Photo credit: Steve Dunsmoor

By Regan Bartel

New face, old confidence

Whirlwind arrival, steady debut for Rockets’ Keith McInnis

Jan 5, 2026 | 6:00 AM

Keith McInnis didn’t need much time to make an impression in Kelowna.

Two games in, there’s already a point on the scoresheet, a calm presence on the back end, and the sense that the Rockets didn’t just add a depth piece, they added a player who’s been through a lot, learned from it, and knows exactly who he is.

McInnis, acquired from the Red Deer Rebels in the Kalder Varga trade, turns 20 tomorrow. Instead of a birthday cake and a quiet day off, he’s settling into a new city, a new room, and a new opportunity, one he didn’t take lightly.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” McInnis said, and that might be underselling it. One minute, he’s in Red Deer, grinding through a tough season with a tight-knit group. Next, he’s pulling on Kelowna Rockets colours and making his debut against the Kamloops Blazers.

Still, he didn’t hesitate.

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“We were struggling a little bit in Red Deer,” he said. “I didn’t even know if there was interest out there. So to find out there was, and then to have the opportunity to come here… yeah, I was open to it. And then boom, here I am.”

Friday night at Prospera Place, McInnis jumped into the lineup with a team he barely knew. He admitted he recognized “three or four guys” at most. No easing in. No soft landing. Just a rival, a loud building, and a new system to learn on the fly.

“It’ll be interesting,” he said with a grin beforehand. “But it’ll be a lot of fun too.”

A night later in Kamloops, he picked up his first point as a Rocket, earning an assist in a 4-1 loss. Not a milestone that changes a season, but a small marker that says the transition has already begun.

People around Red Deer will tell you the Rockets got the Rebels’ best defenceman. McInnis doesn’t puff his chest when he hears that. If anything, he shrugs it off.

“That’s very humbling,” he said. “All I try to do is go out there and play my best every night. I had a really good start to the year, which helped me a lot. When the team’s struggling, all you can do is try your best. That’s it.”

Ask him what kind of defenceman he is, though, and the answer comes easy.

“I’d say I’m a 200-foot defenceman,” McInnis said. “I’m not afraid of the physical play. I take pride in the D zone. I take pride in not getting scored on. But I’ll jump up in the rush and try to create offense when I can.”

That balance, hard in his own end, confident when it’s time to go didn’t come by accident.

McInnis’ path hasn’t been straight. As a 16-year-old in the USHL, he broke his collarbone twice in the same season, limiting him to just nine games. The next year didn’t go much smoother.

“I kind of lost myself,” he admitted. “I didn’t know who I was as a player.”

That’s not something every 19-year-old is willing to say out loud. McInnis does, because it’s part of the story. He left the USHL, came home, and found a reset in Brooks with the Bandits, a move he still calls the best decision he’s made.

“The way they played allowed me to get back to what I was good at,” he said. “It opened my mind back up to the offensive side of the game. I give a lot of credit to the coaches there. It changed my mindset.”

The wins helped too. A Fred Page Cup. Proof that winning habits travel, no matter the league.

“To win, it takes everything,” McInnis said. “The level might be different, but the lessons are the same. All the intangibles you need to win, you need them everywhere.”

That’s what he brings with him to Kelowna. Not speeches. Not big promises.

“I’ll just play my game,” he said. “Let my play do the talking.”

And then there’s the nickname, the kind that sticks before you ever lace up skates.

They call him Cubby.

It came from a dream his dad had before he was born, back when no one knew if the baby would be a boy or a girl. The name stuck. Teachers used it. Friends used it. Family used it.

“The only time I’m called Keith,” he laughed, “is when my mom’s mad at me.”

Now Cubby’s the new guy in the Rockets’ room, learning names, systems, and routes around town, and doing it on the fly in the middle of a B.C divisional race.

Two games is a small sample, but McInnis already looks at home, carrying himself like a player who knows opportunity isn’t always delivered neatly or on schedule.