[{"id":268378,"date":"2026-06-18T14:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/?p=268378"},"modified":"2026-06-18T14:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:44:12","slug":"2026-nhl-draft-profile-brek-liske-everett-silvertips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/article\/2026-nhl-draft-profile-brek-liske-everett-silvertips","title":{"rendered":"2026 NHL Draft Profile | Brek Liske, Everett Silvertips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/players\/29404\/\">Brek Liske<\/a> kept his head up as he skated up the wall in the offensive zone and quickly peeled back to shake off his defender.<\/p>\n<p>The Everett Silvertips were nursing a 2-1 lead in Game 5 of the 2026 WHL Championship and were 25 minutes away from hoisting the Ed Chynoweth Cup for the first time in franchise history.<\/p>\n<p>No pressure.<\/p>\n<p>With one opponent out of the mix, Liske cut in towards the Prince Albert net and ripped a low wrister through traffic to light the lamp and extend Everett&#8217;s lead, keeping a straight face as he embraced his teammates.<\/p>\n<p>But Liske&#8217;s fourth goal of the playoffs would stand as the championship winner, and he let the emotion pour out as the final buzzer rang out through the Art Hauser Centre and new kings were crowned.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Brek Liske unleashes the spin cycle for the game winning goal! \ud83c\udfc6<\/p>\n<p>Remember that name \ud83d\ude24<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WHLsilvertips?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@whlsilvertips<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/WHLChampionship?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WHLChampionship<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/FeedingTheFuture?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#FeedingTheFuture<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/WHLHoN?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WHLHoN<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/NHLDraft?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NHLDraft<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/n3NsVs7sZt\">pic.twitter.com\/n3NsVs7sZt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Western Hockey League (@TheWHL) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheWHL\/status\/2055515830662881404?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 16, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a point where it hits you,&#8221; Liske gushed as the Silvertips celebrated on the ice. &#8220;It hit me when we threw our gloves, our helmets, and then it hit me again, and then it hit me again, and it hit me again. This is unbelievable. It&#8217;s unexplainable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been a long road for the 6-foot-2, 188-pound blueliner from Beausejour, Manitoba.<\/p>\n<p>Liske&#8217;s sophomore run with the Everett Silvertips saw him enjoy a career year with 24 points (7G-17A) and a +36 rating in 52 regular-season games.<\/p>\n<p>But the playoffs changed almost everything.<\/p>\n<p>When Silvertips captain and Anaheim Ducks prospect Tarin Smith went down with an upper-body injury at the end of the first round, Liske was called up to the top pairing to play alongside WHL Defenceman of the Year finalist and projected top 2027 NHL Draft pick Landon DuPont.<\/p>\n<p>He erupted for four goals (including two game-winners) and 13 assists for 17 points and a +25 rating in 18 games, highlighted by the aforementioned championship-winner, three assists in Game 4 to eliminate Penticton in the Western Conference Championship, and points in four consecutive games in the Final.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">OH THAT\u2019S PRETTY! \ud83d\ude2e\u200d\ud83d\udca8<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/NHLDraft?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NHLDraft<\/a> eligible prospect Brek Liske puts on the moves and nets his 3rd of the postseason! <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WHLsilvertips?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WHLsilvertips<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/WHLPlayoffs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WHLPlayoffs<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/FeedingTheFuture?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#FeedingTheFuture<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcfa| <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/victoryplustv?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@victoryplustv<\/a><br \/>\ud83d\udd17| <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ejuFny1mnK\">https:\/\/t.co\/ejuFny1mnK<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QF9P5hG99B\">pic.twitter.com\/QF9P5hG99B<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Western Hockey League (@TheWHL) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheWHL\/status\/2044607901743108179?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 16, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>And the impact goes beyond points.<\/p>\n<p>Liske didn&#8217;t register a negative rating in a single playoff match.<\/p>\n<p>In Game 3 of the Championship, he picked up a pair of assists, but also had four hits and three critical shot blocks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As clich\u00e9 as it is, playing the game the right way helps, right?&#8221; Liske said. &#8220;Those two assists weren&#8217;t exactly pretty, but shots to the net, yeah, block everything. Play the game the right way, and it pays.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s obviously a lot more playing against better players more, but playing with Dups, he talks so well, he&#8217;s just a great guy, and even the mental side of it, he helps a lot, and obviously the on-ice part, he&#8217;s huge.