| Ice hockey in Oregon | |
|---|---|
 Flag of Oregon | |
| Country | United States |
| Governing body | USA Hockey [1] |
| National team(s) | Men's national team Women's national team |
| First played | 1914 |
Club competitions | |
Oregon was one of the first states in the union to have an established ice hockey team. The state continued to have a low but consistent level of engagement for many years afterwards.
In 1914, the New Westminster Royals relocated to Portland and renamed themselves the Rosebuds. [2] The club was a member of the PCHA, the main competitor to the NHA and played at the highest level of the sport. In just its second season in Portland, the Rosebuds won the league championship and met the Montreal Canadiens for 1916 Stanley Cup Finals. Despite playing the entire series in Montreal, Portland pushed the series to a deciding 5th game and had a 1-goal lead before surrendering 2 goals and losing to the home team. [3] Unfortunately, Portland wasn't able to build on that success folded just two years later.
In the mid 20s, a second relocation brought the Rosebuds back, this time as a member of the WHL (the successor to the PCHA). Portland finished 4th in the standings out of 6 teams, however, the league collapsed after the season when all three west coast teams dissolved. The player contracts from that team were sold for $100,000 and used as the basis for a new NHL expansion team, the Chicago Black Hawks. [4]
Immediately after the end of the Rosebuds, the Portland Buckaroos were founded and used the Rosebuds' old venue, the Portland Ice Arena. The team would play in several different minor leagues over the next 15 years but were finally killed off in the early years of World War II. [5] Near the end of the war, professional hockey returned to Portland in the form of the Portland Eagles. The team was less successful than the Buckaroos and played its final season in 1951.
The state was devoid of a major ice hockey team for nearly a decade but the completion of the Memorial Coliseum allowed the sport to return. [6] The Buckaroos were resurrected and won the league championship in their first year back on the ice. Two more championships followed and the team was successful enough to sign an affiliation deal with the Los Angeles Kings in the 1970s. Unfortunately, the Western Hockey League folded in 1974 and left the Buckaroos scrambling to find a new home. Portland played in the WIHL for a year before attempting to found a fully professional league with 6 other teams in the region. The effort failed and the Northwest Hockey League couldn't complete one season of play. [7]
In the wake of Buckaroos dissolution, the Memorial Coliseum was looking for a new tenant. At the same time, the presence of the WHA's Edmonton Oilers made finances difficult for the Edmonton Oil Kings and the team saw relocation as a solution to their problem. The franchise changed its name to Winterhawks and took up residence in the Coliseum. [8] despite playing junior hockey, the team was an instant hit and became one of the top teams in the WHL. Portland had won three league titles and three Memorial Cups, the most recent coming in 2013.
The success of the Winterhawks led to an increased interest in junior hockey in the state and several other teams were founded in the early 21st century. The River City Jaguars made their debut in 2004 and were followed by the Eugene Generals and Rogue Valley Wranglers. All three initially played in the Northern Pacific Hockey League, a Tier III junior league but by 2010 River City had moved to nearby Vancouver, Washington. Two years later Rogue Valley, who had since ben renamed the 'Southern Oregon Spartans', joined the Western States Hockey League. They continued with that league until 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic caused the league to suspend operations. [9] Southern Oregon attempted to forge ahead the following year by playing on outdoor rink with limited capacity (mandated by COVID protocols) but they would only able to play six games before folding. The WSHL announced that it would return in 2021–22 with a new franchise in Medford, the Rogue Valley Royals. [10] However, the return never materialized and the Royals ended up joining the USPHL.
In the meantime, the Generals continued with the NPHL until the league dissolution in 2016. They then joined the USPHL for two years before playing as an independent during the 2018–19 season. The Generals announced that they were suspending operations in 2019 and would return the following year after promoting out of Tier III, though no formalized plans were given at the time. [11] Their return coincided with the arrival of the pandemic and no further announcements have been made regarding the team, leaving effectively defunct as of 2023.
| Team | City | League | Years Active | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portland Rosebuds | Portland | PCHA | 1914–1918 † | Defunct |
| Portland Rosebuds (2nd iteration) | Portland | WHL | 1925–1926 † | Defunct |
| Portland Buckaroos | Portland | PCHL NWHL WHL / WIHL / NwHL | 1928–1931 1933–1941 1960–1976 | Defunct |
| Portland Eagles | Portland | PCHL | 1944–1951 | Defunct |
| Team | City | League | Arena | Founded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portland Winterhawks | Portland | WHL | Veterans Memorial Coliseum | 1976 † |
| Rogue Valley Royals | Medford | USPHL | RRRink | 2021 |
| Team | City | League | Years Active | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| River City Jaguars | Beaverton | NorPac | 2004–2010 | Defunct |
| Eugene Generals | Eugene | NorPac, USPHL | 2005–2019 | Defunct |
| Southern Oregon Spartans | Medford | NorPac, WSHL, USPHL | 2007–2021 | Defunct |
† relocated from elsewhere.
Active Active (out of state)
Oregon has had a few player of note hail from the state over the years. While several have gone on to play at the highest levels of the sport, many were born in the state but raised elsewhere.
† relocated from elsewhere.
The Western Hockey League (WHL) is a major junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as the highest level of junior hockey in Canada, alongside the Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Teams play for the Ed Chynoweth Cup, with the winner moving on to play for the Memorial Cup, Canada's national junior championship. WHL teams have won the Memorial Cup 19 times. Many players have been drafted from WHL teams, and have found success at various levels of professional hockey, including the National Hockey League (NHL).
The Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) was a professional ice hockey league in western Canada and the western United States, which operated from 1911 to 1924 when it then merged with the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). The PCHA was considered to be a major league of ice hockey and was important in the development of the sport of professional ice hockey through its innovations.
The Victoria Cougars were a major league professional ice hockey team that played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) from 1911 to 1924 under various names, and in the Western Hockey League (WHL) from 1924 to 1926. The team was based in Victoria, British Columbia, and won the Stanley Cup in 1925, becoming the final non-NHL team to win the Cup.
The Veterans Memorial Coliseum is an indoor arena located in the oldest part of the Rose Quarter area in Portland, Oregon. The arena is the home of the Portland Winterhawks, a major junior ice hockey team, and was the original home of the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association. It has been included on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its architectural significance.
The Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921, was a major professional ice hockey league originally based in the prairies of Canada. It was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1925 and disbanded in 1926.
The Portland Winterhawks are a junior ice hockey team based in Portland, Oregon, playing in the Western Hockey League (WHL), one of three leagues making up the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). Prior to the 2021–22 season, the Winterhawks split their home games between the Veterans Memorial Coliseum and the Moda Center, which they shared with the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Thomas Ernest "Moose" Johnson, also known as Ernie Johnson, was a Canadian ice hockey player whose professional career spanned from 1905 to 1931. He was a member of four Stanley Cup winning teams between 1905 and 1910 with the Montreal Wanderers of the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA) and later the National Hockey Association (NHA). He moved west, and switched from left wing to defence, in 1911 to join the newly formed Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA). He spent the following decade playing with the New Westminster Royals, Portland Rosebuds and Victoria Aristocrats where he was named a PCHA first-team all-star eight times and played in the 1916 Stanley Cup Finals with Portland.
The 1925–26 WHL season was the fifth and last season for the now defunct Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), which was renamed Western Hockey League (WHL) at the start of the season due to one of its Canadian teams, the Regina Capitals, moving to Portland, Oregon in the United States and being renamed the Portland Rosebuds. Six teams played 30 games each. At season's end, some of the teams reorganised to create a semi-pro league called the Prairie Hockey League that lasted for two seasons. The WHL was the last league other than the National Hockey League to contest for the Stanley Cup.
The Regina Capitals were a professional ice hockey team originally based in the city of Regina, Saskatchewan in the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921.
The New Westminster Royals was the name of several professional ice hockey teams based in New Westminster, British Columbia, first established in 1911 for the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA). Though nominally based in New Westminster, the team played its home games at the Denman Arena in nearby Vancouver, as an arena was not available; the team would never play a PCHA home game in New Westminster as a result. They won the inaugural PCHA championship in 1912, though financial difficulties saw the team relocated to Portland, Oregon in 1914 and become the Portland Rosebuds.
The Western States Hockey League (WSHL) was a junior ice hockey league established in 1993. It was sanctioned by the United Hockey Union, the junior hockey branch of the Amateur Athletic Union. Previously, it was sanctioned by USA Hockey from 1994 to 2011. Teams played approximately 50 games in the regular season schedule, mimicking what players would experience at the collegiate level. As of January 2022, there are no active teams in the league following the creation of the Can-Am Junior Hockey League by former WSHL teams.
The Edmonton Oil Kings are a major junior ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, that play in the Western Hockey League (WHL). As of July 2008, they are owned by Daryl Katz's Oilers Entertainment Group, which also owns the Edmonton Oilers. The 2007–08 season was the newest incarnation of the Oil Kings' inaugural season in the WHL. Some NHL alumni include Tomas Vincour, Mark Pysyk, Curtis Lazar, Keegan Lowe, Griffin Reinhart, Henrik Samuelsson, Laurent Brossoit, Tristan Jarry and David Musil. As the 2012 WHL champions, the Oil Kings played in the 2012 Memorial Cup, losing 6–1 against the eventual winning team, the Shawinigan Cataractes, in the playoff tie-breaker. The Oil Kings won the 2014 Memorial Cup, defeating the Guelph Storm in the final game.
Art Jones was a Canadian ice hockey centre who played the majority of his career in the Western Hockey League for the Portland Buckaroos.
The Portland Buckaroos was the name of several professional ice hockey teams based in Portland, Oregon.
Charles Stuart Tobin was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Tobin played 175 games in various professional and amateur leagues, including the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA). Amongst the PCHA teams he played for were the New Westminster Royals, Portland Rosebuds, Seattle Metropolitans, Vancouver Millionaires and Victoria Cougars.
The Northern Pacific Hockey League (NPHL) was an American Tier III junior ice hockey league sanctioned by USA Hockey. Its championship trophy was the Cascade Cup.
The Southern Oregon Spartans were a junior ice hockey team that played their home games at The RRRink in Medford, Oregon.
Portland Rosebuds was the name of two professional men's ice hockey teams in Portland, Oregon. Both teams played their home games at the Portland Ice Arena. The first Rosebuds are notable for being the first American based team to be allowed to compete for the Stanley Cup. The second Rosebuds are notable in that their roster was used to build the NHL expansion Chicago Blackhawks.
The Ogden Mustangs are a junior ice hockey team based in Ogden, Utah. The Mustangs are members of the United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) and play their home games at The Ice Sheet at Ogden. Before joining the USPHL in 2020, the Mustangs and its predecessors were longtime members of the Western States Hockey League (WSHL).
The United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) is an American ice hockey league. Founded in 2012, the USPHL has grown to over 60 organizations from across the United States fielding teams in the National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC), Premier, Elite, EHF, 18U, 16U, 15U, and High Performance youth divisions.