League\u2019s annual Entry Draft.<\/p>\n

A few of those names are likely to come from the Wild family.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s draft is being held in Buffalo, New York, beginning at 4 p.m. Wenatchee time Friday. First-round selections will be made Friday evening, while the remainder of the selections in the seven-round draft will be made on Saturday, with the draft set to resume at 8 a.m. Three Wenatchee players were listed on this year\u2019s final NHL Central Scouting rankings, which were released in April<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

TOBIAS TVRZNIK<\/a> (G \u2013 Litomerice, Czechia \u2013 8th<\/sup>-ranked North American goaltender)
\n<\/strong>Tvrznik headlines the list as one of North America\u2019s top eight draft-eligible goaltenders after finishing this past year with a .913 save percentage, good for third in the WHL, to go with 16 wins and a 3.10 goals-against average. The 10th<\/sup> overall pick in last year\u2019s Canadian Hockey League Import Draft, the Czech product has earned kudos across the WHL landscape as well, earning a nod as a Second-Team Western Conference All-Star and a nomination for the league\u2019s Del Wilson Memorial Trophy for Goaltender of the Year. He would also add an NCAA Division I commitment to Ohio State University late in the season, and was nominated to the inaugural WHL Prospects Game Presented by Showpass before being forced to bow out due to injury. He is especially high on the NHL draft radar of late, earning an invitation to the league\u2019s annual Scouting Combine at the start of this month.<\/p>\n

CAELAN JOUDREY<\/a> (RW \u2013 Airdrie, Alberta \u2013 60th<\/sup>-ranked North American skater)
\n<\/strong>Joudrey is one of two Wenatchee skaters to be recognized, coming in with a top- 60 ranking after leaping up from the 101st<\/sup> spot on the midterm rankings. The Quinnipiac University commit finished with 19 goals and 10 assists this season, and posted three multi-point games, including a pair of multi-goal games. The Airdrie, Alberta native easily eclipsed his 2024-25 total, after posting 16 points in 66 games last year as a WHL rookie. Joudrey was originally a third-round selection for the former Winnipeg ICE in the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft.<\/p>\n

DARIAN ROLSING<\/a> (RD \u2013 Speyer, Germany \u2013 138th<\/sup>-ranked North American skater)
\n<\/strong>Rolsing was the final player to be recognized, climbing 20 spots on the final rankings after landing at 158th<\/sup> on the midterm list. Rolsing finished with nine points on the season, his first in Wenatchee after receiving the team\u2019s second pick in this past summer\u2019s Canadian Hockey League Import Draft, at 16th<\/sup> overall. The product of Speyer, Germany led the Tappara club to a Finnish Under-18 title last season, and has represented his home country at the Under-18 World Championships in both 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n

Both Wenatchee\u2019s current Western Hockey League franchise and the Valley\u2019s former Junior \u201cA\u201d club are well-acquainted with seeing players taken in the NHL Draft. 44 players from the current WHL team have gone in the NHL Draft since its inaugural season in 1996-97, including two last year. Eight of the former Junior \u201cA\u201d team\u2019s players heard their own names called in the draft during Wenatchee\u2019s time in the North American Hockey League and British Columbia Hockey League, from 2008 to 2023.<\/p>\n

ESPN will carry first-round coverage of this weekend\u2019s NHL Draft, while Saturday coverage of the draft will air on NHL Network. The Wild will also announce the selection of any Wenatchee players on social media, with a full wrap-up of the weekend Saturday afternoon following the end of the draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WENATCHEE, Wash. \u2013 This weekend, 223 of the world\u2019s top young hockey players will hear their names called as part of the National Hockey League\u2019s annual Entry Draft. A few of those names are likely to come from the Wild family. This year\u2019s draft is being held in Buffalo, New York, beginning at 4 p.m.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":368,"featured_media":54688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-54687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-53","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/66\/2026\/06\/26142116\/2025-26-Generic-Graphic-NHL-Draft-Preview.jpg",940,788,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/368"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":54645,"date":"2026-06-22T13:47:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/?p=54645"},"modified":"2026-06-22T13:47:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:47:51","slug":"alumn-ice-report-championship-edition-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-wild\/article\/alumn-ice-report-championship-edition-2026","title":{"rendered":"Alumn-ICE Report: Championship Edition 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h5>\n

A proud third-year member of the Western Hockey League, the Wenatchee Wild are continuing a celebrated WHL legacy that dates back to Edmonton, Alberta in 1996, continuing in Cranbrook, British Columbia and Winnipeg, Manitoba. These are the organization\u2019s WHL alumni, including alumni from the Kootenay and Winnipeg ICE, who made news in the final rounds of the American pro hockey playoffs:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NHL<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

BRAYDEN McNABB, 2006-11 – <\/strong>Hammered out seven assists in the final two rounds over the Vegas Golden Knights’ <\/strong>Western Conference Final against the Colorado Avalanche and the Stanley Cup Final against the Carolina Hurricanes. He had an incredible start to his Stanley Cup Final series against Carolina, rattling off three assists in a 5-4 Game 1 win before taking a shot to the face in Game 2 – his comeback from the injury was legendary, stepping into action in Game 3 wearing a full face shield while posting two more assists and playing 49 shifts for almost 36 minutes. He had the primary assist on Shea Theodore’s game-winner at the 85:38 mark of the game, as the Golden Knights struck for a 5-4 double-overtime victory.<\/p>\n

\n

After taking a puck directly to the face and leaving the ice in Game 2, Brayden McNabb returned to the lineup in Game 3 and put in a SHIFT \ud83d\udc4f<\/p>\n

Not only did he notch the second-most minutes between both teams, but also recorded two assists in Vegas' double OT winner \ud83d\udd25<\/p>\n

Incredible\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/nFnp7VdMeR<\/a><\/p>\n

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 7, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n