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>No one was watching more intently than the sidelined Smith, who is making his own pitch for an NHL team to take on Liske at next week&#8217;s draft.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s come so far,&#8221; Smith said. &#8220;I remember when he came into Everett when he was 15; he was raw. He was good, but he was raw.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>He kind of came into the season with that chip on his shoulder, and you could tell. It&#8217;s tough for him because he&#8217;s in his draft year and he&#8217;s playing on such a loaded team on the back end, so he might not get the looks he deserved, and then playoffs come around and he steps it up. He became one of the best d-men in the playoffs and we leaned on him so hard.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Liske went on to appear in all five of Everett&#8217;s Memorial Cup matches, which saw the Silvertips bow out in the Memorial Cup Final.<\/p>\n<p>Three years after he was selected by the &#8216;Tips with the 10th overall pick in the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft, Liske\u00a0is ranked 44th among all North American skaters in NHL Central Scouting&#8217;s final rankings ahead of the 2026 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>As he showed in the postseason, all he needs is an opportunity to prove his worth.<\/p>\n<p>The 2026 NHL Draft runs from June 26-27 at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, N.Y.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brek Liske kept his head up as he skated up the wall in the offensive zone and quickly peeled back to shake off his defender. The Everett Silvertips were nursing a 2-1 lead in Game 5 of the 2026 WHL Championship and were 25 minutes away from hoisting the Ed Chynoweth Cup for the first&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":487,"featured_media":268390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1110],"tags":[{"term_id":1474,"name":"Brek Liske","slug":"brek-liske","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1474,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":5,"filter":"raw","term_order":"865"},{"term_id":1301,"name":"2026 NHL Draft","slug":"2026-nhl-draft","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1301,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":87,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1022"}],"class_list":["post-268378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-brek-liske","tag-2026-nhl-draft","category-1110","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/18144302\/Profiles-1920-6.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\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/487"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":268388,"date":"2026-06-18T14:39:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/?p=268388"},"modified":"2026-06-18T14:39:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:39:46","slug":"2025-26-nhl-draft-highlight-reels-brayden-klimpke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/video\/2025-26-nhl-draft-highlight-reels-brayden-klimpke","title":{"rendered":"2025-26 NHL Draft Highlight Reels \u2013 Brayden Klimpke"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":268389,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1113],"tags":[{"term_id":1733,"name":"Brayden Klimpke","slug":"brayden-klimpke","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1733,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":5,"filter":"raw","term_order":"623"},{"term_id":1301,"name":"2026 NHL Draft","slug":"2026-nhl-draft","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1301,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":87,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1022"},{"term_id":38,"name":"saskatoon blades","slug":"saskatoon-blades","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":300,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1131,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1967"}],"class_list":["post-268388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-video","tag-brayden-klimpke","tag-2026-nhl-draft","tag-saskatoon-blades","video-channels-2026-nhl-draft","video-channels-saskatoon-blades","category-1113","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/18143928\/HR-1920-46.png",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":{"video_id":"2681379","partner_id":"31014","player_id":"47902","width":"16","height":"9","360p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/sd\/2681379.mp4","240p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/ld\/2681379.mp4","480p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/hsd\/2681379.mp4","1080p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/fhd\/2681379.mp4","hls":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/streaming\/2681379\/2681379.m3u8","webp":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/webp\/2681379.webp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":268384,"date":"2026-06-18T12:44:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/?p=268384"},"modified":"2026-06-18T12:44:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:44:42","slug":"fifth-overall-selection-jevin-morrison-signs-whl-scholarship-development-agreement-with-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/article\/fifth-overall-selection-jevin-morrison-signs-whl-scholarship-development-agreement-with-wild","title":{"rendered":"Fifth-overall selection Jevin Morrison signs WHL Scholarship &amp; Development Agreement with Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Wenatchee, Wash. \u2013<\/strong> The Wenatchee Wild, proud members of the Western Hockey League (WHL), are excited to announce that 2011-born defenseman <strong>Jevin Morrison <\/strong>has signed a Scholarship &amp; Development Agreement with the organization. A native of Sylvan Lake, Alberta, Morrison comes to the Wenatchee Valley from the Red Deer Rebels U15 AAA team in the Alberta Elite Hockey League.