The Vancouver Canucks now have two prospects slated to play in the Memorial Cup national championships in Kelowna starting May 22. Winger Gabriel Chiarot's Kitchener Rangers outlasted the Barrie Colts 4-2 on the road Tuesday night to sweep the best-of-seven OHL final and earn a spot in the four-team Canadian Major Junior tournament.
Chiarot, 19, was Vancouver's sixth rounder in last summer's draft and scored a goal Tuesday, marking his fourth point of the finals (2-2) and upping his postseason total to five goals and 11 points in 18 games. He's a team-best plus-14 in the playoffs so far.
Chiarot joins Parker Alcos, the 19-year-old chosen by the Canucks in the sixth round of the 2024 draft. He's a rearguard on the Kelowna Rockets. Vancouver top prospect Braeden Cootes also remains in the mix for a trip to Kelowna. Cootes, 19, a centre who was Vancouver's first rounder (No. 15 overall) last summer, is part of the Prince Albert Raider team currently trailing the Everett Silvertips 2-1 heading into Game 4 of the best-of-seven WHL finals Wednesday night in Prince Albert.
Chiarot has already signed his three-year, entry-level contract with Vancouver, inking the deal after training camp in September. It's unusual that someone drafted that late signs that early. Kitchener, meanwhile, had designs on a playoff run heading into the year and Chiarot was one of their key midseason additions, sending eight OHL Draft selections and the rights to University of Michigan forward Adam Valenti to the Brampton Steelheads in late December to acquire him.
The 5-foot-11, 191-pound Chiarot bills himself as a power forward, and Mike Komisarek of the Canucks player development department told Postmedia at the start of the playoffs 'he's the type of guy you want to have at this time of year, with the grit, the heart, the work rate, the wanting to be hard to play against.'
Chiarot posted five goals and 11 points in 31 regular season games with Kitchener, following 15 goal and 25 points in 31 games with Brampton. He put up 21 goals and 35 points in 66 regular season games with Brampton in 2024-25.
Kitchener also added centre Sam O'Reilly, 20, and defenceman Jared Woolley, 20 from the London Knights at the January trade deadline from the then two-time defending league champion London Knights, sending 10 draft picks and defenceman Jacob Xu in return. O'Reilly was named both regular season and playoff most valuable player in the league.
Kitchener (47-14-5-2) won the OHL's Western Conference regular season pennant and had the league's second-best record behind the Brantford Bulldogs (48-10-8-2), the club featured Caleb Malhotra, 17, the son of Abbotsford Canucks coach Manny Malhotra projected to be an early selection in June's draft.
Barrie (45-14-5-4), who had the circuit's fourth-best regular season, beat Brantford in seven games in the Eastern final. Kitchener opened the playoffs with a sweep of the Saginaw Spirit (26-34-4-4) followed by five-game wins over the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (39-23-1-5) and Windsor Spitfires (44-15-6-3) before taking out Barrie.
Chiarot is part of a Kitchener penalty-kill unit that worked an 88.7 per cent clip (seven goals against, 62 times short) in the OHL Playoffs. Chiarot had two of their six shorthanded goals.
As for Alcos, Kelowna (38-21-6-3) had the WHL's seventh-best regular season record and they've been idle since April 17 after losing to Everett in five games in the second round. They'll have been idle 35 days when they meet Kitchener in Memorial Cup opener on May 22.
They're trying to become the third host team in five years to win the Memorial Cup. Saginaw won in 2024 after going to the OHL final. The Saint John Sea Dogs won in 2022 after losing in the QMJHL first round. They were idle for 39 days.
The Rockets added Alcos at the January trade deadline in a swap with the Edmonton Oil Kings. Five draft picks exchanged hands in the deal, most notably Edmonton receiving Kelowna's 2026 CHL Import first rounder and a WHL 2027 second rounder.
The 6-foot-4, 186-pound Alcos had five goals and 30 points in 63 regular season games split between the two teams. He had four assists in Kelowna's sweep of the Kamloops Blazers and loss to the Silvertips.
Alcos hasn't inked his entry-level deal with the Canucks but they now hold onto his rights until 2028 since he's committed to play in the NCAA ranks next season for the Quinnipiac University Bobcats.
Everett (57-8-2-1) had the WHL's best record in the regular season. Prince Albert (52-10-5-1) was second. Prince Albert beat the Red Deer Rebels (26-36-4-2) in five games, swept the Saskatoon Blades (34-27-5-2) and beat the Medicine Hat Tigers (50-10-5-3) in six en route to facing Everett.
The 6-foot, 183-pound Cootes carried seven goals and 22 points in 18 playoff games into Wednesday night. He came over to Prince Albert in a trade deadline blockbuster with the Seattle Thunderbirds and amassed 24 goals and 63 points in 45 regular season games combined with the two teams.
Seattle landed four players and four WHL draft picks, including two first rounders, in the swap. Prince Albert added three draft picks in the move as well.
