It’s potentially the end of an era for an annual ritual in the hockey world.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Vancouver Canucks announced that they’ll be playing a set of prospect showcase games against the Seattle Kraken in 2025 and 2026. In the same release, they announced that they won’t be hosting the Young Stars Classic tournament in Penticton, British Columbia this fall – though they didn’t rule out the event returning in the future.
Here’s the statement from the Canucks:
“The Vancouver Canucks organization would like to sincerely thank the city of Penticton for the incredible job of supporting and hosting the Young Stars Tournament,” said Jim Rutherford, President, Canucks Sports & Entertainment, Hockey Operations. “The staff at the Okanagan Events Centre, the fans who attended the games, and the local hockey community all contributed to the great success of these events. Unfortunately, we were unable to secure commitments from the other teams for next fall, so regrettably, we will not be hosting a Penticton Young Stars Tournament in 2025. The organization will explore other opportunities with the city and has not closed the door on participating in a Young Stars tournament in future years. Next September, we are excited to go to Seattle and start this series with the Kraken. We feel providing these types of competitive opportunities will only enhance the development of our players.”
The Young Stars Classic was first held in 2010 and has regularly featured the prospects of the Canucks, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers and Winnipeg Jets in a round robin tournament held at Penticton’s South Okanagan Events Centre. The tournament hasn’t been held every year – it didn’t take place in 2012 (lockout), 2o19 (lack of teams), 2020 or 2021 (pandemic) – and the Flames didn’t take part in 2018 or 2019, but the event was a pretty big part of the hockey calendar that was often the first appearance on the ice for Flames prospects in competitive, organized games.
The Flames didn’t participate in 2018 because of their pre-season games in China, and in 2019 they played a pair of games against Edmonton (in Red Deer and Calgary) instead. On one hand, participating in the Young Stars Classic meant that the Flames had to move their prospects training camp to B.C. for a week. On the other hand, it also provided their prospects with a really unique competitive environment that’s tough to replicate otherwise.
We’ll see what form the Flames’ prospects training camp takes this coming fall and in the future, and if the Young Stars Classic eventually returns.
