Rebels captain Ollie Josephson transferring to the NCAA

“My time in Red Deer is everything I could’ve hoped for in a WHL experience. The Rebels stand for hard work, character, and striving to be your best — on and off the ice. I’ll continue to carry these with me wherever I go.”

The 19-year-old from Victoria, B.C. is fresh off a 2024-25 campaign that saw him score 35 points in 48 games in his first season as captain.

He was selected by Red Deer fifth overall in the first round of the 2021 WHL Prospects Draft.

He played his first full season with the Rebels during the 2022-23 season where he notched 19 points in 63 games as a rookie followed by an improved sophomore campaign in 2023-24 where he contributed 47 points in 68 games.

That offseason, he was drafted by the Seattle Kraken in the fourth round, 105th overall in the 2024 NHL Draft. He has yet to be signed by the club.

“I am forever grateful to my billets Carrie-Anne and Steve who opened their home to me when I was 15 and will remain part of my family forever,” Josephson continued. “I’ve been lucky to play alongside some of the best teammates and even better people. The friendships and memories I’ve made through this team are lifelong.”

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Meantime for the Rebels, Josephson’s move leaves a hole in the lineup that will be hard to replace.

Not only have they lost a talented player, but also their leader.

Rebels owner, president, and general manager Brent Sutter said he was disappointed with how the move went down.

Sutter explained he had a lot of discussions with Josephson over the summer about the team, the coaching staff, and the brand-new state of the art dressing room in the Centrium.

“Never did he ever give me any indication that he was leaving and then, bang, you get the phone call. To be honest, I was completely caught off guard. I was shocked,” Sutter added.

Sutter also said he never received any communication from North Dakota, which he said is a frustrating reality for a lot of teams in the CHL.

“Everything is behind the scenes. Personally, I really felt like we were back-doored in this situation with no communication given to us,” Sutter said.

“It’s a new world we live in now.”

Josephson certainly isn’t the first big name player to leave the WHL for the NCAA this offseason, nor will he be the last.

The biggest news came out of Medicine Hat recently when the Tigers lost hockey phenom Gavin McKenna to Penn State University. The Tigers also lost Ryder Ritchie to Boston University and Cayden Lindstrom to Michigan State.

The Victoria Royals also lost arguably their best two players to North Dakota including Cole Reschny and Keaton Verhoeff.

“It is frustrating. We provide these players with everything, and Ollie seems to think it’ll be good for his development, but he’s going to go there and he won’t play the same minutes he played here,” Sutter said. “He was in a really great situation here where he could’ve played a lot of hockey. I’ve had other people call me in the hockey world that are blown away by this. They just don’t understand it.”

The Rebels will begin training camp during the last week of August before preseason games start Sept. 5.

by Ian Gustafson

Rebels captain Ollie Josephson transferring to the NCAA

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