The Memorial Cup begins Friday as the Canadian Hockey League’s top teams battle for a chance to win junior hockey’s biggest prize.
The tournament is hosted by the Kelowna Rockets, and they will take on the Ontario Hockey League champion Kitchener Rangers to open the round-robin portion of the festivities.
Kelowna registered a 38-21-9 record in the regular season to finish third in the Western Hockey League’s B.C. Division and fourth in the Western Conference.
They swept the Kamloops Blazers in the first round of the playoffs, outscoring the Blazers 21-10.
The Rockets then went up against the Everett Silvertips in Round 2 and proceeded to lose in five games.
Everett went on to win the Ed Chynoweth Cup and will represent the WHL at the Memorial Cup as the league’s champions.
Kelowna is led by Utah Mammoth prospect Tij Iginla, who led the team with 41 goals and 90 points in 48 games in the regular season. The 6-foot-1 centre is the son of Hockey Hall of Fame forward Jarome Iginla and continued to lead the Rockets in the playoffs with seven goals and 12 points.
Supporting Iginla is winger Carson Wetsch, who was acquired by the Rockets from the Calgary Hitmen in the off-season. The San Jose Sharks draft pick registered 22 goals and 72 points in 65 games and had two goals and four points in eight playoff games.
The Rockets are backstopped by netminder Harrison Boettiger who was brought in from United States National Team Development Program in the off-season. He registered a 25-10-5 record in his first season in the WHL with a .911 save percentage and 2.83 goals-against average.
Boettinger represented Team CHL at the CHL USA Prospects Challenge in November and represented the U.S. National Under-18 Team at the same event in 2024.
The 6-foot-2 netminder is eligible for the 2026 NHL Draft in June.
This is Kelowna’s sixth appearance at the Memorial Cup and their second time hosting after previously orchestrating the tournament in 2004. The Rockets won the Memorial Cup in 2004 with a team led by Shea Weber, Blake Comeau, Josh Gorges, and coached by Marc Habscheid.
The Kitchener Rangers enter the Memorial Cup after needing only 18 games to win the J. Ross Robertson Cup.
Kitchener finished the regular season with the OHL’s second best record at 47-14-7 to finish as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.
They swept the Saginaw Spirit to open the OHL playoffs and then took down the Soo Greyhounds and Windsor Spitfires in five games each in the second and third round, respectively, to reach the OHL Championship Series.
The Rangers took on the Barrie Colts in the final and with the help of two overtime games, swept the Colts to win the championship.
Rangers forward Sam O’Reilly made OHL history by appearing in his fourth consecutive OHL Championship Series, after making the final three straight years with the London Knights prior to this year.
O’Reilly and defenceman Jared Woolley also became the second and third player in OHL history to win three consecutive OHL titles after previously winning back-to-back with the London Knights. Forward Scott Timmins had previously won three straight winning with the Rangers in 2008 and then back-to-back with the Spitfires in 2009 and 2010.
O’Reilly won the OHL MVP this season after recording 29 goals and 71 points in 56 games split between the Knights and Rangers. He then won the OHL playoff MVP after registering 17 goals and 28 points in 18 games en route to a championship.
The 6-foot-1 centre was drafted 32nd overall by the Edmonton Oilers in 2024 but was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning last off-season in exchange for 2025 Hobey Baker winner Isaac Howard.
Kitchener is backstopped by goaltender Christian Kirsch, who registered a 27-10-3 record this season. The Sharks prospect became the first goalie acquired through the CHL Import Draft to win a J. Ross Robertson Cup since Philipp Grubauer won with Windsor in 2010.
Kirsch was dominant in the playoffs, going 16-2 with a .900 save percentage and 2.32 GAA.
This is the Rangers organization’s sixth appearance at the Memorial Cup and first since 2008 where they fell to the Spokane Chiefs in the final. They last won the Memorial Cup in 2003 on a team lead by Mike Richards, David Clarkson, Derek Roy, and coached by Pete DeBoer.
The Memorial Cup continues on Saturday with the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League champion Chicoutimi Saguenéens battles the WHL champion Silvertips at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on TSN1/5, TSN.ca, and the TSN App.
