NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Liam Ruck sends a backhand pass to the point in the first period of a 5-0 win Oct. 11 at Co-op Place over the Portland Winterhawks. He was named to the CHL roster for the 2025 CHL USA Prospects Challenge on Nov. 25 and 26.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Willie Desjardins will have a familiar face on the CHL’s roster for the CHL USA Prospects Challenge next week.
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Liam Ruck was named to the CHL roster in place of the injured Brooks Rogowski of the Oshawa Generals.
“It’s unreal, obviously something you dream of doing and I’m super excited for that,” Ruck said. “It sucks for Brooks, but I’m excited for my opportunity there.”
Ruck is averaging a point per game this season with seven goals and 21 points in 21 games. He sits one point back of older twin brother Markus who is tied with defenceman Jonas Woo for the team lead in scoring.
The 17-year-old product of Osoyoos, B.C. was one of five WHL forwards, alongside Markus, to have earned a “B” rating on NHL Central Scouting’s preliminary players to watch list.
“It’s great for him to be there, he’s a quality player,” Desjardins said. “It’s tough for Markus not being on it, he’s a quality player as well. For Liam it’s well deserved, he had a big weekend and it’s quite the honour.”
Liam was named the WHL’s player of the week for last week after tallying three goals and six points in two road games this weekend against the Regina Pats and Brandon Wheat Kings.
Ruck says he’s looking forward to the challenge of the Prospects games and also getting to see some of the CHL’s best.
“There’ll be pressure there, for sure, but I kind of thrive under it and turn it into an opportunity and just make the most of it,” Ruck said.
“I’m looking forward to seeing all the guys I know and meeting some new faces and just being around all of those guys.”
Desjardins and Ruck will be joined by Tigers’ video coach Jayce Desjardins and athletic trainer and equipment manager Mike Lanuk, who are also on the CHL staff.
The 2025 CHL USA Prospects Challenge is a best-on-best, two-game series spotlighting the top NHL Draft-eligible players from the WHL, OHL and QMJHL facing off against the U.S. National Under-18 Team. The two games will be held Nov. 25 and 26 in Calgary and Lethbridge respectively.
Before then, the Tigers have four games in five nights starting today in Calgary against the Hitmen. They’ll travel to Red Deer on Friday to face the Rebels before hosting the Hitmen on Saturday. On Sunday they’ll head to Calgary to finish up the three-in-three, their lone trio of games.
“All these games are going to be hard, every team is gonna be waiting for us and there’ll be no easy games, so we better be on top of it,” Desjardins said.
“It’ll be good to get it out early, it’s a tough stretch but it’s good to get it done.”
The Tigers are coming off a three-point weekend with an overtime win in Regina on Friday and an overtime loss in Brandon on Saturday. It was a weekend Desjardins liked.
“Three out of four is big, every team in our league is good, so it’s hard,’ Desjardins said. “Brandon has been on really good stretch, we outplayed them in the game, we just didn’t capitalize on some of our chances. We took some penalties too, they were five to our one. It’s hard when you go into another team’s building and have that many penalties. So I thought our effort was good.”
Tonight’s game in Calgary gets underway at 7 p.m. Saturday’s home game against the Hitmen will be the Tigers Fight Cancer night, with custom game-used lavender sticks to be auctioned off. A link to the auction site can be found on the Tigers’ website.
