Much like last season, the 2025–26 Tri-City Americans have outperformed expectations as the WHL season reaches its halfway point. Through resilience, buy-in, and an identity rooted in hard work, this young group has repeatedly shown it simply will not quit.
Tri-City enters the second half and new year at 19-13-2, carrying a six-game winning streak, the longest of its season, and doing so with confidence built through adversity.
How Tri-City Got Here
It wasn’t pretty early on.
The Americans opened the season 1-5, one of the club’s toughest starts in years. But context mattered. Tri-City had 15 rookies on the opening night roster who were looking ahead to their first taste of WHL action and faced a brutal opening schedule that included road trips to Spokane, Everett, and Seattle. The start mirrored last season’s 1-3-1 opening stretch, though historically, a similar 1-5 mark hadn’t been seen since 2002–03, when the team fell as far as 1-11-1.
The turning point started against Prince George on the road, where Jakub Vanecek blasted home a one-timer with just over a minute remaining to seal Tri-City’s second win of the year. Momentum slowly followed.
A productive Eastern Conference swing, highlighted by an overtime win over conference-leading Medicine Hat, set the stage for a favorable stretch of 10 home games in 11, where Tri-City went 6-3-1.
December began on a high note when Xavier Wendt scored the second goalie goal in franchise history while also earning a shutout. But inconsistency returned soon after, including an 8-0 loss in Penticton as the Americans drifted away from their identity.
A Six-Game Stretch That Defined the First Half
Everything changed over the final six games of the first half.
During their current six-game winning streak, Tri-City erased 3-1 deficits twice, including a 4-3 shootout win over Seattle and a 4-3 overtime victory in Kamloops before the Winter Break.
Then came the moment that perfectly captured who this team is, a group that never gives up.
On December 28 in Portland, a building where Tri-City entered with a 3-12-1 in the past five years, the Americans trailed 4-3 late in the third period. With the net empty and time winding down with just enough time for one last rush, it appeared like the streak would end.
Instead, a failed Portland clear found Pavao at the point. Pavao then fired a shot wide that trickled to Connor Dale at the left circle, who quickly fed Gavin Garland at the back door. Garland buried the tying goal with one second remaining. Then in Gudelj ended it.
Tri-City capped off 2025 with a 3-2 New Year’s Eve win over Spokane, snapping a three-year drought in the annual matchup. Xavier Wendt turned aside 48 shots in the victory.
Outside of Medicine Hat’s 17-game point streak, Tri-City enters the second half as one of the hottest teams in the WHL.
Team Identity & Statistics
The numbers paint a clear picture: this is a defense-first team.
Tri-City sits fourth in the Western Conference while allowing just 107 goals, the fourth-fewest in the West and only two more than second-place Prince George. That translates to a 3.14 goals-against average, a significant improvement from last season’s 3.9.
Offensively, the Americans average three goals per game (102 total), the fewest among the West’s top five teams and the only club in that group with a negative goal differential. The drop-off is expected after losing top scorers Max Curran (trade) and Jackson Smith (NCAA) following the conclusion of last season.
Special teams remain an area to address. The power play sits at 17.3%, including a 3-for-29 stretch in December. The penalty kill hovers at 74.8%, ranking 10th in the conference but it has been slowly progressing as time has gone along.
Roster Moves That Mattered
Roster movement has been minimal, but impactful in the moves that were made.
Connor Dale
Claimed off waivers from Swift Current on October 10, Connor Dale has transformed Tri-City’s forward group. The fastest player on the ice most nights, Dale leads the team with 22 assists and sits second in points with 35, already doubling his previous career high.
Dale’s speed consistently creates breakaways, odd-man rushes, and offensive pressure. Simply put, Tri-City would not be where it is without him.
Zemlak Trade
After a brief NCAA stint at Arizona State, Austin Zemlak returned during the Winter Break. GM Bob Tory moved Zemlak to Edmonton, acquiring a 2026 second-round pick and a conditional 2029 fifth-rounder, giving Tri-City two firsts and two seconds in the upcoming 2026 WHL Draft.
