Terik Parascak expects he’ll be back in the WHL this season playing for the Prince George Cougars and not in the NHL for the Washington Capitals, the team that drafted him 17th overall in 2024.

The Caps are deep in forward talent and Parascak’s still got some unfinished business in junior hockey before he moves on to the pros.

Winning a WHL championship with the Cougars is the top priority for the 19-year-old right winger and he just might have a team in Prince George capable of doing that, starting with their primary puck-stopper.

Cougars goalie Josh Ravensbergen, picked by San Jose 30th overall in this year’s NHL draft, was one of Parsacak’s teammates playing for Canada at the World Junior Summer Showcase tournament in Minneapolis, Min., July 29-Aug. 2, and that bodes well for the Cougars.

“He’s been awesome,” said Parascak. “We went to Minnesota together for the Team Canada camp and I got to watch him there and I thought he was exceptional. I thought he was the best goalie there. Maybe that’s biased coming from me, but he looked really good in that, and sharp.

“I’m just excited for the year with these guys and I hope to make another push.”

Parascak has never been involved with a Hockey Canada team and a return to Minnesota for him and Ravensbergen to play for the world junior squad would be his ultimate dream. He’s coming off a 28-goal, 82-point season as the Cougars’ second-leading scorer – a bit of dip from his amazing 105-point rookie season – but Parascak had some injuries to deal with that forced him to miss nine games in ’24-25.

The Cougars lost a good chunk of their scoring talent and leadership with the departure of Riley Heidt, Koehn Ziemmer, Borya Valis and William Kmec, and Parascak feels ready to step into that role. He anticipates another productive season, with so many talented forwards to mesh with on the ice.

“I just want to become more of a leader,” he said. “I had a couple years with some pretty good captains in the organization with (Hudson Thornton) the first year and Heidt last year,” he said. “Those guys are exceptional people and players I’ve been able to watch those guys to see what they’re like and learn from them.

“With the experience I have now, hopefully I can lead the way for some of the younger kids, especially with our team looking a bit younger this year, and I’m just excited for that opportunity.”

 

The Cougars’ camp last weekend (Aug. 27-31) included 82 players. With 36 players still around, the team has an abundance WHL-ready players in all positions and that makes it tough for the coaching staff to decide who stays and who will get sent elsewhere before the season opens Sept. 19 at CN Centre against the Portland Winterhawks.

“It’s a whole new team,” said Parascak. “That core they had with the ’05 draft class, that’s kind of the building block to turn the program around here and we did that with those guys and except for Bauer (defenceman Dumanski) there’s not a single guy left.

“If you look at our team we have so many good young players coming in and it’s exciting to see. We’ve got lots of depth up front, lots of depth on the back end and we’ve got (Ravenbergen) in net.”

Parascak has been closely following the progress of defenceman Carson Carels, one of Canada’s top defencemen in the Hlinka Gretzky Cup tournament last month, and can’t get over how fast the 17-year-old sophomore has adjusted to role as the Cougars’ offensive catalyst.

“There’s no one else like him, he’s such an exceptional kid and such a good guy to hang out with and be with and the on-ice stuff speaks for itself, he’s a special talent” said Parascak.

“He rounded out his game really well last  year on the defensive side of it and he’s going to keep getting better and better.”

Parascak spent the summer in Calgary working out on and off the ice with NHL pros Morgan Geekie, Dylan Holloway and Jake Debrusk, and that kept his workouts intense. He’s played on the elite scorers his entire career in Prince George, including Heidt, Ondrej Becher and Zach Funk and now feels ready to be the guy to push the pace on offence.

He said Cougar fans are in for a treat watching the team play this season.

“We’re all excited, there’s a lot of new faces in that room, a lot of new energy and some young talent coming in and were pumped for the year, it should be a great one,” said Parascak.

Parascak and the Cougars will head to Hinton this weekend to start their WHL preseason against the Edmonton Oil Kings. The teams meet Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at noon.

He leaves for his second Capitals’ training camp early next week. The rookie camp runs from Sept. 12-15 in Annapolis, Md., and players will be on the ice three of the four days, leading to the NHL camp that starts Sept. 18.

Washington open its preseason schedule Sept. 21 in Boston against the Bruins. They’ll also play an exhibition road game against the Philadelphia Flyers, Sept. 25 , and a return date with the Bruins in Washington, Oct. 2. They open the NHL season at home Oct. 8 against Boston.