WHL awards expansion team to Penticton Vees; application process begins for Chilliwack
One of the most storied franchises in the BCHL is heading to the Western Hockey League (WHL). On Monday, the WHL officially announced that the Penticton Vees would be joining the league via expansion for the upcoming 2025-26 season. The WHL also announced that they had initiated talks with the city of Chilliwack regarding expansion for the 2026-27 season. The WHL and the Penticton Vees will host an Expansion Draft on May 7th. With Penticton joining, the club would be the 12th team in the WHL’s Western Conference and the sixth in the B.C. Division, joining the Vancouver Giants, Kelowna Rockets, Kamloops Blazers, Victoria Royals and Prince George Cougars. The expansion fee is yet to be official, but sources have told Daily Faceoff it is estimated to be between $12 and $15 million, which includes a payment to the Kelowna Rockets for territorial rights. “This is an exciting day, as the Western Hockey League takes its next step as the world’s finest development league for junior hockey players,” commented WHL Commissioner Dan Near. “Communities within B.C. produce talented young players from thriving grassroots hockey programs and we’re pleased to deliver WHL franchises to two important centres in the province – Penticton and Chilliwack. In each market the WHL operates in, we aim to serve as role models within the local hockey community, business community, and beyond. We look forward to the opportunity to continue these efforts in Penticton and Chilliwack.”
NHL power rankings: Wolf and Flames still in playoff hunt
While there’s still a lot of moving parts, some are beginning to pull away, and we already have one team securing a spot and another two officially being eliminated. There’s still plenty of teams left in the hunt for the final few spots though, so it’s far from over. Hunter Crowther and I continue to navigate through the results so far this season with another week of our co-op power rankings. I have my same old system in which I aggregate six stats (points %, 5-on-5 goal differential, 5-on-5 xGF/60, 5-on-5 xGA/60, power play xGF/60, and shorthanded xGA/60, all coming courtesy of Natural Stat Trick) to come up with a list that eliminates my own biases, along with a rule that no team can be above a team that’s more than five points ahead of them in the standings or has clinched a playoff spot when they haven’t, regardless of where the aggregate places them. On the other hand, Hunter goes off his own intellect and pure vibes, and together, we find a way to combine it and meet in the middle. 1. Washington Capitals Record: 47-15-8, +76Last Week: 2nd (+1)Hunter’s Rank: 1stScott’s Rank: 1st Scott: The Capitals are officially the first team in the season to clinch a playoff spot, and I don’t think there’s too many people at the start of the season that would have guessed that they would be the first team to do so. With a 12-point lead on the next closest threat in both the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference, they can basically hop on cruise control for the final 12 games and focus on getting Alex Ovechkin to Wayne Gretzky’s goal record (he got another goal last week) and resting for the playoffs. It’ll be interesting to see in the final few games which one of those takes priority for the Caps in the final stretch.