Daxon Rudolph and Max Hildebrand were named to a total of five of the nine league awards. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Nick Nielsen

League Honours

Rudolph and Hildebrand up for multiple league awards

Apr 16, 2025 | 1:20 PM

The WHL announced their nominees for league awards last week as the playoffs began, and two Prince Albert Raiders are up for five of the nine awards. Raiders rookie Daxon Rudolph is up for two awards this season, and 20-year-old goaltender Max Hildebrand is in the running for three.

Starting with Hildebrand, the Raiders goaltender led the league in games played, minutes played, shots faced, and saves made and on top of that, he managed the second-best save percentage in the league at 0.918 behind a goaltender who played 32 fewer games. Earlier this postseason, he was named as an Eastern Conference first-team All-Star in the WHL.

As a result, Hildebrand has been named as one of the finalists for the Del Wilson Memorial Trophy for Goaltender of the Year in the WHL. In net, Hildebrand posted career highs in wins (33), goals against average (2.87), save percentage (0.918), and shutouts (3) during his final year. Hildbrand was also named WHL Goaltender of the Week three separate times during the regular season.

Also nominated for Goaltender of the Year are Daniel Hauser of the Calgary Hitmen, Carson Bjarnason of the Brandon Wheat Kings, Scott Razlaff of the Seattle Thunderbirds, Joshua Ravensbergen of the Prince George Cougars, and Dawson Cowan of the Spokane Chiefs.

On top of the goaltender of the year award nomination, Hildebrand is also up for the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy for Player of the Year, essentially the league MVP award. Hildebrand is the only nominee out of six who is not a forward. The other player of the year nominees are Medicine Hat Tigers forward Gavin McKenna, Calgary Hitmen forward Oliver Tulk, Spokane Chiefs forwards Andrew Cristall and Berkly Catton, and Portland Winterhawks forward Kyle Chyzowski.

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Finally, Hildebrand is also nominated for the Doug Wickenheiser Memorial Trophy as the Humanitarian of the Year. The Raiders goaltender not only led his team in the amount of hours spent in the community this year with trips to the SPCA, the Food Bank, school visits, and more, but he also was a part of a number of unique initiatives.

Earlier this year, Hildebrand got a custom pair of shoes designed with elements of his pads designed onto the shoe, and the shoes were raffled off. With the money collected, Hildebrand donated 34 pairs of shoes to kids in need at the Princess Margaret School in Prince Albert.

Other Humanitarian award nominees are Evan Gardner of the Saskatoon Blades, Shane Smith of the Lethbridge Hurricanes, Riley Heidt of the Prince George Cougars, Kyle McDonough of the Portland Winterhawks, and Prince Albert local and member of the Victoria Royals, Jayden Kraus.

Now to Daxon Rudolph, the Raiders’ first overall pick from the 2023 WHL Draft was named the team’s rookie of the year this season, and he’ll have a chance at that same award at the league level. Along with his regular season total of 7G-34A-41P in his first year from the blue line, Rudolph also helped Team Canada White to a gold medal at the 2024 U17 World Challenge, and put up a 12-game point streak through the month of January that saw him pot two goals and 13 assists.

Rudolph is nominated against Edmonton’s Lukas Sawchyn, Saskatoon’s Cooper Williams, Everett’s Landon DuPont, Vancouver’s Ryan Lin, and Victoria’s Keaton Verhoeff.

Along with the rookie of the year honours, Rudolph is also up for the Daryl K. Seaman Memorial Trophy as the Scholastic Player of the Year. Along with the high level of play from Rudolph this year, he has been excelling in his scholastic pursuits with averages of 91% in Calculus, 91% in Social Studies, and 92% in Health Sciences.

Also nominated for the Scholastic Award are Luke Vlooswyk of the Red Deer Rebels, Logan Edmonstone of the Kamloops Blazers, and Max Curran of the Tri-City Americans.

Awards start getting announced on April 22.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com