Saginaw Spirit to host 2024 Memorial Cup

The Ontario Hockey League has announced that the Saginaw Spirit will host the 2024 Memorial Cup at the Dow Event Center.

As a result, Saginaw has earned an automatic berth into the CHL’s 2024 championship series. Niagara, Sault Ste. Marie and Kingston were the other finalists to host the tournament.

The tournament will take place next May. Champions from the three CHL leagues will earn a berth to the Memorial Cup, with the Spirit holding the other spot. If they end up winning the OHL championship, the team they beat in the final will earn a spot in the national championship as well.

Saginaw finished the regular season in third in the West Division and will play Flint in an all-Michigan playoff series starting on Thursday. Saginaw has never made it to the Memorial Cup, and is the first American team to host the event since Spokane in 1998. American CHL teams have won the Memorial Cup four times, with Spokane being the last to do so in 2008.

Considered to be one of the top prospects for the 2025 NHL Draft, Michael Misa headlines a Saginaw squad that will look to go for it all next year. Taken first overall at the 2022 OHL Draft after earning exceptional status, Misa broke the OHL Cup scoring record last year that was held by Connor McDavid for a decade. Misa, 16, had 22 goals and 56 points in 45 games as a rookie this season, tying Vegas Golden Knights prospect Matyas Sapovaliv for the team’s scoring lead.

“We are thrilled to bring the Memorial Cup to the state of Michigan for the first time in the event’s history,” CHL president Dan MacKenzie said ina statement. “The Spirit and City of Saginaw submitted a remarkable bid and we have no doubt that they will do an outstanding job of hosting our CHL championship next year.”

The Memorial Cup host rotates around the three CHL leagues every few years. Kelowna was supposed to host the 2020 tournament, but COVID-19 cancelled that and the 2021 edition. The tournament returned to Saint John last year, with Kamloops set to host the 2023 edition in May.

The host team has won the Memorial Cup just twice over the past decade: Windsor in 2017 and Saint John last year. Hosts teams have won the tournament a total of 11 times, including Sault Ste. Marie in 1993.