FIVE MINUTE MAJOR CHL News and Notes

The off-season for major junior hockey continues to chug along with minimal news, but teams continue to sign players for the future and make other announcements.

Two pieces of news came out of the Western Hockey League (WHL) over the past few days.

The first piece of news was an announcement on Saturday that Spokane Chiefs’ head coach Brad Lauer will join Team Canada's Junior team coaching staff. The team will be led by London Knights head coach Dale Hunter as the team prepares for the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota in December.

Lauer coached Spokane to the WHL Championship Series where the Chiefs ultimately fell in five games to the Medicine Hat Tigers, who then fell to London in the Memorial Cup Final.

Hunter and Lauer will be joined by associate coach Misha Donskov from London, Ontario Gardiner MacDougall (Moncton - QMJHL), goaltending coach Dan De Palma (Kamloops - WHL) and video coach Ethan O’Rourke (Kingston – Ontario Hockey League). The team will receive additional support from James Emery, Hockey Canada's director of performance analysis.

Then on Tuesday, the Wenatchee Wild announced a pair of waiver moves to get down to their allotment of three 2005 born players.

The two players waived were goaltender Brendan Gee and forward Deagan McMillan. They now become WHL free agents.

Gee spent two seasons as a goaltender with the Wild. He earned 28 wins and posted a 3.62 goals-against average and a .886 save percentage in 67 appearances. McMillan finished the 2024-25 season with Wenatchee after starting the year with the Victoria Royals. With Wenatchee, McMillan scored six goals and tallied 12 assists for 18 points in 42 games.

In other news, the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) preseason starts on Thursday, Aug. 14 with a five-game slate. The OHL preseason begins on Friday, Aug. 29 while WHL preseason play starts on Sunday, Aug. 31. The first time fans will be able to see the Penticton Vees in WHL action will be on Wednesday, Sept. 3 as they take on the Kelowna Rockets at Prospera Place in Kelowna, BC. The Vees will make their home preseason debut the next day on Thursday, Sept. 4 when they host the Vancouver Giants at the South Okanagan Events Centre.

The first clash between former BCHL rivals Wenatchee and Penticton will come during the regular season on Sunday, Oct. 5 as the Wild host the Vees at the Town Toyota Center.

The Chilliwack, BC franchise is still set to hit the ice for the 2026-27 season at the Chilliwack Coliseum. Outside of that, there hasn’t been any sort of news on any expansion front in the QMJHL or OHL. There has been one piece of news out of the high level Junior-A United States Hockey League (USHL). On Tuesday it was announced by the Tri-City Storm that they’d hired former NHL coach, John Torchetti as the eleventh head coach in franchise history.  In addition to his head coach responsibilities, John will fulfill the role of Director and President of Hockey Operations.