McSweeney’s WHL Community Collective: Tri-City Americans
The Western Hockey League strives to promote and foster a welcoming environment in communities close to our 23 teams in Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest. Each club has the creative freedom to allow its players and staff to work with the organizations and groups that they are most passionate about. The end goal is to create and maintain long-lasting relationships and ongoing partnerships within their community.
Through the McSweeney’s WHL Community Collective, we aim to highlight these outstanding initiatives done by each club throughout the season.
The reality that Jake Gudelj is in the twilight of his WHL career hasn’t quite sunk in yet.
It feels like yesterday that he was 16 years old and listening to his veteran billet brother, Nick McCarry, warn him that the next five years would pass in the blink of an eye.
Now 20 and closing in on 250 regular-season games, Gudelj can attest to how fast the major junior experience flies by- but it’s also making his final lap that much sweeter.
The Tri-City Americans are on pace for one of their best campaigns in more than a decade while sitting second in the U.S. Division and pushing furiously for home-ice advantage in the 2026 WHL Playoffs.
For Gudelj, it’s a testament to how the core of the team has matured while feeling the support of their ravenous fans.
“I’ve grown to know how close of a community that Tri-City is, unlike anything that I’ve really ever seen before,” Gudelj said. “It’s not just because it’s a smaller community. You know, we’ve only got 300,000 people, 100,000 in each city. It’s kind of like everyone here rallies behind the Tri-City Americans. Everyone here, no matter how we’re doing, if we’re making playoffs or not, all our fans, they support us. They love us.”
One fan, in particular, has become synonymous with Ams hockey and formed a special bond with the players.
Jimmy Butcher’s signature ‘woohoo’ is a staple of his national anthem performance and is often caught on the broadcast mid-game- the team even had a Jimmy Butcher bobblehead night back in 2011.
“Like (former Ams broadcaster) Craig West says, it’s not a sporting event if Jimmy ‘Woohoo’ Butcher is not there,” Gudelj added. “Having a guy like Jimmy around, he’s always supporting us, and he’s always giving us fist bumps and giving us advice, and he’s always smiling, and he’s always got a kind heart.”
But the man known for his sunny disposition and volunteering around the community has faced more than his fair share of challenges this season.
A devastating water leak ruined the structure of Butcher’s manufactured home back in September.
Since then, the community has raised more than $24,000 to help him get back on his feet, and inspired Gudelj to take a page out of Butcher’s book.
“Jimmy gives so much, and when something like that happened, all those people recognized Jimmy for all the things that he’s done for us and gave back to him,” Gudelj said. “(After games) I would go upstairs, and Jimmy would be upstairs giving all the boys fist bumps and coming and talking to me and my parents. That’s kind of when I got to know Jimmy more. When he was telling the boys, like, ‘I’m doing crossing guard and stuff’, I thought that, hey, this is great. I can do something for Jimmy and I can do something for those kids at the elementary school.”
So, after a gruelling stretch of three games in three days, Gudelj got up bright and early on a rainy December 15 to join Butcher for crossing guard duties at Sunset View Elementary.
After a busy weekend of hockey, Jake Gudelj was at Sunset View Elementary helping WooHoo Jimmy Butcher with crossing guard duties this morning! pic.twitter.com/1lsEnTeDep
— Tri-City Americans (@TCAmericans) December 15, 2025
And who was the more recognizable of the two?
“Jimmy for sure, 100%,” Gudelj laughed. “I was pretty fired up about it. I looked outside, it’s raining, and I was excited to wear my rain jacket, you know what I mean. I got there and threw on the vest, and Jimmy taught me how to press the button and walk out on the street and stop the cars for the kids.
I think it filled me up with a lot of gratitude.”
It’s a highlight of Gudelj’s final season that he’ll hold close as he prepares to attend Princeton University in the fall.
But first, he’s focused on helping the Americans qualify for the 2026 WHL Playoffs and do some damage in the Western Conference.
The ‘woohoos’ will be out in full force as Tri-City (24-17-3-1) looks for a third straight win as the Ams host the Brandon Wheat Kings (27-19-1-0) on Friday, January 30, at 7:05 p.m. PST.
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