FIVE MINUTE MAJOR CHL Top Ten and more.

It’s a new week in major junior hockey and with that means playoff updates, news and other items.

It was announced on Tuesday that Spokane Chiefs General Manager is the winner of the Lloyd Saunders Memorial Trophy as the WHL Executive of the Year for 2024-25. Bardsley’s efforts helped Spokane finish second in a very competitive U.S. Division with a 45-20-1-2 record, marking the team’s winningest season in 14 years.

Staying with Spokane, Washington Capitals prospect and forward Andrew Cristall was named the WHL Player of the Week for this past week. It’s the fourth time Cristall he’s received the weekly award in 2024-25, in addition to a WHL Player of the Month honor in November 2024. He led all WHL skaters with five goals and four assists for nine points in three games to help the Chiefs reach the WHL Western Conference Championship.

The WHL Rookie of the Week also came from Spokane as forward Assanali Sarkenov received the honor with his stellar play this postseason. The winger from Astana, Kazakhstan led all first-year players with four goals and one assist for five points in three games.

This week’s WHL Goaltender of the Week came from the Eastern Conference’s Medicine Hat Tigers as Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Harrison Meneghin received the honor. It’s the second-straight week and fourth time this season Meneghin has received the weekly award. He also received goaltender of the month honors for January and March. Meneghin went 2-0-0-0 with a 1.69 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage to kick off the WHL Eastern Conference Championship series against his former team, the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

It was announced Tuesday that Victoria Royals head coach James Patrick is the recipient of the Dunc McCallum Memorial Trophy as the 2024-25 WHL Coach of the Year. In his first full season as head coach for the Royals, Patrick guided Victoria to a 40-17-4-7 record, clinching the B.C. Division title for the second time in team history.

In the OHL both the Oshawa Generals and London Knights were up 3-0 in their respective series going into their games Wednesday night. The WHL saw Medicine Hat go up 3-0 on Lethbridge Tuesday night with the chance to clinch Wednesday night. Portland and Spokane were set to battle Wednesday night in game three of their series with Spokane up 2-0. In the QMJHL the Moncton Wildcats were up 3-0 with the opportunity to clinch Wednesday night while Memorial Cup Rimouski led its series 2-1. Rimouski was also set to play Wednesday night with the opportunity to go up 3-1.

With Moncton seemingly cruising this season it seems they’ll likely be the QMJHL’s champion that would advance to the Memorial Cup. Oshawa and London always seem to be in contention on a regular basis so assuming both advance, that championship series could be a very exciting one to follow. As for the WHL, it seems Medicine Hat is likely the lock there but only time will tell with how the western conference shakes out.