Oil Kings proud of season despite WHL playoff series loss

The Saskatoon Blades celebrate their overtime goal in Game 7 against the Edmonton Oil Kings on April 6, 2026.

They’re licking their wounds after losing a close, hard-fought playoff series that ended in dramatic fashion, but the Edmonton Oil Kings are looking at the positives as the junior hockey club decamps for the summer.

General manager Kirt Hill called losing Game 7 in overtime to the Saskatoon Blades in their first-round Western Hockey League playoff series “a tough one to swallow” but praised his group for its resiliency over the course of the season given the squad had several injuries to deal with.

“It just seemed like it was a snowball effect that just we never really caught up to throughout the course of the entire year, but super proud of the group and the way they competed in the playoffs,” Hill told media on Thursday, three days after the Blades won the decisive Game 7 3-2.

Several key forwards missed playing time because of injury this season, including captain Gavin Hodnett, Max Curran, Adam Jecho and Luke Powell.

Monday’s result followed a strong regular season for the Oil Kings, who finished third in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with a 45-18-5 record. It came a year after they returned to the league’s playoff picture following two seasons rebuilding and at or near the bottom of the standings. The Oil Kings had won the WHL championship in 2022.

Hodnett said his team “laid it all out on the line” against an opponent that played hard like they did, but Saskatoon “got the upper hand.”

“It’s tough, especially with the group we had,” said Hodnett, a forward from Winnipeg who turned 20 on Thursday. “I think we had a very special group, guys (who) love coming to the rink, working hard and pushing each other every day, so that just makes it really hard and really emotional.”