A big part of the appeal of going to major-junior CHL games is watching potential future NHLers
Another seismic event in major-junior hockey has rattled its very foundations, again affecting the Victoria Royals.
The Royals lost their third star player to the U.S. collegiate NCAA with breakout forward Teydon Trembecky, who exploded for 46 goals and 88 points last regular season in the Western Hockey League and nine goals and 19 points in 11 playoff games, committing to the Michigan Tech Huskies.
But even that was overshadowed by news that Gavin McKenna of the WHL champion Medicine Hat Tigers, the 17-year-old prodigy and consensus No. 1 pick for the 2026 NHL draft, will be skating next season in the NCAA. McKenna was set to announce, past press time on Tuesday evening, that he will be joining either the Penn State Nittany Lions or the Michigan State Spartans.
Trembecky was eligible to return to Victoria next season as one of three allowable 20-year-olds but has decided to join two other return-eligible Royals in leaving for the NCAA.
Standout forward Cole Reschny, selected 18th overall in the first round of the 2025 NHL draft by the Calgary Flames, and touted defenceman Keaton Verhoeff, ranked in the top five for the 2026 NHL draft, were the first big WHL players in the 17-18 age range to take advantage of the NCAA rule passed last year allowing Canadian Hockey League players to play in the NCAA. Reschny and Verhoeff will play next season for the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks.
The CHL governs the major-junior WHL, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.
Trembecky will join Royals forward and Nanaimo product Brayden Boehm at Michigan Tech. But Boehm has aged out of the junior ranks and was ineligible to return to the Royals. It’s one thing for the CHL to have graduating players such as Boehm go the NCAA and quite another to have those bolt who were eligible to return.
Based on last season, a plausible projection for the 2025-26 WHL season had the defending B.C. Division champion Royals meeting the defending league champion Tigers in the 2026 WHL final. The chances of that happening now are remote, to say the least. Both teams have been hit hard by the new NCAA rules as the CHL’s entire model has been irrevocably altered.
Defenceman Jackson Smith of the Tri-City Americans of the WHL, selected 14 overall in the first round of this year’s NHL draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets, has announced he will play next season at Penn State of the NCAA.
A big part of the appeal of going to major-junior CHL games is watching potential future NHLers. The question for the WHL, and CHL as a whole, is how long can it keep bleeding elite marquee talent such as McKenna, Smith, Reschny, Verhoeff and Trembecky, among others who have announced for the NCAA, before new development and marketing approaches are needed.
TheTimes Colonistcontacted the Royals but the club said it had no comment.
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