Penticton Vees carry a ‘winning mindset’ from BCHL to the WHL

From BC to Western Canada, the Penticton Vees continue their success streak.

The South Okanagan squad will soon learn who they’ll face in the first round in their first-ever foray into Western Hockey League playoffs.

Head coach and GM Fred Harbinson is all business as he leads his team into the WHL post-season with a BCHL championship record behind him.

Harbinson started with the Vees in 2007 and quickly led the team into a series of championships, dominating the province’s top junior league for two decades. In 2025, they became the 23rd team in the WHL in the first expansion in almost 20 years.

He brought five players over from the previous season into the new league and, after a slow start, managed to break the Canadian Hockey League win record for an expansion team, then locked in the BC Division title before the season was over.

The Vees’ ability to carry on a successful run into the new season has sparked a flurry of attention, especially in the second half of the season.

If there’s a secret to Harbinson’s winning record, he attributes it to the professionalism of both the organization and the young roster, along with the high-standard held out for anyone joining the organization.

“I’ve been here 19 years and I think everybody has to have the same winning mindset when they work here,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re a trainer, an equipment manager or someone who sells tickets. If they do, it’s contagious. The players see it and everybody feels more proud about what they’re doing and accomplishing together.”

Harbinson said that not only means filling the roster with players that have skill but also those with “grit and worth ethic.”

The Vees came into the WHL in the same year the CHL made a massive rule change by removing a decades-long ban on NCAA eligibility. Before that, Canadian junior leagues like the BCHL were primary feeders to the American university system — a league where Harbinson and the Vees took home nine championships since 2008.

That move didn’t just give Harbinson an advantage, the move to the WHL might not have happened at all without it.

“We knew the days of getting top players to choose to come play in Penticton were over,” he said. “Before the rules changed, you had two different routes to the NHL. Some wanted to go to the CHL and some wanted to go the college route, and we could get some pretty big time names.”

Penticton boasts an alumni that includes players like Duncan Keith, Paul Kariya and Brett Hull, along with younger players like Dante Fabbro and Tyson Jost.

In a league facing an entirely new recruitment ecosystem, Penticton quickly became the story of the season.

According to longtime Kelowna Rockets broadcaster Regan Bartel, their real test is ahead of them.

“No one really remembers how good you were in the regular season. What they really remember is how good you were in the playoffs,” he said.

Bartel said expansion teams are frequently successful in the WHL, in part because the league wants new teams to establish themselves early. But Bartel said Harbinson’s record is nothing to scoff at.

“His track record speaks volumes with the teams he’s been able to assemble, and they’ve won. So, the fact (Harbinson) is doing it at a WHL level shouldn’t surprise a lot of people,” Bartel said.

The Kelowna play-by-play announcer said Penticton fans are “lucky” to be able to watch a team like the Vees, which picked up an almost entirely new roster in the 2025 expansion draft.

“Every guy on our team either was traded or left exposed in the expansion draft. You weren’t wanted, so to speak,” the Vees Harbinson said on a podcast this year.

He said the team played with a “chip on their shoulder” and wanted to prove themselves in the league, but Harbinson is leading the team with the same mentality.

The Vees picked up 22 established WHL players, putting together the oldest team in league history, but Harbinson said others shouldn’t use it to discount the squad.

“The landscape’s changed. When people want to scoff at what we’re doing and say, ‘Oh, well what about next year?’ Well, what about this year?” he said. “It’s a dumb topic because every year you’re going to gain players, you’re going to lose players, but I can assure you we are going to do our damndest to try to recover what we lose with other players.”

With 41 wins in 65 games, the Vees will finish the season in second place in their conference. They’ve proven themselves as a team that belongs in the WHL, but the real test will come at the end of the month.

It’s the post-season when the Vees will establish whether their first season is one the league will remember with the Everett Silvertips setting the gold standard for an expansion team in 2004. The Silvertips took home a Western Conference title against Kelowna before losing to Medicine Hat in the league finals.

“The WHL, over the years, have set up expansion teams to do quite well, so that’s essentially what happened,” Bartel said.

In coming years, the Vees may face a new challenge. Since Harbinson adopted an older roster, Penticton will have to rebuild the roster again.

He isn’t concerned about that yet.

“I know it’s a different league with the draft and everything, so you can’t discount the future, but what people are going to realize is there’s a difference now from what there was 12 months ago,” Harbinson said.

“And, I’ll say this, if the only reason we’re winning is because we’re older, then I’m going to build an old team every year because I like winning.”

But it’s also an area where the Vees may have an advantage. While CHL teams adapt to a new environment where players are eligible for the NCAA, the Vees have already established themselves with a network to scout talent from south of the border.

Hockey fans can catch the Vees take on the Rockets in the Battle of the Okanagan this week as they close out the season. They’ll play back-to-back games on March 20 and 21 before the playoffs begin at the end of the month.