WHL champs Edmonton Oil Kings prepare for start of Memorial Cup
Posted June 19, 2022 3:15 pm.
After a three-year wait, the biggest prize in major junior hockey is once again up for grabs.
The host Saint John Sea Dogs entertain league champions from Edmonton, Hamilton and Shawinigan, Que., in the 2022 Memorial Cup beginning Monday and ending when a new winner is crowned June 29.
BACKGROUND: Oil Kings oust Thunderbirds in WHL final, earn berth in Memorial Cup
The last two Memorial Cup tournaments were scrapped due to COVID-19 restrictions. The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies last captured the championship in May 2019 at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax.
“No one foresaw what COVID would bring us, but it is just great to be back and heading toward a bit of a normal execution of the Memorial Cup,” said Canadian Hockey League president Dan MacKenzie.
The Sea Dogs open the round robin Monday when they host the Ontario Hockey League champion Hamilton Bulldogs.
The Western Hockey League’s Edmonton Oil Kings and the Shawinigan Cataractes – Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champions for the first time – are the other teams.
Edmonton’s deep roster features four first-round NHL draft picks who skated with Canada’s world junior team, including the WHL playoffs most valuable player Kaiden Guhle, He was Montreal’s top pick, 16th overall, in the 2020 draft.
Guhle, Edmonton captain Jake Neighbours (taken 26th overall by St. Louis in 2020), forward Dylan Guenther (Arizona’s ninth-overall pick in 2021) and goaltender Sebastian Cossa (Detroit’s first selection, 15th overall, in 2021) helped lift the Oil Kings to a 50-14-4 mark during the regular season.
The Oil Kings, No. 2 in the CHL’s final year-end rankings, claimed the WHL title with wins over Lethbridge, Red Deer, top-ranked Winnipeg and Seattle. They return to the Memorial Cup for the first time since winning it in 2014.
“We are very fortunate to have the type of team we have,” said Edmonton coach Brad Lauer. “But that does not mean we are going to win. We have to go out and play our game. Our guys understand that. They know no one is going to give it us.”
Your #OilKings take to the ice for the first time in St. John. #TheKingdom | #ChaseTheCrown pic.twitter.com/0RwgmW0rtd
— Edmonton Oil Kings (@EdmOilKings) June 19, 2022
After Neighbours returned from a nine-game stint with the Blues early in the season, the Oil Kings acquired Guhle from Prince Albert to bolster the lineup.
“The last two years have been very difficult on the kids and to be able to play for a championship, I know our guys were very excited,” Lauer said. “Just to see their faces when they did it – as a coach, it was a tremendous feeling.”
