Last night, the Edmonton Oil Kings and Nashville Predators prospect Luke Prokop captured the team’s third ever Western Hockey League (WHL) championship. The Oil Kings defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds four games to two and finished the playoffs with an impressive 16-3-0 record, sweeping the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Red Deer Rebels in the first two rounds.
Edmonton will now advance to the Canadian Hockey League’s (CHL) Memorial Cup, which is a playoff tournament between the WHL, Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) champions and a previously determined host team. The Oil Kings join the Shawinigan Cataractes, who won the QMJHL title, the host Saint John Sea Dogs, and the winner of the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires—Hamilton Bulldogs series, which will finish with a game seven tomorrow night.
🎥 @EdmOilKings defenceman and @PredsNHL prospect Luke Prokop shared his thoughts after winning the 2022 #WHLChampionship. pic.twitter.com/ffrmtAWqjm
— The WHL (@TheWHL) June 14, 2022
Prokop, a 2020 third-round draft pick of the Predators, has had a career year in the WHL, posting 11 goals and 35 points in 58 games with Edmonton and the Calgary Hitmen. In the playoffs, Prokop finished tied for third amongst all WHL defenders with 16 points (4g-12a) in 19 games while playing on the Oil Kings’ top pair alongside playoff MVP, and Montreal prospect, Kaiden Guhle.
Prokop was named the WHL’s Player of the Week last week and was named to the CHL’s Team of the Week for scoring two goals and five points over a two-game stretch.
Luke Prokop has one.
Luke Prokop has two.
And the @EdmOilKings are up 2-1!@PredsNHL | #WHLChampionship | #EDMvsSEA pic.twitter.com/VuRjpXTdaI— The WHL (@TheWHL) June 5, 2022
In their organization’s history, eight Nashville draft picks have won a Memorial Cup, including four in their draft year (Frederick Gaudreau also won a Memorial Cup with Shawinigan in 2012 but was never drafted):
Nashville Predators’ Memorial Cup Winners
| Player | Team | League | Year | DY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Erat | Nashville | WHL | 2001 | DY+2 |
| Shea Weber | Kelowna Rockets | WHL | 2004 | DY+1 |
| Alexander Radulov | Québec Remparts | QMJHL | 2006 | DY+2 |
| Jon Blum | Vancouver Giants | WHL | 2007 | DY |
| Cody Franson | Vancouver Giants | WHL | 2007 | DY+2 |
| Ryan Ellis | Windsor Spitfires | OHL | 2009 | DY |
| Ryan Ellis | Windsor Spitfires | OHL | 2010 | DY+1 |
| Austin Watson | Windsor Spitfires | OHL | 2010 | DY |
| Aaron Irving | Edmonton Oil Kings | WHL | 2014 | DY |
The 2022 Memorial Cup will be held from June 20 to 29. All four teams will play round-robin games against one another. After that stage, the first-place team advances directly to the championship game to take on the winner of the semifinal between seeds #2 and #3. If there is a tie for third place after the round-robin, a tiebreaker game is held.
All statistics are courtesy of whl.ca and eliteprospects.com.