Offensive Balance
Rather than leaning on one dominant scorer or line, Tri-City has at its best had people contributing up and down the lineup, but here are a few that did stand out in the first half.
Savin Virk
The exception is Savin Virk, the team’s offensive engine. The Michigan State commit leads Tri-City with 17 goals, including a team leading four on the power play, and a team leading four game-winning goals. With 17, Virk is on pace for 34 goals, which would mark the first 34+ goal season by an American since Parker AuCoin (2018–19).
Grady Martin
Grady is a player who goes under the radar from many, but he does so much for the team and is off to the best start to his WHL Career. After missing some time early in the season due to a hand injury in Everett on October 3rd, Grady returned in mid-November and has played exceptional hockey even if it is quite a small sample size, accumulating nine points in nineteen games. He has already nearly matched his season best of eleven points. Martin also had a career-best five-game point streak that occurred in late November.
The nineteen-year-old is often seen on the penalty kill, which has gradually improved throughout the year, and is a leader in this area. This production from Martin should certainly not go unnoticed and Martin is certainly making a case if he continues this in the second half, to return as an overager next season.
Martin also holds the highest faceoff win rate percentage on the Americans at a 59.2% rate.
Gavin Garland
Garland in his second season with Tri-City has been one of the most consistent producing forwards on the team outside of Connor Dale and Savin Virk and enters the new year on an absolute tear with a seven-game point streak.
Garland at nineteen years old has 30 points in 34 games and is easily on pace to beat last seasons mark of 42 points with his speed and playmaking abilities.
Defensive Identity
Tri-City’s defensive growth has been one of the season’s biggest storylines — especially with four rookie defensemen in the lineup.
Dylan LeBret
Acquired quietly from Regina last season, Dylan LeBret has been a revelation. The rookie sits third among defensemen in scoring (13 points), owns a +6 rating, and has earned a regular top-four role.
Jakub Vanecek
Tri-City’s top pick in the 2025 CHL Import Draft has exceeded expectations. Vanecek leads all defensemen in points as a rookie with 17 in 27 games, boasts a 75.8% possession success rate, and is currently representing Team Czechia at the World Juniors. He’s already appearing on NHL draft lists.
Goaltending: The Backbone
The biggest question entering the season has become Tri-City’s greatest strength and has been the main reason Tri-City have won so many games.
Xavier Wendt and Ryan Grout have formed one of the WHL’s top goaltending tandems.
Xavier Wendt
At just 17, Wendt has emerged as the first-half MVP for Tri-City. In 21 games, he owns a .929 save percentage, 2.37 GAA, and 13 wins — ranking first in SV%, second in GAA, and top-10 in wins league-wide.
Wendt also made history on December 3, becoming the 11th goalie in WHL history to score a goal and the second in Tri-City Americans history. Wendt also recorded his first and only career shutout in the WHL that night.
Areas for Improvement
Despite the success, there’s room to grow.
- 60 Minute Effort: This is something that Tri-City coaches have wanted. A cleaner and more consistent 60 Minute game where Tri-City plays their brand of hockey will really benefit this team in the second half. Tri-City have an’ excellent record when leading after two periods of play, so getting off to a good start and at least matching the other team’s energy early will be something to look for in the second half.
- Special Teams: Improving the power play and penalty kill could swing multiple games in the second half quite simply, more of the power play than the penalty kill, though, which has been as stated before, getting better as the season has gone along. The Tri-City power play has fell flat several times this season when it matters most, so being able to just get it going a little more could get this club some more results in the future.
Strong goaltending has masked the 60-minute issue, but addressing some of these will be critical with just four points separating fourth from ninth in the West.
Looking Ahead
If Tri-City maintains its defensive structure, continues to receive elite goaltending, and can consistently get contributions from everyone besides the top three in Virk, Dale, and Garland the Americans have a real chance to climb the standings and secure home-ice advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.
For a team featuring 12 rookies, the first half has already been a success — and a promising sign of what’s ahead, both this season and beyond.