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a super exciting opportunity ahead,\u201d said Morrison. \u201cPlaying for the Wild and in the WHL is a dream come true, ever since I was little \u2013 the organization is great, and I\u2019m excited to get started with them. It\u2019s a nice city, and the facility is super nice, and above that are all the people in the organization. I\u2019m excited to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Morrison showcased his skills at both ends of the ice, rolling up 17 goals and 47 assists in 24 games with the Rebels U15 squad, followed by 12 points in nine AEHL playoff games. After leading his Red Deer group to an AEHL U15 title in 2025, his team nearly repeated the feat this year, dropping an overtime decision to the Lethbridge Golden Hawks in the provincial final. His 64 points this season led all AEHL U15 blueliners, and earned him a spot on the division\u2019s First All-Star Team.<\/p>\n<p>He says he is especially proud of his skating ability, as well as his ability to deceive opponents while in transition. He says the opportunity to train and skate every day with the Wenatchee coaching staff and improve his overall game is especially exciting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJevin is a tremendously talented young man,\u201d said Wenatchee Wild director of scouting Leigh Mendelson. \u201cHis mobility and instincts make him a very dangerous player while attacking, and he took big steps in the past season working on his reliability defensively. He has made a lot of progress in that facet of his game. Jevin will be a big part of the Wild\u2019s success in the future, and it is exciting to have him and his family part of our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fifth overall selection in the 2026 WHL Prospects Draft, Morrison is the second player from the 2026 draft class to sign with the Wild. Upon his selection by the Wild on May 6, Morrison became the WHL franchise\u2019s highest defenseman taken in the draft since current Iowa Wild blueliner <strong>Carson Lambos <\/strong>was taken second overall in the 2018 WHL Prospects Draft by the former Kootenay ICE.<\/p>\n<p>The Wenatchee Wild congratulate Jevin Morrison on signing his Scholarship &amp; Development Agreement with the club, and are proud to officially welcome him to the Wild family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wenatchee, Wash. \u2013 The Wenatchee Wild, proud members of the Western Hockey League (WHL), are excited to announce that 2011-born defenseman Jevin Morrison has signed a Scholarship &amp; Development Agreement with the organization. A native of Sylvan Lake, Alberta, Morrison comes to the Wenatchee Valley from the Red Deer Rebels U15 AAA team in the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":268386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1110],"tags":[{"term_id":2402,"name":"Jevin Morrison","slug":"jevin-morrison","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2402,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1"},{"term_id":1114,"name":"wenatchee wild","slug":"wenatchee-wild","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1157,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":317,"filter":"raw","term_order":"2103"},{"term_id":57,"name":"WHL Draft","slug":"whl-draft","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":907,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":152,"filter":"raw","term_order":"2133"}],"class_list":["post-268384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-jevin-morrison","tag-wenatchee-wild","tag-whl-draft","video-channels-wenatchee-wild","video-channels-whl-draft","category-1110","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/18124416\/Morrison_Signed-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\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":268381,"date":"2026-06-18T12:29:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/?p=268381"},"modified":"2026-06-18T12:29:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:29:04","slug":"2025-26-nhl-draft-highlight-reels-andrew-oneill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/video\/2025-26-nhl-draft-highlight-reels-andrew-oneill","title":{"rendered":"2025-26 NHL Draft Highlight Reels \u2013 Andrew O&#8217;Neill"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":268382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1113],"tags":[{"term_id":1976,"name":"Andrew O'Neill","slug":"andrew-oneill","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1976,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"387"},{"term_id":1301,"name":"2026 NHL Draft","slug":"2026-nhl-draft","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1301,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":87,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1022"},{"term_id":22,"name":"edmonton oil kings","slug":"edmonton-oil-kings","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":207,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1255,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1487"}],"class_list":["post-268381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-video","tag-andrew-oneill","tag-2026-nhl-draft","tag-edmonton-oil-kings","video-channels-2026-nhl-draft","video-channels-edmonton-oil-kings","category-1113","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/18122848\/HR-1920-45.png",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":{"video_id":"2681160","partner_id":"31014","player_id":"47902","width":"16","height":"9","360p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/sd\/2681160.mp4","240p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/ld\/2681160.mp4","480p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/hsd\/2681160.mp4","1080p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/fhd\/2681160.mp4","hls":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/streaming\/2681160\/2681160.m3u8","webp":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/webp\/2681160.webp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":268376,"date":"2026-06-18T10:59:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/?p=268376"},"modified":"2026-06-18T10:59:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:59:35","slug":"western-hockey-league-announces-home-opening-dates-for-2026-27-whl-regular-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/article\/western-hockey-league-announces-home-opening-dates-for-2026-27-whl-regular-season","title":{"rendered":"Western Hockey League announces home opening dates for 2026-27 WHL Regular Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>Calgary, Alta. \u2013<\/strong> The Western Hockey League announced today home opening dates for all 23 Clubs for the 2026-27 WHL Regular Season.