Glacier Kings Open 2026-27 Season Against a Familiar Foe with a New Old Face Behind the Storm’s Bench

The Comox Valley Glacier Kings open their season Saturday at home against the Campbell River Storm, and whatever else happens, they’ll be doing it against a name that looms large over this rivalry. Lee Stone is back behind the Storm’s bench.

From 2013 to 2023, Stone was the longest-serving and winningest coach in Campbell River history, guiding the Storm to three VIJHL titles in a four-year stretch, in 2014-15, 2016-17, and 2017-18, and finishing his run with a 373-145 record, a .766 winning percentage. He was named VIJHL Coach of the Year twice, in 2014-15 and again in 2019-20, both times with Campbell River. That 2014-15 season was the best of his tenure, when the Storm won the VIJHL title, the BC provincial title, and the Keystone Cup as Western Canadian champions all in the same year, the only team in league history to pull that off. He left three years ago and spent this past season as associate coach and director of player development for the BCHL’s Coquitlam Express. Now he’s home. “CR’s home now,” Stone said of the decision to return, and he’s set the bar accordingly, saying flatly that he expects the Storm to be champions again by year’s end. His second stint with the Storm begins Saturday in Courtenay, against the Glacier Kings.

There’s a personal thread running through this reunion too, and it runs straight through the other bench. Curtis Toneff played for Campbell River before he ever coached anywhere, and when his playing career wound down, Stone brought him on as an assistant for that same unforgettable 2014-15 season, the treble-winning year. Toneff has a VIJHL championship ring, a BC provincial ring, and a Keystone Cup ring from that exact season, same as Stone. From there his path went its own way: an assistant job with the Trail Smoke Eaters, two seasons as head coach of the Nanaimo Buccaneers, a stint with the SJHL’s Humboldt Broncos, two years running the BCHL’s Merritt Centennials, a brief return to Nanaimo, and now his second full season in Comox Valley. Saturday is the first time the two of them will stand on opposite benches as rivals instead of side by side as champions.

It’s a fitting opponent for a comeback beyond the personal history, too. Campbell River has been the measuring stick for this rivalry for almost three decades. The Storm won the league title in their very first season back in 1998, then won it six more years in a row through 2004, seven straight championships to start a franchise’s life. They weren’t finished even after the streak ended, reaching the final two more years running, in 2005 and 2006, for nine consecutive VIJHL final appearances overall before finally coming back down to earth. Their most recent title in 2018 gives them 10 all-time, still the most in league history, and Comox Valley has felt that weight directly. In both 2002-03 and 2003-04, the Glacier Kings reached the Division Final only to be swept aside by the Storm both times. This is not a new fight, and now it has an old face back in charge of the other bench.

Stone pointed to a mix of new and returning pieces as reasons for optimism, including Koen Gauthier, a 40-point midseason pickup who split last season between Saanich and Nanaimo, point-a-game forward Ryder Tanner, returning veterans Ethan Hill and Jack Smith, and defensemen Brady Desharnais and Dublin McGuire, both of whom stood out at training camp.

For Comox Valley, this is about building on real momentum rather than starting over. Curtis Toneff enters his second full season as head coach and GM, having taken over partway through 2024-25 and then guiding a full campaign for the first time last year. It went about as well as a non-championship season can go. The Glacier Kings swept Oceanside Generals in the North Division semifinal, then opened the North final against Nanaimo with a 4-2 win, goaltender Ander Reyes turning aside 34 of 36 shots while Sheldon Alexander led the offence with a goal and two assists. Nanaimo eventually pulled the series in six games and went on to reach their own first-ever league final, but for a franchise that has won exactly one league championship in its history, back in 1995, a full season under a new coach that ends one round short of the final is a real building block.

Three Glacier Kings worth watching this season

Leon Mikhalchuk is the name to know up front. The Belarus-born forward is listed at 6-foot-5, still only 18, and put up 25 goals and 22 assists for 47 points in 46 games last season before adding four more points across the ten-game North final run. A big frame with genuine skill and a shot that already looks like it plays at a BCHL level is a rare combination at this level, and this is the kind of platform season that gets noticed.

Westin Churchill took a real step last year and looks ready to take another. After managing just 8 points as a 16-year-old rookie in 2024-25, the two-way center jumped to 33 points in 46 games last season, then got even better against Nanaimo in the playoffs, piling up 9 points in 10 games. He’s strong on the faceoff dot and has the hands to match, something he already showed this preseason. In Sunday’s 2-1 overtime win over Campbell River, fittingly the same team back in Courtenay this weekend, Churchill wrapped the puck around the post and in as the goaltender was sliding out of position, while also scoring the eventual over-time winner. He turns 18 in October.

Jace Parsons is the new face on the back end worth circling. The defenseman just turned 17 and joins the Glacier Kings after two seasons with the Okanagan Hockey Academy program, where he was named the CSSHL U17 AAA Most Sportsmanlike Player and won a U17 AAA championship two years ago, then moved up to the U17 Prep level last season. His numbers across every level tell the same story, an assist-heavy, playmaking defenseman who sees the ice well and moves the puck. Good skating and good vision from the blue line is exactly the kind of piece a young roster needs.

Puck drops Saturday, September 5 at 6:30 p.m. at the Comox Valley Sports Centre.