Home is where the hot start hopes to be for the Vernon Vipers.
The B.C. Hockey League team has released its 2025-26 regular-season schedule, which will see the Snakes play six of its first seven games at Kal Tire Place against three opponents.
The Vipers will play opening night Friday, Sept. 19, against the Trail Smoke Eaters, followed by a home date Saturday, Sept. 20, against the Cranbrook Bucks. Those two teams return the following weekend, Sept. 26 and 27, with Trail in town Friday, and Cranbrook Saturday.
Vernon will play its first road contest Tuesday, Sept. 30, in West 琉璃神社 against the Warriors, before returning home for a weekend doubleheader with the Sherwood Park Crusaders, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 3 and 4, at Kal Tire Place.
Friday night home games for the Vipers will start at 7 p.m., and Saturday games at the Garage will begin at 6 p.m.
The defending Fred Page Cup playoff champion Brooks Bandits will play in Vernon twice, both on Wednesday evenings, Dec. 10 and March 25, at 7 p.m. The Vipers' lone afternoon home contest is Family Day Monday, Feb. 16, with a 2 p.m. date against the Nanaimo Clippers.
Vernon will have a pair of season-long five-game road trips.
The regular season ends March 29.
The league has lost the Penticton franchise for 2025-26 with the Vees making the jump to the Western Hockey League, and the Chilliwack Chiefs expected to follow suit in 2026-27.
There are 20 teams left resulting two conferences and four, five-team divisions. The Vipers are in the Interior Conference West with the Warriors, Salmon Arm SilverBacks, Smoke Eaters and Bucks. Interior East is a five-team all-Alberta roster including Brooks, Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove Saints, Okotoks Oilers, and Blackfalds Bulldogs.
The Coastal Conference West includes the four Vancouver Island teams 鈥� Victoria Grizzies, Cowichan Valley Capitals, Clippers, and Alberni Valley Bulldogs, and the Sunshine Coast's Powell River Kings. Coastal East includes the Prince George Spruce Kings, Surrey Eagles, Langley Rivermen, Chiefs, and Coquitlam Express.
Top four teams in each division advance to the playoffs.
NHL development camps
Five former Vipers were among 83 ex-BCHL players invited to development camps of NHL franchises.
Camp rosters are made up of draft picks, signees and invited players. A total of 29 of the 31 teams that made their rosters public included at least one BCHL player.
The Dallas Stars and Toronto Maple Leafs each featured nine players from the league, which was the most of any team. Former Vipers defenceman Trey Taylor took part in the Stars' camp.
The Florida Panthers and Montreal Canadiens were next with five apiece. Shea Busch attended the Florida camp while Cooper Cleaves was at the Habs' camp.
Cleaves' brother, Hank Cleaves, attended the New York Rangers camp, and Dylan Compton was at the camp hosted by the Seattle Kraken.
Former Viper named AHL head coach
Former Vernon forward Andrew Lord is the new head coach of the American Hockey League's Ontario Reign, the top farm team of the NHL's Los Angeles Kings, based in Ontario, Cal.
Lord leaves the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
鈥淚t is with mixed emotions that I have decided to leave the Mooseheads. Excited for the opportunity to become a head coach in the American Hockey League and to return to an organization that treated me very well during my time in Greenville and it鈥檚 one step closer to the ultimate goal of coaching in the NHL,鈥� Lord said.
鈥淎t the same time, it鈥檚 tough to leave Halifax. I love the city and the fans, and I love what we started to build this past season as a team."
Lord was named head coach of the Halifax Mooseheads on June 14, 2024 and went on to lead the young, rebuilding club to a 19-35-8-2 record and the final playoff berth in the QMJHL. The Mooseheads became the first 16th seed in QMJHL history to win a playoff series with a seven-game upset victory over the defending Gilles-Courteau Trophy Champion Drummondville Voltigeurs.
Halifax was swept by Rouyn-Noranda in four games in the second round of the playoffs.
Lord, from West Vancouver, began his BCHL career with the Burnaby Bulldogs in 2001-02. He was acquired by the Vipers for the 2002-03 season, helping the team win the Fred Page Cup before falling in six games to the Alberta champion Camrose Kodiaks in the Doyle Cup series. Camrose lost the 2003 Royal Bank Cup final to the Humboldt Broncos.
In two full seasons with the Vipers, Lord appeared in 112 regular season games, scoring 28 goals and adding 50 assists for 78 points. He secured a scholarship to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he played four seasons, before embarking on a minor pro career split between the AHL and East Coast Hockey League. His playing career finished in the English pro league with the Cardiff Devils.