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">The 2026-27 WHL Regular Season officially begins Friday, September 18, with five games on the calendar, while Saturday, September 19, features 10 games on the slate, including the defending WHL champion Everett Silvertips hosting the Portland Winterhawks.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">The defending East Division champion Prince Albert Raiders open the 2026-27 campaign by hosting the Regina Pats at the Art Hauser Centre in Hockey Town North on Friday, September 18.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">The defending Central Division champion Medicine Hat Tigers begin their home schedule by hosting the rival Lethbridge Hurricanes on Saturday, September 19.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">The defending B.C. Division champion Penticton Vees make their home debut Friday, September 25, when the Kelowna Rockets visit the South Okanagan Events Centre.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong><u>2026-27 WHL Regular Season Home Opening Dates<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>Friday, September 18<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Saskatoon Blades at <em>Brandon Wheat Kings<\/em><br \/>\nRed Deer Rebels at <em>Calgary Hitmen<\/em><br \/>\nMedicine Hat Tigers at <em>Lethbridge Hurricanes<\/em><br \/>\nRegina Pats at <em>Prince Albert Raiders<\/em><br \/>\nPenticton Vees at <em>Prince George Cougars<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>Saturday, September 19<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Portland Winterhawks at <em>Everett Silvertips<\/em><br \/>\nVictoria Royals at <em>Kamloops Blazers<\/em><br \/>\nLethbridge Hurricanes at <em>Medicine Hat Tigers<\/em><br \/>\nSaskatoon Blades at <em>Moose Jaw Warriors<\/em><br \/>\nPenticton Vees at <em>Prince George Cougars<\/em><br \/>\nEdmonton Oil Kings at <em>Red Deer Rebels<\/em><br \/>\nPrince Albert Raiders at <em>Swift Current Broncos<\/em><br \/>\nSpokane Chiefs at <em>Tri-City Americans<\/em><br \/>\nKelowna Rockets at <em>Vancouver Giants<\/em><br \/>\nSeattle Thunderbirds at <em>Wenatchee Wild<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>Sunday, September 20<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Calgary Hitmen at <em>Edmonton Oil Kings<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>Friday, September 25<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Kelowna Rockets at <em>Penticton Vees<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>Saturday, September 26<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Penticton Vees at <em>Kelowna Rockets<\/em><br \/>\nKamloops Blazers at <em>Portland Winterhawks<\/em><br \/>\nPrince Albert Raiders at <em>Saskatoon Blades<\/em><br \/>\nPrince George Cougars at <em>Seattle Thunderbirds<\/em><br \/>\nTri-City Americans at <em>Spokane Chiefs<\/em><br \/>\nVancouver Giants at <em>Victoria Royals<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\"><strong>Sunday, September 27<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">Swift Current Broncos at <em>Regina Pats<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;text-align: justify\">The 2026 WHL Preseason schedule will be announced Monday, June 22.<\/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>The 2026-27 WHL Regular Season officially begins Friday, September 18, with five games on the calendar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":268377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1110],"tags":[{"term_id":1986,"name":"WHL Schedule","slug":"whl-schedule","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1986,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw","term_order":"377"}],"class_list":["post-268376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-whl-schedule","category-1110","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/18091513\/MAIN-1920_Home-Opener-Announcements.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\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":268379,"date":"2026-06-18T10:29:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/?p=268379"},"modified":"2026-06-18T10:29:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:29:53","slug":"2025-26-nhl-draft-highlight-reels-jakub-vanecek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/video\/2025-26-nhl-draft-highlight-reels-jakub-vanecek","title":{"rendered":"2025-26 NHL Draft Highlight Reels \u2013 Jakub Vanecek"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":268380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1113],"tags":[{"term_id":2084,"name":"Jakub Vanecek","slug":"jakub-vanecek","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2084,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":5,"filter":"raw","term_order":"281"},{"term_id":1301,"name":"2026 NHL Draft","slug":"2026-nhl-draft","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1301,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":87,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1022"},{"term_id":27,"name":"tri-city