Bryce Pickford Wins Bill Hunter Memorial Trophy With 45 Goals
bryce pickford won the Bill Hunter Memorial Trophy as the WHL Defenceman of the Year for 2025-26, giving the Medicine Hat Tigers captain a major individual award after a season built on offense as much as control. At 20, the Chauvin, Alta. native became only the third player in Tigers history to earn the honor.
Pickford finished with 83 points and a plus-55 rating in 55 games, and his 45 goals were the most by a WHL defenceman in a single season since Greg Hawgood scored 48 in 1987-88. He also tied for second among all WHL skaters in goals and led WHL defencemen in points behind Jonas Woo, who finished with 86.
Medicine Hat Tigers history
The award puts Pickford beside two other Tigers winners: Wayne McBean, who took the trophy in 1986-87, and Kris Russell, who won it in 2005-06 and 2006-07. The trophy goes to the league’s defenceman with the best all-around ability over the regular season, and Pickford’s numbers made the case on both ends of the ice.
He added 19 power-play goals to lead the WHL, and his 11 game-winning goals tied for the league lead. Pickford also stacked up three hat tricks, one five-point outing and two four-point performances while helping Medicine Hat claim a second consecutive Central Division crown.
Pickford’s season run
The scoring pace never really settled down. Pickford put together a 15-game point streak from November 28, 2025, through January 10, 2026, a stretch in which he collected 36 points. He also had two separate eight-game goal streaks, including one from December 3, 2025, through December 28, 2025, and another from February 21, 2026, to March 7, 2026.
That production came with more than one milestone attached. Pickford signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Montreal Canadiens on December 24, 2025, while leading the WHL with 25 goals in 31 games, and he entered this award race as a Canadiens prospect after being selected in the third round, 81st overall, in the 2025 NHL Draft.
Canadiens prospect profile
Pickford’s 2025-26 season now sits next to a broader junior resume that already includes a WHL title with Medicine Hat in 2025 and an Ed Chynoweth Cup with the Seattle Thunderbirds in 2023. Across 224 WHL regular-season games, he has 165 points with 73 goals and 92 assists, plus 39 points in 58 playoff games.
The Tigers can point to another elite season from a defenseman, but the real takeaway is the scale of the scoring. Forty-five goals from the blue line is not a routine award case; it is the sort of total that forces a second look at how Pickford drove Medicine Hat’s season and why he is already tracked as more than a junior scorer.
