Jack Pridham is back in Kelowna for the canadian hockey league Memorial Cup, and the Kitchener Rangers forward knows the city from the start of his junior career with the West Kelowna Warriors. He arrived after a season that ended with 46 goals and 90 points in 65 regular-season games.
That return carries a sharper edge because Pridham was once a junior player in the same area. He spent parts of two seasons with the Warriors organization from 2023-24 onward, then moved on after 12 games last season when he had 10 points to start the 2024-25 campaign.
West Kelowna to Kitchener
Pridham’s path back to Kelowna runs through Kitchener and the OHL. The Rangers first chose him in the ninth round, 177th overall, of the 2021 OHL Priority Selection, and he later returned to Kitchener for his overage season in 2025-26 rather than head to Boston University.
He said the move was about testing himself in a tougher setting. “I think kind of when the rules change came out, you know, I wanted to challenge myself against higher competition and be surrounded in a great environment like Kitchener,” he said.
Pridham’s Memorial Cup numbers
The payoff showed up in the regular season and the playoffs. Pridham led Kitchener with 46 goals and 90 points in 65 regular-season games, then entered the Memorial Cup with 17 points in 19 playoff games after helping guide the Rangers to their first OHL championship since 2008.
He also carried a draft resume that changed his profile before this tournament opened. Chicago picked him in the third round, 92nd overall, of the 2024 NHL Draft after he had already piled up 36 goals and 33 assists across 76 regular-season and playoff games combined with the Warriors organization.
Billets, parents, and old teammates
Kelowna has not just been a stop on the schedule for him. Pridham said his parents are staying with his old billets up in Kelowna, while the Rangers are staying at a hotel roughly ten minutes from his former billet family.
He even made time to see them again. “I actually surprised my old billets yesterday, so that’s pretty cool,” he said. “Took an Uber up there and surprised them, so that was great to see them.”
For Kitchener, the tournament is the next step after an OHL title earned the hard way. For Pridham, it is a return to the city where his junior career began, now in the same building as a Memorial Cup contender.