americans","slug":"tri-city-americans","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":208,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":895,"filter":"raw","term_order":"2052"}],"class_list":["post-268379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-video","tag-jakub-vanecek","tag-2026-nhl-draft","tag-tri-city-americans","video-channels-2026-nhl-draft","video-channels-tri-city-americans","category-1113","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/18102938\/HR-1920-44.png",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":{"video_id":"2680930","partner_id":"31014","player_id":"47902","width":"16","height":"9","360p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/sd\/2680930.mp4","240p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/ld\/2680930.mp4","480p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/hsd\/2680930.mp4","1080p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/fhd\/2680930.mp4","hls":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/streaming\/2680930\/2680930.m3u8","webp":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/webp\/2680930.webp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":268374,"date":"2026-06-17T17:05:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T23:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/?p=268374"},"modified":"2026-06-17T17:05:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T23:05:22","slug":"2025-26-nhl-draft-highlight-reels-tobias-tvrznik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/video\/2025-26-nhl-draft-highlight-reels-tobias-tvrznik","title":{"rendered":"2025-26 NHL Draft Highlight Reels \u2013 Tobias Tvrznik"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":268375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1113],"tags":[{"term_id":2074,"name":"Tobias Tvrznik","slug":"tobias-tvrznik","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2074,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":6,"filter":"raw","term_order":"289"},{"term_id":1301,"name":"2026 NHL Draft","slug":"2026-nhl-draft","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1301,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":87,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1022"},{"term_id":1114,"name":"wenatchee wild","slug":"wenatchee-wild","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1157,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":317,"filter":"raw","term_order":"2103"}],"class_list":["post-268374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-video","tag-tobias-tvrznik","tag-2026-nhl-draft","tag-wenatchee-wild","video-channels-2026-nhl-draft","video-channels-wenatchee-wild","category-1113","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/17170512\/HR-1920-43.png",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":{"video_id":"2678568","partner_id":"31014","player_id":"47902","width":"16","height":"9","360p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/sd\/2678568.mp4","240p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/ld\/2678568.mp4","480p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/hsd\/2678568.mp4","1080p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/fhd\/2678568.mp4","hls":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/streaming\/2678568\/2678568.m3u8","webp":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/webp\/2678568.webp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":268355,"date":"2026-06-17T16:02:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T22:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/?p=268355"},"modified":"2026-06-17T16:02:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T22:02:51","slug":"2026-nhl-draft-profile-mathis-preston-vancouver-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/article\/2026-nhl-draft-profile-mathis-preston-vancouver-giants","title":{"rendered":"2026 NHL Draft Profile | Mathis Preston, Vancouver Giants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/players\/29463\/\">Mathis Preston<\/a> has been known to dazzle (or irritate) his opponents with his flash and speed.<\/p>\n<p>Not just on the ice, but also on the track.<\/p>\n<p>The Vancouver Giants forward was also a talented BMX racer as a kid, where he got to unleash his daredevil nature on dirt tracks dotted with jumps, rollers and steep turns.<\/p>\n<p>Racing is actually where he picked\u00a0up his signature number, 96.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I started BMX when I was really young, just racing against my brother for fun,&#8221; Preston recalled. &#8220;Then we started to get into competitions as we got a little bit older.<\/p>\n<p>I kind of wasn&#8217;t scared of getting hurt or getting injured or anything. Kind of like a good and bad thing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While Preston eventually shifted most of his energy towards hockey, you can still see the elements of the player and person that would allow him to succeed at almost any sport.<\/p>\n<p>Despite an injury-shortened campaign and midseason trade, Preston logged 18 goals (including four game-winners) and 26 assists for 44 points in 46 games with the Giants and Spokane Chiefs in 2025-26.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Mathis Preston scores the OT winner in his first game as a Giant!<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WHLGiants?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WHLGiants<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/NHLDraft?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NHLDraft<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uOu43MYGIl\">pic.twitter.com\/uOu43MYGIl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Western Hockey League (@TheWHL) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheWHL\/status\/2009867520908636483?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 10, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>After being dealt to Vancouver at the 2026 WHL Trade Deadline, the 5-foot-10.75, 172-pound winger looked primed to explode with 12 points (4G-8A) in 10 games with the G-Men before being sidelined with a lower-body injury from January 10 to March 6.