The big wheel never stops turning in sports, and every Western Hockey League team is back to 0-0.
The Moose Jaw Warriors, WHL champions this season for the first time in their 40-year history, were just eliminated in the Memorial Cup national championship semifinal over the weekend. On Tuesday, the WHL announced the home opening weekend match-ups for the 2024-25 regular season.
The Victoria Royals will start with a back-to-back set against the Tri-City Americans on Sept. 20-21 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
The Royals swept the Americans, who missed the playoffs, 4-0 last season. Tri-City was 23-42-3 and 10th among the 11 teams in the Western Conference and will likely lose to pro hockey second-round Seattle Kraken draft pick Lukas Dragicevic but will feature 2025 NHL draft-ranked forward Jordan Gavin, the second overall selection in the 2021 WHL prospects draft, and defenceman Jackson Smith. The Royals will answer with a 2025 NHL draft-ranked player of their own, forward Cole Reschny, taken third overall and one spot behind second-overall Smith in the 2022 WHL prospects draft.
The match-up will also feature five players ranked for the 2024 NHL draft this month at the Sphere in Las Vegas — goaltender Lukas Matecha and forward Maxmillian Curran of Tri-City and goaltender Ryan Tamelin and defencemen Nate Misskey and Seth Fryer of the Royals.
The Royals were seventh this past season in the Western Conference at 29-30-9 and, in a modest rise, made the playoffs after missing the post-season in 2021-22 and 2022-23 and placing last in the WHL in the 2021 bubble season. Victoria was swept in four games in the first round of the playoffs — its first post-season games since 2019 including pandemic — by the WHL-finalist Portland Winterhawks.
Meanwhile, Landon DuPont, only the second WHL player to be granted exceptional status to play as a 15-year-old after Connor Bedard, is expected to make his debut Sept. 21, when his Silvertips host the Vancouver Giants at Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett, Washington.
The full 68-game schedules for all WHL teams, which total a combined 748 games, will be released during the week of June 24.
