{"id":472022,"date":"2026-02-13T08:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T08:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/472022\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T08:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T08:36:08","slug":"nhl-draft-notebook-boettiger-hopes-to-backstop-kelowna-to-memorial-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/472022\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Draft notebook: Boettiger hopes to backstop Kelowna to Memorial Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harrison Boettiger has had the unique distinction of representing both sides of the international boundary.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old (6-foot-2, 189 pounds), who is No. 7 on NHL Central Scouting’s midterm ranking of North American goalies eligible for the 2026 NHL Draft, now stars for Kelowna of the Western Hockey League after playing for USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

“I plan on going to the University of Denver (in 2026-27), getting an education and being able to play in my hometown, too,” said Boettiger, a native of Wheat Ridge, Colorado, a western suburb of Denver. “This year, my best option was Kelowna because not only will I have a chance to play in the Memorial Cup but it’s a great organization with a great team.”<\/p>\n

Kelowna will host the 106th Memorial Cup at Prospera Place in Kelowna, British Columbia, from May 21-31. As the host team, it is automatically seeded in the four-team championship tournament of the Canadian Hockey League.<\/p>\n

“They’ve won a Memorial Cup (2004) and are always in the mix,” Boettiger said. “There’s a rich history there, great fans, so it’s a special opportunity.”<\/p>\n

Originally selected by Lethbridge with the No. 4 pick in the 2022 WHL U.S. priority draft, Boettiger was acquired by Kelowna in a trade for defenseman prospect Caden Price<\/a> (Seattle Kraken) just ahead of the 2025 WHL trade deadline on Jan. 6, 2025. Boettiger signed a WHL scholarship and development agreement with Kelowna on June 23, 2025.<\/p>\n

He is 18-8-4 with a 3.09 goals-against average and .903 save percentage in 31 games with Kelowna this season, after he was 9-12-0 with a 3.61 GAA and .884 save percentage in 24 games with the NTDP Under-18 team in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

“I want to be known as a calm goaltender … want to give my team a sense of safety back there,” Boettiger said. “If they mess up, I want to have their back. I’ll have them covered. But I can be desperate. I can make an athletic save if I have to, but I like to rely on my positioning and my skating to hit my spots and be there on time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harrison Boettiger has had the unique distinction of representing both sides of the international boundary. The 18-year-old (6-foot-2,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-472022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}