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When he has the puck, his head is always up, he&#8217;s always one or two plays ahead of everybody,&#8221; Giants assistant coach Wacey Rabbit said. &#8220;His shot is underrated. I remember we hadn&#8217;t scored a while on the power play, and we&#8217;re in Kamloops, it&#8217;s one of our last games, and he just grabbed the puck and in a flash it&#8217;s in the back of the net. As he grows as a player, he&#8217;ll have more confidence in that shot because it&#8217;s really underrated. It&#8217;s quick, it&#8217;s fast, and, you know, his tenacity to get the puck back is elite. Once the puck&#8217;s on his stick, you&#8217;re not taking it off of him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite the Giants missing the postseason, Preston got an extra shot to prove himself at the 2026 IIHF U18 World Championship, where he finished second in scoring among Canadians with six points (2G-4A) in five games.<\/p>\n<p>He also added a goal and two assists in two games at the CHL USA Prospects Challenge.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I&#8217;m at my best, I&#8217;m pushing the pace of the game,&#8221; Preston said ahead of the Prospects Challenge.\u00a0 &#8220;I think I like to speed up the game more than I slow it down. (I) can push defenders back and get them on their heels, as well as make plays in the O-zone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Penticton, B.C. product has flexed that ability from the jump.<\/p>\n<p>Preston was selected by Spokane with the third overall pick in the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft and potted 45 points (23G-22A) in 54 games in his first full WHL season.<\/p>\n<p>In the 2025 WHL Playoffs, when most rookies would start to see their ice time trimmed, Preston iced 16 points (9G-7A) in 20 games to help the Chiefs reach the Championship Series, highlighted by a one-goal, one-assist effort in Game 2 of the Final.<\/p>\n<p>While the Chiefs would fall to fellow top 2026 draft-eligibles Gavin McKenna, Markus and Liam Ruck, and the Medicine Hat Tigers in Game 5, it showed Preston wouldn&#8217;t shy away in big-time moments.<\/p>\n<p>More recently, the 18-year-old put forward a strong showing at the NHL Combine, where he finished in the top 10 in seven events- including a second-place finish in isokinetic squat and anaerobic fitness \u2013 peak power output (T-2nd), plus a tie for third in the 10-metre spring.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a gym rat,&#8221; Preston&#8217;s former coach, Spokane Chiefs bench boss Brad Lauer, added. &#8220;One thing with Mathis is he puts in the time, and he works. He wants to be a player, he wants to be a pro. He&#8217;s got a great skill. He&#8217;s going to get drafted, he&#8217;s going to have an opportunity, which is great to see.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Preston enters the 2026 NHL Draft ranked 32nd among all North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting.<\/p>\n<p>He has high hopes for the future, and looks forward to returning to the Dub to chase a championship in 2026-27.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It just kind of flashes before your eyes,&#8221; Preston explained. &#8220;You grow up, want to get drafted, watching the draft and, you know, seeing all that stuff, and now it&#8217;s you, and you&#8217;re up next.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Round 1 of the 2026 NHL Draft begins on Friday, June 26, at 5:00 p.m. MT, with Rounds 2-7 to follow on Saturday, June 27, at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, N.Y.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mathis Preston has been known to dazzle (or irritate) his opponents with his flash and speed. Not just on the ice, but also on the track. The Vancouver Giants forward was also a talented BMX racer as a kid, where he got to unleash his daredevil nature on dirt tracks dotted with jumps, rollers and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":487,"featured_media":268373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1110],"tags":[{"term_id":1522,"name":"Mathis Preston","slug":"mathis-preston","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1522,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":43,"filter":"raw","term_order":"831"},{"term_id":1301,"name":"2026 NHL Draft","slug":"2026-nhl-draft","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1301,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":87,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1022"},{"term_id":29,"name":"vancouver giants","slug":"vancouver-giants","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":295,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1074,"filter":"raw","term_order":"2091"}],"class_list":["post-268355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-mathis-preston","tag-2026-nhl-draft","tag-vancouver-giants","category-1110","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/17160238\/Profiles-1920-5.