Season 12 will begin on Boxing Day and all GMs are expected to get lines in to Trent before the season starts.

And here's to a happy and safe holiday for everyone in the WCHL. Enjoy!

Click "read more" to see the contract demands of the UFAs.

The ten-day Free Agency period begins on Saturday (here is the Free Agents List) and we're looking at some interesting names on the free agent market looking for the right fit with prospective teams. With the new RFA compensation system a number of RFAs who would never have been given offer sheets in prior year are now in play as well. Here's the top ten UFAs available in this year's free agency period.

The finals in each conference are set and in both we find teams that have been on the cusp of success in the past and teams that have been Cinderella stories so far. With the number of upsets we've seen so far, it's anyone's guess who will win advance to the Finals, but one thing is for certain: We will have a first-time winner of the WCHL Cup this season.

In what surely will go down as one of the biggest surprises of this WCHL season, the Vancouver Canucks absolutely had their way with the defending champion Anaheim Ducks in 4 games. It wasn't just that this was an upset, or a sweep, it was how soundly the Ducks were beaten. After a close game one, the Ducks folded like a cheap suit in game two's 5-1 loss. The Canucks then went home with a surprising 2-0 lead and were fired up going into game three. On the other hand Anaheim seemed deflated and put up a lackluster performance. The result was the most lopsided game of these playoffs: a 7-0 drubbing. Then last night down 2-0 going into the 3rd, the Ducks finally showed a bit of life, scoring two goals in the first 7 minutes. It wasn't enough though. Daniel Alfredsson would pot the winner 40 seconds into OT to give the Canucks a TKO.

This has to be seen as a disappointment for everyone in Anaheim. The defending champs didn't show much desire to win throughout this playoffs and one has to wonder if Coach Pete DeBoer or GM Watt will take responsibility for this one.

The Canucks will now await the winner of the Calgary-Colorado series which sits at 3-1 for Calgary.

The first round saw 3 lower seeds advance with a chance to follow in the Bruins Season 10 footsteps as a Cinderella team. The Ducks and Rangers are the clear cut favourites to meet in the finals if only they aren't lulled to sleep by weak opponents in this round. Here is the preview of all four WCHL playoff series.

Only two series will go to 7 games in this first round of the WCHL playoffs. We've already seen one huge upset in the East and we're looking at a second one if the Sabres don't blow a 3-1 lead.

The story in the first two nights of the WCHL playoffs has been the number of overtime games that have taken place. 7 of the 16 games needed extra time to be decided and if this continues throughout the playoffs then cardiac wards across the continent should be seeing an upswing in fans needing assistance.

It's almost unfair that 4 of these teams will be eliminated so soon. The quality in the Eastern Conference is as good as ever and it'll take a team at the top of their game to make it through this bracket. There are a number of teams that have been on the precipice of success and are looking to take that step towards a WCHL championship.

Round One of the WCHL Season 11 Playoffs features some intriguing matchups in the Western Conference. The WCHL defending champs are looking at an easy start while some intriguing rematches from last year's playoffs means some renewed rivalries and bad blood could be in store.

The trading deadline is on September 21st at Midnight (EST). All deals must be posted and accepted by both GMs before the deadline for the trade to be valid.

With the trade deadline days away, this Power Ranking is a reflection of the teams making a big move for the playoffs. Pittsburgh maintains its top spot and some familiar names sit close to the top. The race in the West is heating up and based on these rankings it looks like Chicago and Edmonton might be in the drivers seat. This is the final Power Ranking of the regular season and the next Power Ranking will be a playoff preview.

The 6th Edition of Season 11's Power Rankings sees another team from Pennsylvania at the top and some other teams who are coming on strong with final pushes just in time for the playoff race. With the trade deadline around the corner, the big swings in the power rankings might force some GMs to give a second thought about whether they're buyers or sellers over the next few weeks.

Welcome to the new home of the WCHL.

It's still a work in progress and we will hopefully be adding new elements in the offseason as well as updating some areas of the site, such as the Rules section and the GM Bios. This new site will be a lot easier to manage, update and add content to as well as allow you to comment on news and updates. Furthermore, everything posted to the site will be archived, so you can go back and look at old news, power rankings, etc. We can also categorize all the news as well. Both of these features can be found on the right sidebar. The site is also RSS and Atom compliant so if you use those you'll be able to get instant updates when the site gets updated. Overall, it'll be a huge improvement over the makeshift site we had before.

Currently the website will redirect from the www.wchlhockey.com address to this blogspot one. We're sorting out how to make this site use the old address, but in the meantime we hope you're not too annoyed by the quick redirect. The site also might not work for you if you use Internet Explorer 6.0 or older. The newest version of Explorer (as well as many other popular browsers) works perfectly with the site though.

Also if you find anything that needs fixing or have any ideas for the site please let me know. If you want to help by writing articles, doing GM interviews or in any way that you'd like to contribute feel free to do so by getting in touch with Jim or Trent. Every little bit helps.

Enjoy!