The 2018 Memorial Cup Field

In one day, the Memorial Cup field went from just the host team to now having all four participants figured out. A trio of game 6 series was all it took, and beginning Friday, the Memorial Cup tournament to determine this year's best major junior squad will begin with a round robin. Let's meet the teams that will hope to hoist the Memorial Cup.

The Regina Pats are the host team in the 100th year of major junior hockey. Coincidentally, this is also the 100th year that the Pats have been in existence. The Queen City inhabitants are named after Princess Patricia, a descendent of Queen Victoria, and are known to have the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) unit patch on their sweaters. The team itself finished third in their division, were beaten in seven games in the opening round to eventual WHL champion Swift Current. Their key players to watch include Sam Steel, Jesse Gabrielle, and Libor Hajek.

The Swift Current Broncos are the reigning WHL champions, having beaten Regina, Moose Jaw, Lethbridge, and Everett en route to the title and a date east of town. The Broncos will be in their third Memorial Cup tournament in their history, having won in 1989 and losing out on the round-robin tie breaker in 1993. Key players to watch include Glenn Gawdin, Matteo Gennaro, Giorgio Estephan, Aleksi Heponiemi, and Stuart Skinner. Despite their status as a small market team in southwestern Saskatchewan, the Broncos are not the smallest market team in the tournament. That honor goes to...

The Acadie-Bathurst Titan are a team in northern New Brunswick, and play in a town with just over 12,000 people, about 4,000 less than Swift Current. The team has endured various threats of being moved, with their most recent trouble in 2009. They are the QMJHL champions by virtue of beating Chicoutimi, Sherbrooke, Victoriaville, and Blainville-Boisbriand. Key players to watch include Samuel L'Italien, German Rubtsov, Evan Fitzpatrick, and Noah Dobson.

Technically the youngest franchise in the tournament, the Hamilton Bulldogs were formed in 2015 after the original Belleville Bulls were relocated in 2015. The current incarnation of the Bulldogs replaced the AHL version of the Bulldogs in that time. They became the OHL champions by beating Ottawa, Niagara, Kingston, and Sault Ste. Marie. The team is led by Robert Thomas, and also features Will Bitten, Matthew Strome, and Kaden Fulcher.

So, how do I think this tournament will play out? Despite being eliminated in the first round of the WHL playoffs, Regina still has some pieces to become the second straight host team to take home the Memorial Cup tournament. Swift Current has possibly the most key pieces to win it all, and certainly, they have the best offense and hottest goaltender of the teams remaining. Acadie-Bathurst has some really good players and Dobson is an X-factor heading into his NHL Draft year while Hamilton has proven people wrong this year time and time again, beating a Sault Ste. Marie team that was widely thought to be the favorite to represent the OHL. Prediction? I think Swift Current walks away with the Memorial Cup trophy in a hard fought battle with Hamilton.