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\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/487"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":268371,"date":"2026-06-17T15:59:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T21:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/?p=268371"},"modified":"2026-06-17T15:59:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T21:59:23","slug":"2025-26-nhl-draft-highlight-reels-nolan-stewart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/video\/2025-26-nhl-draft-highlight-reels-nolan-stewart","title":{"rendered":"2025-26 NHL Draft Highlight Reels \u2013 Nolan Stewart"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":268372,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1113],"tags":[{"term_id":1592,"name":"Nolan Stewart","slug":"nolan-stewart","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1592,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"761"},{"term_id":1301,"name":"2026 NHL Draft","slug":"2026-nhl-draft","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1301,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":87,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1022"},{"term_id":41,"name":"victoria royals","slug":"victoria-royals","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":183,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1003,"filter":"raw","term_order":"2097"}],"class_list":["post-268371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-video","tag-nolan-stewart","tag-2026-nhl-draft","tag-victoria-royals","video-channels-2026-nhl-draft","video-channels-victoria-royals","category-1113","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/17155910\/HR-1920-42.png",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":{"video_id":"2678330","partner_id":"31014","player_id":"47902","width":"16","height":"9","360p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/sd\/2678330.mp4","240p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/ld\/2678330.mp4","480p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/hsd\/2678330.mp4","1080p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/fhd\/2678330.mp4","hls":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/streaming\/2678330\/2678330.m3u8","webp":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31014\/webp\/2678330.webp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":268369,"date":"2026-06-17T14:57:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/?p=268369"},"modified":"2026-06-17T14:57:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:57:36","slug":"former-blades-captain-wouters-inks-first-nhl-contract-with-vancouver-canucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/article\/former-blades-captain-wouters-inks-first-nhl-contract-with-vancouver-canucks","title":{"rendered":"Former Blades captain Wouters inks first NHL contract with Vancouver Canucks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Is 2026-27 the year we finally &#8216;C&#8217; Chase Wouters in the NHL?<\/p>\n<p>If his latest pro contract is any indication, the odds are looking good for the longtime AHL captain and former Saskatoon Blades star.<\/p>\n<p>The Vancouver Canucks have signed the 26-year-old to a one-year, two-way contract.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Chase has worked extremely hard to earn this contract,&#8221; Canucks General Manager Ryan Johnson said.\u00a0 &#8220;He is a heart and soul type player, someone who doesn\u2019t cheat the game and always goes the extra mile to work on his craft. Detail-oriented and coachable, Chase is a very good hockey player who leads by example. I am impressed with his development and proud of the progress he has made since turning pro. Besides all his work on the ice, he is the first to raise his hand to help others and go above and beyond in the community. His leadership qualities, skill set, and hockey IQ have helped him take another step forward in his hockey journey.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The North Battleford, Sask. product was originally drafted by the Blades with the 18th overall pick in the 2015 WHL Prospects Draft.<\/p>\n<p>Wouters went on to register 181 points (75G-106A) in 280 regular-season games over parts of six seasons in the Bridge City.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the stats, he proudly served as captain for three seasons and remains the longest-serving &#8216;C&#8217; in the Blades&#8217; long history.<\/p>\n<p>The 6-foot, 182-pound centreman signed with the AHL&#8217;s Abbotsford Canucks as an undrafted free agent in 2021 and has spent his entire professional career with the club.<\/p>\n<p>Wouters has racked up 120 points (43G-77A) in 338 games in five seasons with Abbotsford and has served as team captain since 2022.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s won the team&#8217;s Man of the Year award four times and ranks as the franchise leader in regular-season games played (338) as well as playoff matches (38).<\/p>\n<p>Wouters posted five points (2G-3A) in 24 outings to help the Canucks hoist the Calder Cup as AHL Champions in 2024-25 and brought the cup to Saskatoon to celebrate shortly afterward.<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday&#8217;s signing marks Wouters&#8217; first NHL contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is 2026-27 the year we finally &#8216;C&#8217; Chase Wouters in the NHL? If his latest pro contract is any indication, the odds are looking good for the longtime AHL captain and former Saskatoon Blades star. The Vancouver Canucks have signed the 26-year-old to a one-year, two-way contract. &#8220;Chase has worked extremely hard to earn this&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":487,"featured_media":268370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1110],"tags":[{"term_id":1528,"name":"WHL to NHL","slug":"whl-to-nhl","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1528,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":124,"filter":"raw","term_order":"825"},{"term_id":396,"name":"Chase Wouters","slug":"chase-wouters","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":421,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1349"},{"term_id":38,"name":"saskatoon blades","slug":"saskatoon-blades","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":300,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1131,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1967"}],"class_list":["post-268369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-whl-to-nhl","tag-chase-wouters","tag-saskatoon-blades","category-1110","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/17145656\/Wouters_NHL-Signings-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\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/487"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}]