Work on Kelowna's 2026 Memorial Cup has already begun

Photo: Wayne Moore

Rockets president and GM Bruce Hamilton

It's going to be a busy 18 months around the Kelowna Rockets office as they prepare to host what president and GM Bruce Hamilton believes will be the best Memorial Cup tournament ever held.

Hamilton made that comment to a group of supporters who helped with the team's successful bid to host the 2026 Memorial Cup.

In fact bid committee co-chair David Rush scheduled the first post-announcement meeting for 10 a.m. Thursday.

While Rush and co-chair Steve Thomson will work with several committees and hundreds of volunteers to produce a number of off-ice events to cover the 10-day championship, Hamilton and assistant GM Curtis Hamilton will be tasked with assembling the team that will try and win the franchise's second Memorial Cup title.

In fact the ink had barely dried on the press release before Hamilton got to work.

"That work started this afternoon. We had a pretty good idea of two different paths, one path if we won and a path if we lost would be a totally different path than the one we will go on," said Hamilton.

"We are going to want to try and add some more parts to this team that will be younger guys. Instead of adding 19's and 20's we'll be adding 18-year-olds if we can that will be significant parts of our team next year."

To add those pieces the team will have to move some players out meaning some older players may not finish the season in Kelowna.

"We think we're in a pretty good spot. We have Iginla and (Hiroki) Gojsic coming back for sure and we feel we have a pretty good base. That's why we have four 16-year-olds this season.

"We feel we'll be in good shape but we will certainly be adding things to it."

Some of that work began over the previous few weeks with the addition of 18-year-old defenceman Nate Corbet and 19-year-old goaltender Rhett Stoesser.

As for winning the bid, Hamilton couldn't thank those who worked on the bid enough for their hard work over the past three to four months.

"I can't be more proud of the group we put together to make this bid come true. I am so thankful for the opportunity for us to have this event one more time.

"I was really excited. I honestly thought it was a real fight between us and Spokane potentially. When I heard the vote was unanimous that even made it better."

The selection was made by an independent five-member panel with no involvement with the CHL or the WHL.

Hamilton called the announcement a thrilling day for the team but most importantly, the city.