Sadly, the Brandon Wheat Kings found out today they will not be playing for the 2026 Memorial Cup on home ice. They’re still determined to bring the trophy back to Brandon, however.
The CHL announced today the Kelowna Rockets would be the host team for 2026 Memorial Cup, beating out bids from the Wheat Kings, Lethbridge Hurricanes, Spokane Chiefs, and Medicine Hat Tigers. The Wheat Kings felt they had a competitive bid both in terms of their on-ice product and their off-ice guarantees but it wasn’t enough.
“It’s obvioulsy disappointing, you want to be the team that gets their number called,” said head coach and GM Marty Murray. “A tremendous shoutout to Jason Roblin as chair of this committee and the rest of the group that put in a lot of time and effort to put our best foot forward. I don’t know if we would change a thing, it was very well done… I still think Brandon would be a great host city.”
Once the bid was announced, the Wheat Kings were very clear about their intention to be at the Memorial Cup in 2026 whether as host or as a league champion (or both). Murray was unhesitant in saying that hasn’t changed.
“We’ve said that all along, that if we don’t get to host it we’ll get there the old fashioned way,” he said. “We feel like we’re in a good position with our personnel and our youth coming up, and our inventory of draft picks. We’re sitting in a good situation. We obviously have to have some conversations of how we’re going to approach it.”
Now that the Wheat Kings know they won’t be hosting next season, they can devote their attention entirely to this campaign. As of now, the Wheat Kings sit fifth in the Eastern Conference but second in points percentage, as they hold games in hand on every team around them.
“There might be an opportunity to bring in some guys that help right now,” Murray said. “If there isn’t, I think we have a group here that can do some damage in the playoffs. We don’t just want to talk about next year. If we were hosting the Memorial Cup, obviously that would be a focus, but we have two thirds of a season left right now and that’s our focus as of this point.”
Next season’s standings are tricky to predict, but this season’s standings might be just as hard to predict ahead of any given week. With the conference as tight as it is (five points separate second from eighth) a lot of teams could justify being spenders right now, the Wheat Kings included.
“In the Eastern Conference, one through eight, nine, ten is extremely close and there are a lot of teams that might feel they’re one or two players away from being right there,” Murray said. “It’ll be interesting to see everyone’s approach. We feel good about our group. We’re starting to get healthy, that’s a big thing.”
Murray added the strength of the off-ice bid hasn’t gone away and Brandon has a history of being an excellent host, so this big might set the Wheat Kings up for future hosting success.
