The banners change. The logos change. The players get younger. But somehow, every spring, Richard Doerksen ends up back at the Memorial Cup. The Western Hockey League's Vice President of Hockey has spent 48 years working in the league. He has attended 45 Memorial Cups, a number that places him in a category of his own....

While the players battle for the hardest trophy in hockey to win, Kelowna's Ashley Klimpke has quietly faced her own challenge at the 2026 Memorial Cup. Four teams arrived in the Okanagan knowing they would have to perform at their absolute peak if they wanted to survive the grind of junior hockey's ultimate tournament...

The crowd sees the goals. The players feel the pressure. The coaches obsess over matchups.But few people spend more time thinking about the Memorial Cup than the man staring at the ice with a temperature gun in his hand.For Wayne Pansegrau, hockey's biggest junior tournament isn't just about who wins. It's about making...

The Everett Silvertips spent the entire season proving they were the best team in the Western Hockey League.On Wednesday night at Prospera Place, they proved it one final time against the Kelowna Rockets.Everett shut out the host Rockets 4-0 to eliminate Kelowna from the 2026 Memorial Cup, ending a season in which the ...

Josh Banini might not play the position like a textbook goaltender, but that is part of what makes him effective.When the season was on the line at the Memorial Cup, Derrick Martin turned to the battling netminder to backstop the Kelowna Rockets against the Everett Silvertips."Josh is a guy that's gonna fight for ...

The players take center stage at the Memorial Cup.The goals are replayed. The saves are remembered. The stars become household names.But between the whistles, during television timeouts and commercial breaks, there is another voice helping keep the building alive.That voice belongs to Ryan "Two T's" Watters.M...

The players get drafted.The coaches get interviewed.The officials often work in the background.That is exactly where Kevin Muench is most comfortable.For more than 25 years, the WHL's Senior Director of Officiating and Facilities has helped identify, develop and mentor the men and women responsible for one of the most ...

The Memorial Cup is filled with NHL executives, general managers, scouts and decision-makers. Some arrive with entourages. Some carry titles that turn heads. And then there's Marty Stein. The longtime Buffalo Sabres scout from Vernon is one of hockey's familiar faces. A fixture at rinks across Western Canada for decade...

The margin was razor-thin. For the second straight game at the Memorial Cup, the host Kelowna Rockets were within reach of a victory. But for the second straight game, they came away empty-handed. A 3-2 overtime loss to the Chicoutimi Saguenéens on Sunday night dropped the Rockets to 0-and-2 at the tournament an...

In a rink built for big moments, the 2026 Memorial Cup has a way of making everything louder.The speed. The mistakes. The expectations.And for NHL scouts inside Prospera Place this week, nothing is being missed.Kevin Pederson is one of dozens watching closely from the stands, tracking every shift, every read, every sma...

Twenty-eight Memorial Cups later, Alan King is still showing up.The Seattle hockey fan is back in Kelowna this week, once again part of junior hockey's biggest stage, and once again returning to a city he last saw host the tournament 22 years ago."You just get addicted," he told RocketFAN. "It's outstand...

The atmosphere was electric, the crowd was sold out, and the stage could not have been any bigger, but the Kelowna Rockets' long-awaited Memorial Cup opener ended in disappointment as they dropped a 5-0 decision to the Kitchener Rangers on Friday night at Prospera Place.For a team that had spent 35 days preparing for t...

The Kelowna Rockets are attempting to become just the tenth host team in the modern Memorial Cup era to win the national championship on home ice when the tournament opens tonight at Prospera Place.Only nine host teams have captured the Memorial Cup since the event shifted to its current four-team format in 1983, inclu...

The Memorial Cup has returned to Kelowna for the first time since 2004, and while Thursday's coaches' news conference at Prospera Place offered plenty of storylines, it produced very little in the way of bulletin-board material.The four coaches gathered one day before the opening faceoff of the 2026 Memorial Cup, but i...

Before they ever drop the puck at the Memorial Cup, one message has followed the Kelowna Rockets everywhere."No Easy Days."It's on the backs of training shirts and visible during warmups outside the dressing room, worn as the group moves through its daily work. It isn't a secret, and it isn't meant to be. In ...

Twenty-two years later, the voices still sound alive.The noise inside Prospera Place. The disbelief. The laughter. The pride. The relief.In May of 2004, the Kelowna Rockets didn't just win the Memorial Cup. They gave the city one of the defining moments in its sports history.The archived audio, which RocketFAN stumbled...

It's hard to avoid the conversation. In many ways, it comes with the territory.Curtis Hamilton is the son of Bruce Hamilton. When your father is one of the most powerful figures in Canadian junior hockey and has owned and operated a WHL franchise for more than 35 years, people are going to notice.But six days before th...

Kelowna Rockets media release:The Kelowna Rockets have signed Madden Daneault to a WHL Scholarship & Development Agreement. The Rockets selected Daneault first overall in the 2026 WHL Prospects Draft. The 15-year-old forward from Red Deer, Alberta, spent the 2025-26 season with the Red Deer Rebels U15 AAA of the AE...