Ding ding ding!
This week’s Wednesday Night in the Dub matchup featured the league’s top two heavyweight squads in a U.S. Division showdown.
The Everett Silvertips and Spokane Chiefs are laden with NHL prospects, 2025 Draft-eligible stars, top netminders and some of the league’s greatest rookies.
While Everett has sat first in the league’s overall standings for weeks, Spokane has emerged as a serious threat with key trade deadline additions like Washington Capitals prospect Andrew Cristall.
The Silvertips may have held Cristall pointless in his Chiefs debut as Everett took a 4-2 win on January 10, 2025, but Cristall, Captain Berkly Catton and veteran Shea Van Olm have combined for 40 points in their five games since.
“This is huge,” Catton said. “Our next couple of games, too, are against high-caliber teams. So (there’s) potential playoff matchups and stuff. This is a good test right now in January to kind of see how we match up against the best teams in the league.”
On paper, it’s as close a match as you can ask for.
Everett reigns supreme as the highest-scoring, stingiest squad in the WHL, but Spokane isn’t far behind- and boasts a superior special teams record.
Cristall is first in the WHL scoring race with 76 points in just 33 games, while Van Olm has a narrow advantage to sit on top of the goals leaderboard with 33.
The Tips are on an 8-0-1-2 points streak, powered by leading scorer and potential 2025 first-round pick Carter Bear, who leads the WHL in game-winning goals (9) and sits seventh overall in points (62).
It’s also a duel between highly-touted Seattle Kraken prospects Catton, who was selected eighth overall in the 2024 NHL Draft, and Silvertips co-captain Kaden Hammell, a 2023 fifth-round selection.
Catton has been held in high regard for his playmaking but has shown he still has a knack for finding the net himself.
The 19-year-old has 20 goals and 42 assists for 62 points this season, highlighted by his second career hat trick one week ago. He’s also sitting on a key milestone with 98 career regular-season goals in the bank.
Hammell is on pace for a career-best season with 25 points (8G-17A) but prides himself on playing a shutdown role. He leads all WHLers in plus/minus with a +48 rating.
And the WHL’s first exceptional-status defenceman, Landon DuPont, has more than lived up to expectations.
The 15-year-old is fourth among all WHL defencemen with 44 points in his first 39 tilts.
DuPont is on pace to break 50 points in his first season- a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since Hockey Hall-of-Famer Scott Niedermayer posted 69 points in 1989-1990.
These powerhouses have met twice so far this season, with Spokane eking out a 4-3 shootout win on November 22, 2024, and Everett getting some revenge in a 4-2 decision on January 10, 2025.
Starting goaltenders Jesse Sanche and Dawson Cowan shined in both previous matchups, with Cowan making 36 saves- plus another three shootout stops- in November, while Sanche earned first-star just under two weeks ago with a 43-save performance.
Both netminders have been among the class of the league.
Sanche leads all WHL netminders in save percentage and goals-against average, posted his first shutout against Portland back in October and has points in his last six starts (5-0-1-0).
Cowan is right behind him, rankings fourth in GAA and save percentage, but also boasts a league-leading four shutouts while facing the fifth-most shots of any starting goalie.
Everett and Spokane will meet three more times in the regular season following today’s Wednesday Night in the Dub tilt, with all matches holding major playoff implications and an important litmus test for two clubs gunning to lift the Ed Chynoweth Cup.
Puck drops tonight at 7:05 p.m. PST in Spokane.
All Wednesday Night in the Dub featured games will be free to stream on WHL Live and the WHL’s YouTube Channel.
