2025 Memorial Cup Head-to-Head: Captains Wiesblatt and Barkey ready for one last dance

Rimouski, Que. – This is it.

After a pair of dominant regular season and playoff campaigns from the Medicine Hat Tigers and London Knights, only one battle remains.

Tonight, the titans of the WHL and OHL will clash for the right to hoist the 2025 Memorial Cup – and at the forefront are team captains, Oasiz Wiesblatt and Denver Barkey.

Known for innate ability to inspire their teammates, represent the Club, and act as role models, no task is more important than a captain’s in a high-stake environment.

Which means, there is nobody better suited to lead their group into the Memorial Cup Final than Medicine Hat’s Wiesblatt and London’s Barkey.

In what’s expected to be the final game of their junior hockey careers, the pair of forwards are ready to roll out one more inspirational speech for their troops.

For Wiesblatt, the message is simple. Tonight’s game is something that he’s been building toward since he was originally selected by Medicine Hat in the 2019 WHL Prospects Draft.

Channeling the struggles Medicine Hat faced during his first season with the Club – including recording 11 wins in his opening, 68-game campaign – Wiesblatt is embracing the ‘started from the bottom’ mentality.

A Memorial Cup win would also be a perfect end to what’s been a monumental season for the League veteran.

On top of a WHL Championship with the Tigers, the 21-year-old also recorded a career high in points with 103 (36 G-67 A) in 66 games and signed a three-year deal with the American Hockey League’s Milwaukee Admirals starting in the 2025-26 season.

And, if you ask us, there’s no better way to graduate from the junior hockey ranks then by bringing the Memorial Cup back to the Western Hockey League for the first time in 11 years.

However, across the ice, Barkey is doing his part to motivate the masses.

Having fallen short of a Memorial Cup win last year, the forward isn’t ready to face the same heartbreak again.

In Barkey’s four-season career with the Knights, the Philadelphia Flyers prospect has seen his fair share of success in the Ontario Hockey League.

In 228 appearances in London’s iconic green and gold threads, the 20-year-old owns 258 career points and is a two-time OHL Champion.

For Barkey and his troops, it’s the illustrious Memorial Cup that has yet to be captured during his tenure and will be the perfect send-off may he choose to join the Flyers’ system next season.

The final dance at the 2025 Memorial Cup is ready to bring the intensity, suspense, and emotion. So, it’s time to grab the popcorn.

Puck drop is slated for 5:00 p.m. MST on Sunday, June 1, with TSN broadcasting the match to fans in Canada, while viewers in the United States and around the world can stream the game on the NHL Network and Victory+.