You can add another major sporting event to the growing list of activities taking place in Red Deer over the next three years.

It was announced Wednesday that the WHL awards, held on May 2nd, as well as the WHL bantam hockey draft will take place in Red Deer, who is already preparing for the 2019 Canada Winter Games, was recently named the new host city for the Canadian Finals Rodeo, and hosted the Memorial cup back in 2016.

Commissioner of the WHL Ron Robison says Red Deer has been priming themselves for major hockey events like this for years.

“This community deserves these type of events based on the tremendous success, based on the 2016 Mastercard Memorial Cup where they really raised the bar and demonstrated to us, both in the Western Hockey League and the Canadian Hockey League, that this was a special community who had tremendous support for hockey, and we see that through the Rebels fan base. But the community support and sponsorship is at levels that we are really excited about.”

Mayor Tara Veer and Hockey Alberta were also on hand, who hinted at the possibility of also bringing the Alberta Cup to Red Deer sometime in the future.

CEO of Hockey Alberta Rob Litwinski says it’s fitting for these events to be close together, as the WHL has always been full of Hockey Alberta players.

“It’s a pretty neat synergy for us, we are proud of the numbers of players that end of being in the Western Hockey League from Alberta, so for us it’s kind of top of mind the fact that we could have our Alberta Cup potentially, and then after that a few days later have the draft. So that’s an excellent opportunity, excellent synergy, and we are looking forward to piecing that together with the Western Hockey League.”

The Alberta Cup features eight teams of the province's top bantam players, and they would look at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre as the host venue.

Mayor Veer said a future hockey festival spanning a few days to a few weeks could also be in the city's future.