STAT PACK
Everett Silvertips | Spokane Chiefs | |
Record | 32-5-3-3 (1st U.S.) | 25-12-3-4 (2nd U.S.) |
Leading Scorers | Carter Bear (29G, 33A, 62PTS) Tyler MacKenzie (27G, 33A, 60PTS)Dominik Rymon (21G, 30A, 51PTS) |
Andrew Cristall (31G, 45A, 76TS)
Berkly Catton (20G, 42A, 62PTS) Shea Van Olm (33G, 27A, 60PTS) |
Leading Goaltender | Jesse Sanche (16-3-2-0, 2.24 GAA, .915 save percentage, one shutout) | Dawson Cowan (22-11-0-0, 2.70 GAA, .910 save percentage, four shutouts) |
Powerplay | 25.2% (8th) | 29.2% (1st) |
Penalty Kill | 78.3% (8th) | 82.5% (2nd) |
NHL PROSPECTS
Everett Silvertips
F- Austin Roest (Nashville Predators)*
F- Julius Miettinen (Seattle Kraken)*
D- Eric Jamieson (Calgary Flames)
D- Tarin Smith (Anaheim Ducks)
D- Kaden Hammell (Seattle Kraken)
*Unable to participate
Spokane Chiefs
F- Berkly Catton (Seattle Kraken)
F- Andrew Cristall (Washington Capitals)
D- Nathan Mayes (Toronto Maple Leafs)
D- Will McIsaac (St. Louis Blues)
D- Saige Weinstein (Colorado Avalanche)
Top 2025 NHL Draft Eligibles (per NHL Central Scouting’s Midterm Rankings of North American Skaters)
Everett Silvertips
F- Carter Bear (11)
F- Shea Busch (169)
F- Cole Temple (173)
Spokane Chiefs
F- Owen Martin (69)
F- Asanali Sarkenov (125)
D- Owen Schoettler (131)
Sound Off
Kaden Hammell
On playing with a target on their back:
It’s a good thing, to be honest. Obviously, the group’s had a lot of success, and that relates to our coaching staff, management and and the players. I mean, I think everybody’s done a really good job with maintaining where we’re at, and it’s been a fun season so far.
On leading the WHL’s stingiest defensive corps:
It’s been really nice to have the depth that we have in the back end. In terms of play, though, I think that we’re just a fast, puck-moving defensive corps. We get the puck, we move the puck up ice, let our amazing forward group do what they do and help out with offense stuff when we can. I feel like we’ve done a really good job of making sure that we’re really cautious and careful in our D zone, and I think that that’s something that’s worked well for us. We’re making sure that we’re taking care of that before anything else.
On the importance of this match with playoffs just over two months away:
They’re going to be a good competition every time that we play them, I think that we play them quite a few times in this back half of the year. So the points always matter. At the end of the year, this is when everything gets really close. So I mean, going into tomorrow night, it’s going to be just a winning mindset and doing everything that we can to get those two points.
On shutting down Spokane’s top line:
The numbers that they’ve put up are undeniable. So like I said, it’s a dangerous line, and for a guy like myself, just focusing on and trying to limit what they can do out there. That’s kind of what I’m trying to do. That’s going to be a big part of all the defence- and the forwards… Just the defensive game, making sure that we can just try and limit that line from what they’re capable of doing.
On his fellow Kraken prospect, Berkly Catton:
I don’t really think that there is a downside of his game. He’s a terrific player, he’s a 200-foot player. He’s shown that, and I think he’s grown with that as well. So he’s a dangerous guy, especially in this league.
On developing as a shutdown defender with Seattle’s development staff:
It’s a good challenge for me every night to be able to go against top lines and try and lock them up. And obviously for the other side of things, just making plays. A big conversation that we had was just being more sharp on outlet passes, stuff like that, little passes.
Berkly Catton
On his recent success:
Ever since the World Juniors, having Andrew on our line, it’s been great and things have been clicking. It’s been a good start to the year, especially team-wise, too. May be a little bit of a younger team, but we seem to be doing lots of good things and coming up with lots of Ws, so it’s been fun.
On playing with Andrew Cristall and Shea Van Olm
It’s a good mix of everything. There’s smarts, speed and a little grit too, I guess. We all kind of think on the same wavelength, I think too, which really helps when you have the puck, you know where your teammates are going to be, which makes it all that much easier to play.
On the significance of tonight’s match:
This is huge. I think our next couple of games, too, are against high-caliber teams. So (there’s) potential playoff matchups and stuff. This is a good test right now in January to kind of see how we match up against the best teams in the league.
On what makes Everett a dangerous opponent:
They don’t really give up a whole lot, I think. They kind of pounce on you when you mess up. So you have to play a pretty clean game against them or else they’ll take over. So it’s going to be a tight game and I think the more competitive team really is going to win tomorrow night.
On his fellow Kraken prospect Kaden Hammell:
He’s a big body, super strong and, like the rest of his team, he’s a competitor and doesn’t really want to give up an inch. When you have a chance to kind of beat him, you have to take it and that doesn’t happen very often. In Seattle camp, I’ve been trying to pick him apart maybe a little bit to see what works and what doesn’t. But no, there’s not very many weaknesses in his game.
On the support he’s seeing from Kraken fans:
Even in Spokane here, there’s a whole bunch of Kraken jerseys- some even have my name on it. I don’t even know how that’s possible, but it’s really cool in that way. And to kind of be up here in the Pacific Northwest and to kind of have that support, basically from the age of 16 now hopefully to a long NHL career is pretty special.