
The Belfast Giants lead the way in the Elite League, with netminder Jackson Whistle essential to their title bid.
The 29-year-old, who holds an 11-2-1 record on the season, is playing some of the best hockey of his career and holds a smoky .926 save percentage as a result.
Speaking to British Ice Hockey on Friday [24 January] afternoon, Whistle previewed the Giants’ upcoming opponents and looked ahead to the 2025 IIHF Division 1A World Championship.
Here is every word the Team GB star said.
Jackson Whistle: Continental Cup win will help the Cardiff Devils
The Giants are top of the Elite League after recording five wins in-a-row – how is the mood in the camp at the moment?
It’s what we set out to do at the start of the year – you always want to be at the top of the table. We’re happy with our performances so far and just want to keep that going. There’s still a lot of hockey left in the season and a lot of teams who want to win the title. It’s great that we won our last five, but we’ve now got to win the next five or ten and put some more runs together. Hopefully, we’ll come out on top at the end of the season.
It feels like there are more teams actively involved in the title race this year – how does the quality of the league compare to previous seasons?
I mean, you look at the four or five teams up there and they’re all pretty close to each other. They all play each other quite a few times down the stretch and that’s exciting for the league itself. In my view, the league has improved year after year and continues to get stronger and stronger all the time. It’s happening now and I think it’ll continue to improve more in the future.
You’re in brilliant form at the minute, with eight wins and two defeats in your last ten appearances – how much confidence does that give you?

Jackson Whistle, Belfast Giants (Image: William Cherry)
Belfast Giants’ Jackson Whistle during Sunday’s Elite Ice Hockey League game at the SSE Arena, Belfast. Photo by William Cherry/Presseye
It’s positive – but I’m just taking it day by day and doing my job, whether I’m playing or backing-up. Obviously, the season is going quite well for me in terms of wins in the regular-season and Challenge Cup and, at the end of the day, it feels good to get into that form and be able to contribute to the points for our team. It’s a good feeling, but the job is not done and there’s a lot of hockey left here. I’m just looking forward to the challenges ahead.
With the Coventry Blaze and Cardiff Devils next on the schedule, what are you expecting ahead of this weekend’s double-header?
I don’t know how to say this, but Coventry are a team that took a few of us by surprise at the start of the year. They’ve beaten us twice already and stole a game in our building, too. It’s a big game for us, we need to make sure that we’re ready to go, and we’re hoping that they’re able to get over here with the storm in Belfast. They have talented offensive players and we’ll look at everything, in terms of what to expect from them, tomorrow morning.
After that, we have the game on Sunday in Cardiff – which is a tough place to play. We’re looking forward to the challenge and we had success against them earlier in the year. But they’re a good team and they’re coming off the feeling of winning the Continental Cup. We’re excited for the chance to play them.
The Devils were away from the Elite League last week, playing against different opponents and winning the Continental Cup – how will that affect them heading into Sunday’s showdown?
I think it’ll help them. Speaking from our experience, when you win a trophy, you get a taste for what it’s like to win and immediately want more of it. They had the chance to win the Continental Cup at home and they’re going to be thinking about the fact that they want to keep winning more. It’ll definitely help them, but we’re looking forward to going in there and trying to steal one.
It’s always an intense atmosphere in Cardiff – does that make playing there more of a challenge as the away team?
Maybe a little bit, but I find it exciting when the atmosphere is like that. Cardiff is a smaller rink, but it’s always packed out and the fans are right on top of you. I look at it as a mini challenge and, if I get the nod to play that game, I’m looking forward to playing in that atmosphere against them.
The Challenge Cup is your first opportunity to win silverware this season, with the Nottingham Panthers up next in the semi-finals. What do you make of the fact that you’re able to pick your opponent in this competition?
I don’t think the players had a whole lot of choice over it, the team just makes that decision. But, at the end of the day, you’re going to have to beat good teams if you ever want to win a trophy. It doesn’t really matter whether you play Nottingham, Sheffield, or Cardiff in the semi-finals – you’ve got to go in there and do a good job. It’s weird because you’re so focused on the league and then have to switch over to Challenge Cup-mode. Like I said before, Nottingham are a good team this year – their goalies are playing really well and they’ve got a strong offence. It’ll be a challenge, we’re just going to look forward to the opportunity to hopefully have a Challenge Cup final at home [as the top seed].
Lastly – how are you feeling ahead of the IIHF World Championship in April? It’s an important tournament for Team GB…

Jackson Whistle, Team GB (Image: Dean Woolley)
It’s a little bit different because we haven’t done anything midseason with the guys yet. We talk to one another during the season, just along the lines of ‘see you in April’ and that kind of thing. I’m looking forward to it. It’s a little bit of a different mindset versus the last tournament because we have to go in there and win it. We’ve done that twice before and we saw how much we’d improved from being in the top division when we played the second division tournament in Nottingham last time. There are some good teams in there, trying to do the same thing as us. I’m looking forward to the tournament in Romania.
