An interesting start of the 2025-26 campaign is ahead for the Kamloops Blazers.
With the full year schedule now out across the WHL, we know that fans in Kamloops will get a nice early taste of this season’s team before they shuffle out on the road fairly quickly.
The Blazers will play the first four-of-five at home to start out the regular season.
This includes the season opener on September 20th against Spokane.
In fact, all of the Blazers’ first five games of the campaign will be against US-Division teams, including the Chiefs, Tri-City and the Seattle Thunderbirds — who they will face three times to start out the season.
However, from there, the friendly confines of the Sandman Centre will be in the rearview mirror, as will Alberta and — even Saskatchewan — for a short while.
Assistant GM Tim O’Donovan – who helps craft the Blazers schedule as part of league-wide discussions in the off-season – says the team’s annual eastern road swing this season will be through the Eastern Division of the Eastern Conference.
“Sometimes having those trips early on in the season is kind of a good bonding time,” suggested O’Donovan. “Getting some of the young players that we’re going to have new to the line-up this year…getting them to spend time with some of our older players and getting accustomed to the League.”
“Obviously the weather out east in October is usually a little bit better than those harsh winter months,” added O’Donovan.
The eastern trip starts up north with Prince Albert and Saskatoon, then through Regina and Moose Jaw before crossing into Manitoba to take on Brandon before closing out the six-game swing in Swift Current on October 18th.
While the Blazers will get a chance to regroup after crossing back over the Rockies, the six-day break will lead the team into one of the more challenging tests of the season, at home to the reigning WHL Champion Medicine Hat Tigers on October 24th.
“Having a player like Gavin McKenna — putting up the numbers that he’s put up the last couple of years, and CHL Player of the Year this past season — always nice to have someone like that in your building,” noted O’Donovan.
“For our guys, just see what they’re like against a top player, that’s always an exciting time,” he added.
With the Penticton Vees joining the WHL this season, this adds another team into the BC Division.
As such, the number of rivalry games Blazers fans are accustomed to against Kelowna will be pared down to six this season, rather than the traditional eight.
Due to the way the schedule worked out, Kamloops will not face an inter-Division rival for the first month of action until the Vancouver Giants swing back into Kamloops the night after the Blazers take on Gavin McKenna and the Tigers.
Kamloops fans won’t get their first look at the expansion Penticton Vees at the Sandman Centre for two months into the season.
Penticton arrives in Kamloops on November 29th.
That will be the start of three-straight against the Vees, who have graduated to the Western Hockey League this season after watching the League the franchise dominated for years — the BCHL — lose quite a bit of its relevance last season thanks to NCAA eligibility rule changes which allow CHL players to draw US college scholarships.
After the Christmas break, Kamloops will be fed a healthy diet of BC Division action, including their one-and-only trip aboard BC Ferries in early February for mid-week games in Victoria against the Royals.
This year’s regular season will wrap up on March 21st, with the tail-end of a home-and-home finish against the Vancouver Giants on the road at the Langley Events Centre.
The WHL hockey action begins with a five-game pre-season schedule, which will include a stop over by the Vancouver Giants, a home-and-home with Kelowna and clash against Prince George, both at the Sandman Centre and in Quesnel.
This will be the 2nd year in a row the Prince George Cougars have opted to play a pre-season game in Quesnel.
For fans at home, the Blazers have also decided to stick with the 6pm starts on Saturdays, as fan and downtown business reaction to the earlier starts has been very well received the past couple of years.
