The 2025 BCHL playoffs are down to the league final, with two teams remaining in the quest for the Fred Page Cup. Under the current BCHL playoff structure, only five teams missed the playoffs.
The two Coastal Conference teams that didn’t make the playoffs were the Powell River Kings and Langley Rivermen. In the Interior Conference, it was the Vernon Vipers, Spruce Grove Saints, and Blackfalds Bulldogs.
This article is about those five teams that missed the playoffs. I will start alphabetically, and all roster information comes from Elite Prospects.
Blackfalds Bulldogs
Blackfalds earned only three wins in the first half of the regular season. In a previous article, I wrote about several trades the Bulldogs made in December.
After a mid-season coaching change, the Bulldogs’ record improved, and they finished the season with a record of 15-37-2 to record 32 points. The season also saw a lot of roster instability for Blackfalds. According to Elite Prospects, the Bulldogs iced 59 players this season, including five goaltenders, 21 defenders, and 28 forwards.
Langley Rivermen
The Rivermen lost out on the postseason on the final day of the regular season as the Prince George Spruce Kings clinched the eighth Coastal Conference playoff spot.
The Rivermen finished the regular season with a record of 21-23-9-1 for 52 points. They were tied with the Spruce Kings in points, but Prince George finished with more wins than Langley.
Like Blackfalds, Langley had some roster instability. The Rivermen had 43 skaters and six goaltenders play at least one game. Unlike Blackfalds, Langley had coaching stability this past season.
Chris Shaw took over as head coach and general manager before the 2024-25 season. He replaced Tyler Kuntz, who was hired in January 2024 after the Rivermen and Burt Henderson mutually parted ways.
Powell River Kings
Powell River finished the regular season as the last-place team in the BCHL. The Kings’ record was 9-39-5-1 for 24 points.
Like Blackfalds and Langley, Powell River also had quite a bit of roster instability. The Kings used 43 skaters and four goaltenders in 2024-25. Also, like the Bulldogs, the Kings had a coaching change during the season.
Director of hockey operations and head coach Glenn Anderson stepped down in October. In his place, Stephan Seeger took over as Powell River’s general manager and head coach. It’s something I wrote about in a previous article.
Looking at the Kings’ roster, no player scored more than 15 goals and none had more than 36 points. Their leading scorer was forward Brendan Giles with 15 goals and 21 assists.
Spruce Grove Saints
The Saints finished the 2024-25 season just one point out of a playoff spot. Their record was 19-29-6, good enough for 44 points. Spruce Grove finished ninth in the Interior Conference, a point back of the Okotoks Oilers.
Spruce Grove didn’t have the roster instability that Blackfalds and Powell River did, using 32 skaters and four goaltenders during the season. Spruce Grove was busy on the trade front, including one with the Cowichan Valley Capitals that I previously wrote about.
The Saints were victims of bad luck as Okotoks suffered a late-season skid, winning only one game in March. Had Spruce Grove won even just one more game, it could have passed the Oilers in the standings.
Vernon Vipers
The Vernon Vipers finished the 2024-25 regular season with a record of 15-33-6 for 36 points. It was good enough for 19th place overall.
Vernon’s issues were in scoring and goaltending. Only two players on the Vipers’ roster reached more than 35 points. The team’s top scorer, Will Schumacher, was traded to the Victoria Grizzlies in a deadline deal.
After the Schumacher deal, no one on the Vipers roster passed his totals. Schumacher finished his time in Vernon with 14 goals and 21 assists. The closest player to Schumacher was Talan Blanck with 11 goals and 21 assists.
As for goaltenders, Vernon used four netminders for the 2024-25 season. The goalie with the best stats was Colin Reay. After playing 11 games with a 3.12 goals-against average and a .897 save percentage, Vernon traded Reay to the Spruce Kings.
Missing out
Before the 2024-25 season, Blackfalds had never missed the playoffs in the BCHL or the Alberta Junior Hockey League. The franchise did miss the postseason as the Calgary Mustangs in 2017.
The last time Langley missed the playoffs was 13 years ago when the Rivermen finished seventh in the Coastal Conference. It was Langley’s first season after rebranding as the Rivermen.
As for Powell River, this is the second straight season the Kings have missed the playoffs. After playing in the postseason for 19 straight years, the Kings have now been on the outside looking in during three of the last four seasons.
Playoff hockey for the Spruce Grove Saints franchise was pretty much a guarantee until this season. The Saints last missed out on the postseason in 1973 when the franchise was known as the Edmonton Mets — a streak of 51 years.
Finally, the last time Vernon missed the playoffs was in 2013. That season, the Vipers finished sixth in the Interior Division. Overall, the Snakes have made the playoffs in 20 of the last 24 seasons.
Image credit: Garrett James Photography
