FIVE MINUTE MAJOR CHL Top Ten and more.

It’s a new week in major junior hockey and with that we have the regular CHL top 10 rankings, players of the week and more.

In the final regular season CHL top 10 rankings, the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats checked in at the top once again. Fellow QMJHL member and this year’s Memorial Cup host, the Rimouski Océanic checked in at four.

The OHL saw the London Knights sit steady at the two spot while the Brantford Bulldogs checked in at seven, Kitchener Rangers at eight and the Windsor Spitfires at 10.

In the WHL, the Medicine Hat Tigers slid in at three while the Everett Silvertips checked in at five, the Spokane Chiefs at six and the Calgary Hitmen at nine.

The final player honors of the regular season came out Monday with Tri-City Americans’ defenseman Jackson Smith receiving WHL Player of the Week honors. He led all WHL defensemen with four goals and two assists for six points in three games as the Americans closed out their regular season slate.

In WHL Goaltender of the Week news, Max Hildebrand of the Prince Albert Raiders received the honor. He finished his final week of WHL regular season action with a 3-0-0-0 record, a 1.98 goals-against average and a .938 save percentage to help Prince Albert clinch the East Division title.

The WHL Rookie of the Week honors went to Jaxon Jacobson, a forward for the Brandon Wheat Kings. It’s the third time the 16-year-old has received the honor. He led all rookies with a goal and four assists for five points in three games to close out the regular season.

It was formally announced on Monday the Penticton Vees would enter the WHL as an expansion franchise next season. It was also announced the opening of an expansion franchise application process for Chilliwack. The Chilliwack expansion franchise is scheduled to debut in the 2026-27 season. The team would play at the Chilliwack Coliseum that has a capacity of 5,000 for ice hockey.

The current Vees franchise has been a dominant Junior-A team in the BCHL. They would play at the South Okanagan Events Centre with a capacity of 4,701 for hockey. The BCHL’s Chilliwack Chiefs have also seen their fair share of success.

The addition of Penticton will create a natural rivalry with the Kelowna Rockets. The addition of Chilliwack will create a natural rivalry with the Vancouver Giants who play in Langley. It will be the second time a WHL team will call Chilliwack home after the city was host to the Chilliwack Bruins from 2006-2011. That franchise was ultimately sold and relocated to Victoria where they were rebranded as the Victoria Royals.

The WHL already has the most teams of the three leagues in the CHL with 22 as the OHL has 20 and the QMJHL 18. This will widen the gap to 24, but there could be future expansion in the other two leagues at some point as there have been rumors with the OHL recently.

In other news, 23 CHL alumni led the University of Ottawa to its first ever title as the school won the 2025 USports University Cup.