After the Memorial Cup: Rockets head into another big offseason

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Working alongside colour analyst Graham Turnbull was also a real positive. He has been around a long time, he knows the game, and there is a calmness to the way he sees things that makes your job easier.

The tournament is done. The hard part isn’t.

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Going into the tournament, you could have made the case for a full production crew, round tables, half a dozen veteran voices, analysts everywhere, all trying to piece it together. We wisely left that to TSN. The reality was the opposite. We were able to pull it off really effectively with just two broadcasters.

And honestly, it worked better that way. We had voices that were actually inside the tournament, not just talking about it from a distance.

That same idea applies when you zoom out on where the Rockets were coming from entering this event.

A year earlier, it was an 18-win season with no playoffs and long stretches of searching for answers night after night. That was the backdrop to everything that followed, and part of what made the Memorial Cup experience feel so significant.

The team’s performance at the tournament was ultimately disappointing. I’ll give them a free pass in the opener against Kitchener. No team in the tournament was beating the OHL champions in that spot, and you move on from that.

But the game that really stands out, and probably defines their tournament, was the third round-robin game against Everett. That is a team they know well, including Landon Dupont on the other side. That was a game where you needed a better effort to win. And honestly, it might have been their toughest night of the tournament.

Once you step back, though, the experience of the Memorial Cup still stands on its own. The building, the crowds, the pace, and just being around that level of hockey every night. That part does not disappoint.

And now it all shifts, because this is where things get busy for the Rockets.

There are a lot of decisions coming this summer, and they are big ones. It starts with the obvious departures of overagers Shane Smith, Ty Halaburda, and Mazden Leslie, but the real story is what the roster looks like after that and how fast it changes.

The Rockets deployed a roster built heavily around 10-19-year-olds, which is why the window for continuity is so small. Only three players from that group can return. The picture is already starting to clear, with 19-year-old defencemen Parker Alcos and Keith McInnis expected to move on, narrowing things down before the summer even really gets going.

Then you get into the 20-year-old situation. Who are your three? Who comes back? Who gets moved? And which ones actually fit into a legit 2026–27 team? After that, you start sorting through the 19-year-olds and figuring out who is part of the next wave and who isn’t.

The reality is the Rockets were one of the older teams in the WHL this past season. That usually means change comes quickly. And this feels like one of those summers where it is not a slow build. It is more of a reset.

There are going to be tough calls on trade value and roster spots, and you could easily see a big group of returning players all pushing for a smaller number of jobs. A lot of internal competition coming.

And that is just the roster.

Because now you also look behind the bench.

Derrick Martin has earned the head coach job and handled a tough year while also going through a Memorial Cup season in his first real run in charge. The question is everything around him.

Don Hay came in last summer as an associate coach to help guide Martin through the Memorial Cup year. That job is now done, and his future after decades in junior hockey is unclear.

All eyes are on Harrison Boettiger heading into the NHL Draft at the end of the month. Where he goes and who takes him will be a major storyline for the Rockets.

He played 31 games this season, going 18-8-4 with a 3.09 goals against average and a .903 save percentage. A solid year, especially given the workload.

The bigger picture is what comes next. In an interview with NHL.com’s Mike Morreale, Boettiger hinted that his plans are still fluid when it comes to his NCAA future. However, in a conversation with RocketFAN, he indicated he is expected to return to Kelowna for his sophomore season.

With more than three months still to go before training camp, nothing is fully set, and junior hockey timelines do not always line up cleanly with NCAA decisions.

So while Denver remains part of his path, there is still some uncertainty in Kelowna about how and when that next step actually unfolds.

And there is one more piece you cannot ignore. Once the numbers come in, it will be interesting to see what economic impact the tournament had on Kelowna. Some believe those figures will end up higher than originally projected. And remember, every WHL team gets a piece of that revenue pie once everything is settled.

Kelowna’s success is league success when it comes to the bottom line. The revenue is shared among the 23 teams, but for smaller markets, even a cheque in the range of 300 thousand dollars can go a long way in terms of operations, stability, and planning ahead for the next cycle.