Photo Courtesy EGP Staff

By Tanner Smith

"Just keep plugging away"

Grande Prairie Storm taking “it one game at a time” in 2026

Jan 2, 2026 | 2:11 PM

The Grande Prairie Storm kick off the back half of the season on the road tonight (Friday, Dec. 2).

The Storm currently sit at fourth in the North Division, eight points back of division-leading Whitecourt, much different from a year ago (2024-2025), when they were leading the division coming out of the break.

According to head coach Chris Schmidt, the team didn’t end up “getting the best start,” as through their first 20 games they were 9-10-1, but feels they have been turning things around recently.

“I feel like the last four to six weeks, our games been good. We’ve done a lot of good things, and then we’ve picked up more points because of that, so we put ourselves in a playoff position right now, and then obviously, it’s a big 25 games left to go, and everybody’s kind of in it in the North. It’s a tough, tough division this year.”

Schmidt says the message in the room right now is “take it one game at a time,” after going 8-2-0 over their last ten to end the year.

“You know, it helps the guys kind of believe that if you do the right things, play the right way, it will pay off. So, yeah, that’s just kind of the message, play that one, then you move on to the next game.”

“That’s kind of how we approach the season, so for us, it’s Bonnyville-Lloyd this weekend, and then after that, we’ll move on. Just keep plugging away, doing the right things, and hopefully the points will come.”

After a back-to-back this weekend, the Storm will return to Bonnett’s for their first home game in almost a month, as they have a triple header against the Fort McMurrary Oil Barons, starting on Thursday, Jan. 8.

This will be the first time some fans see a few new additions for the Storm, as a few transactions were made before the holidays, including the acquisition of Sexsmith-born netminder Hudson Perry.

However, Schmidt adds that a lot of roster movement is the “nature of junior hockey,” and they will continue to put a focus on local talent; “We just lost a couple of defence to the Western Hockey League, so obviously we’ll be looking for another couple of defencemen. There’s always movement, it’s just kind of the nature of junior hockey. Anytime (a local player), for example, when Hudson Perry became available, he was in Brandon, and then it didn’t work out there, so we jumped at the chance to bring him in.”

“Unfortunately, that kind of pushed another local out, but again, that’s kind of the nature of the business.”

Schmidt says that the hope moving forward is to add a couple local kids each year, and mentioned La Crete-born rookies, Cole Penner and Rydley Gerbrandt, who spent last season in the NWJHL with the La Crete Lumber Barons, and now are “gelling well with the team.”

Currently, five players listed on the Storm’s roster are from the Peace region, with head coach Chris Schmidt and assistants Brandon Wells and Chris MacTaggart also from the area.

In 2025, the Storm unveiled two new jerseys, one paying homage to the Grande Prairie Athletic’s and another third alternate, sent three players to USPORTS, and had another three players represent Team Canada West at the World Junior A Challenge.

GP will now take on Bonnyville tonight and then Lloydminster tomorrow; both games will start at 7 p.m.