2026 WHL Graduates: Vancouver Giants
The Western Hockey League is celebrating the WHL Graduates from the 2025-26 season in a 23-part, team-by-team series.
The Vancouver class of 2026 features a workhorse with a full-circle story, an unlikely netminder who fought his way into the league, and a champion centreman.
Ethan Mittelsteadt (D)
Hometown: Victoria, B.C.
WHL Career Stats: 263 GP – 17 G-59 A – 76 points
WHL Draft: 2020 – Fifth Round, 95th Overall (Seattle Thunderbirds)
Ethan Mittelsteadt’s WHL career is dotted with too many personal connections to call it all a coincidence.
The 6-foot, 190-pound defenceman made his WHL debut with the team his uncle, Joe, broke into the league with 19 years ago — the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Mittelsteadt first saw game action on October 2, 2021, and fittingly scored his first WHL goal in the building he would later call home as he lit the lamp against the Vancouver Giants at the Langley Events Centre on March 25, 2022.
His first full campaign saw the trade winds blow him north of the border as the T-Birds loaded up for what would become a championship run that spring.
The Kelowna Rockets picked up the burgeoning blueliner as he returned to the city where he was born and lived until he was 11 years old.
Mittelstead logged four goals and three assists in 53 games between the clubs, setting the stage for his most prolific season in the WHL.
2023-24 saw him contribute three goals and 28 assists for 31 points in 67 games, finishing eighth on the explosive squad in assists and third in scoring among Rockets defencemen and adding one assist in 11 playoff matches.
He got off to another promising start the following year with seven points (2G-5A) in 16 games before making one final move.
Vancouver eyed Mittelstead as a hardworking shot-blocker who wouldn’t back down from a penalty kill and could make a difference in the high-flying B.C. Division and traded for the then-18-year-old in November of 2024.
He came as advertised, logging 15 points (2G-13A) in 50 games with the Giants and posting five assists in five playoff games.
Mittelsteadt’s final campaign may have come as injuries forced Vancouver to a rebuild, but there was plenty to celebrate as he registered a career-best four goals (including a game-winner) and 10 assists to finish third in scoring among Giants defenders.
He even lit the lamp in his final WHL game.
Mittelsteadt wraps up his WHL career with 76 points (17G-59A) in 263 regular-season games over parts of five seasons.
He’ll continue his hockey journey as he heads to Princeton University this fall.
Kelton Pyne (G)
Hometown: White City, Sask.
WHL Career Stats: 137 GP – 38-66-11-5
WHL Draft: Listed (Regina Pats)
Kelton Pyne had to earn the crease the hard way and got a firsthand look at some of the top talent to come through the league in recent years.
After going unselected in the 2020 WHL Draft, Pyne quietly worked away over the following season before trucking twenty minutes down the road from his hometown of White City, Sask., to Regina as a free-agent invite to Pats training camp.
He was shocked when the Pats revealed their intent to sign him in the final days of camp.
The 6-foot-1, 173-pound puckstopper went straight into the fire for his first WHL start as he stared down the reigning WHL Champion Edmonton Oil Kings on February 8, 2022.
It wasn’t a game for the record books, to put it lightly.
Pyne batted away 36 of 42 shots as the Oil Kings went 2/7 on the powerplay to double up the Pats.
But the youngster shook it off and returned to the Brandt Centre to make his first start in front of his hometown crowd.
He didn’t just get his first win — Pyne dished a 24-save shutout in front of nearly 4,000 fans.
Pyne went 5-2-1-0 with a 3.92 goals-against average, an .893 save percentage, and two shutouts in his rookie campaign.
2022-23 saw him largely play a backup role on the Pats, but the games he got were high-stakes and packed to the brim as Pats superstar Connor Bedard sold out games across the continent post-2023 World Juniors.
One such effort saw Pyne stop 42 of 44 shots to earn first star in a 4-2 win over the Saskatoon Blades with 14,768 fans piled into the SaskTel Centre (Bedard was recognized as the second star of the night).
The following years marked a changing of the guard in the Queen City, and Pyne saw his playing minutes balloon from 582 in 2022-23 to 2,022 in 2023-24.
Over his two seasons as a starter for the Pats, Pyne strung together a 23-39-8-4 record, a 3.93 GAA, an .880 save percentage and one clean sheet.
The Giants came calling in October of 2025, and for the first time, Pyne found himself based outside of Saskatchewan.
As the G-men battled injury, the veteran goaltender worked in tandem with New York Islanders prospect Burke Hood.
In six of his 35 appearances, Pyne faced 40 or more shots, including a season-high 61 shots in a 6-4 loss to the Memorial Cup host Kelowna Rockets on December 27, 2025.
Pyne graduates from the WHL with a 38-66-11-5 record, a 3.92 goals-against average, an .884 save percentage, three shutouts, and memories to last a lifetime.
Misha Volotovskii (F)
Hometown: Calgary, Alta.
WHL Career Stats: 285 GP – 40 G- 41 A – 81 points
WHL Draft: 2020 – Fourth Round, 77th Overall (Saskatoon Blades)
Of the hundreds of players who suit up in the WHL every season, precious few will ever hoist the Ed Chynoweth Cup.
Misha Volotovskii is one of them.
The 6-foot-2, 189-pound centreman’s journey began in Saskatoon, where he embraced a two-way role and eagerly took on defensive assignments as the Blades laid the bricks of a foundation that would transform the team into an Eastern Conference powerhouse.
His first season in the WHL saw him net two goals and two assists in 53 games, and he managed to build on his rookie season with six points (4G-2A) in year two.
Volotovskii got a taste of what it takes to battle the best in 2023-24.
Not only did he post nine goals (including two game-winners) and five assists in 59 games, but he also helped the Blades ice a 50-win season and clinch the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy as WHL regular-season champions.
He muscled out another five points (1G-4A) in 16 playoff matches as the Blades cruised to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Championship.
A league title wasn’t in the cards in 2024, where the Moose Jaw Warriors ultimately prevailed in overtime of Game 7 en route to their first-ever Ed Chynoweth Cup win.
But 2024-25 would change everything.
Volotovskii got off to a promising start in his fourth season, enough so that he was part of a blockbuster trade package that sent him and Nashville Predators prospect Tanner Molendyk from Saskatoon to Medicine Hat to join the Tigers for a projected deep playoff run.
He totalled eight goals and 15 assists in 66 games between both clubs, and found a new gear in the 2025 WHL Playoffs.
As the Tigers rallied around star netminder Harrison Meneghin, whose father, Derek, passed away at the end of the regular season, each Tiger fulfilled their role to a T.
Volotovskii contributed six points (3G-3A), including a major goal in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Championship and an assist in Game 1 of the Championship Series, as the Tigers went 16-2-0 to win the league and advance to the 2025 Memorial Cup Final.
He was named an alternate captain for the new-look Tigers to start his final season of major junior eligibility, but the 2026 WHL Trade Deadline brought more change as the G-Men looked to bolster their veteran group.
Between both teams, Volotovskii erupted for a career-best 17 goals and 17 assists for 34 points in 61 games- good for fourth on the Giants in points and second in goals.
The Calgary, Alta. product is forever a champion after netting 40 goals and 41 assists for 81 points in 285 regular-season games over five seasons.
