Although the team had played in the neighbouring city of Burnaby for the previous five years, on 14 January 2010 it was announced that the BCHL Board of Governors unanimously approved the relocation of the franchise back to Coquitlam for the 2010–11 season.[1][2][3]
History
The Coquitlam Express began play as a new franchise in the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) for the 2001–02 hockey season, and played in the city for four seasons at the Coquitlam Sports Centre. Due to unsatisfactory conditions at the Sports Centre, specifically a reduction of parking due to the construction of a new aquatic complex next door, the team relocated to Burnaby for the 2005–06 season.
Burnaby originally had a junior "A" team by the name of the Burnaby Bulldogs, which played in that city for four seasons (1998–2001). That team relocated to the city of Port Alberni, on Vancouver Island for the start of the 2002–03 season and was renamed the Alberni Valley Bulldogs.
The 2005–06 season saw the Express win the league championship (Fred Page Cup) and the Mowat Cup by defeating the Langley Hornets in four games, the Chilliwack Chiefs in 5 games, the Victoria Salsa in 5 games, and the Penticton Vees in six games. The team then defeated the Fort McMurray Oil Barons in six games for the Doyle Cup and entered the National Championship as Pacific Region winners.
The Express won the Royal Bank Cup 2006 (National Championship) by defeating the Yorkton Terries by a score of 8–2. In the Semi-Final against the Fort William Northstars, they scored the tying goal with 12 seconds left in the third period then went on to win 3–2 in overtime. During the round-robin they had a record of 3–1, which seeded them 2nd in the Tournament, behind the hometown hosts Streetsville Derbys.
In 2006–07 the Express were highly touted as a top team in the Canadian Junior Hockey League,[by whom?] with players like Kyle Turris and Tyler McNeely. In the first round of the BCHL playoffs, the team beat the Langley Chiefs in seven games before losing to the eventual BCHL league champions Nanaimo Clippers in seven games during the second round.
The 2007 off-season saw a coaching change from Rick Lanz, a scout for the Colorado Avalanche, to Dave McLellan. The team was not very well-supported since the move from Coquitlam and struggled in attendance for the third straight year.
By 17 October 2009, the Burnaby Express were averaging just 548 fans per game, which was the second lowest attendance of the 17 teams in the BCHL at the time. This was half the attendance the team averaged in their final season in Coquitlam (1,091 fans per game).[4][5] With the team in last place in the Coastal Conference, on 16 January 2010 the Express announced the firing of coach Dave McLellan. General manager Darcy Rota took over during the interim, with Bill Zaharia and Tyler Kuntz named as assistants for the remainder of the 2009–10 season.[6] On 13 April 2010, the Express named Jon Calvano as their next head coach.[7]
The 2010–11 season marked the Express' return to Coquitlam. They played their first game back at the newly renovated and renamed Poirier Sport & Leisure Complex on 24 September 2010, where they defeated the Surrey Eagles 4–2. Coquitlam made the playoffs for the first time in three seasons, losing in the first round to the Eagles in four games. The following year, they would again be eliminated in the first round, this time to the Powell River Kings in six games. Following the 2011–12 season, the Express named Jon Calvano as general manager on top of his existing coaching duties.
The 2012–13 season saw a great start for the Express until the team lost players to multiple injuries within a short period, including New Jersey Devils draftee Alexander Kerfoot. The team struggled for most of the latter half of the season and failed to reach the postseason for the third time in five years. Calvano was fired at the end of the season.[8]
Barry Wolff became the team's next head coach on 22 April 2013[9] and in the following season led the Express to their second Fred Page Cup championship, and their first and only appearance in the Western Canada Cup, where they finished fourth following a 5–3 loss in the semifinal to the AJHL'sSpruce Grove Saints. Wolff was named the 2014 coach of the year by the Coquitlam Sports Hall of Fame and the team earned team of the year honours.[10]
The team achieved mixed success for the next couple of seasons, finishing fourth in the mainland division and eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in two consecutive seasons. The 2016–17 season again had the Express sustain many player injuries, resulting in a franchise worst 11–44–2–1 (25 points) record and finishing last in nearly every statistic. The following season continued the trend and after recording only three wins and eight points in the first half of the season, Wolff was fired and replaced with former OJHL'sToronto Patriots head coach Jason Fortier.[11] The team turned around under Fortier until the 2019–20 season where the Express posted a franchise-best 47–9–1–1 (96 points) and won the Ron Boileau Memorial Trophy for the first time as regular season champions. Their performance over the regular season was enough to earn Fortier Coach of the Year honors for the 2019–20 season. Unfortunately, after winning their first round matchup with the Langley Rivermen, Hockey Canada cancelled the remainder of the Junior A season nationally due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, ending their run for a third league title.[12]
Fortier would leave the team in the off-season, with Dan Cioffi, coach of the BCMML'sValley West Giants, named as his replacement.[13] He, however, would resign after the league's extended pre-season was paused by the Provincial Health Officer. [14] Adam Nugent-Hopkins, older brother of Edmonton OilerRyan Nugent-Hopkins, took his place for the rest of the season alongside new GM Tali Campbell.[15] He would coach the team to a 6-11-3 record in a 20 game pod season played against the Surrey Eagles and Powell River Kings.
Brandon Shaw, previously assistant coach of the Alberni Valley Bulldogs, would be named head coach for the team's first full season since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.[16] After a rough start, he would rally the team to a 22-26-6 record to bring the team back up to 7th in the Coastal Conference. The Express would be eliminated by the Chiefs in the first round but not without taking the series to a full seven games. Shaw would move up to become an assistant coach with the OHL'sNiagara Icedogs, leaving the team to find their fourth head coach in three seasons. Not only was it announced that Vees assistant coach Patrick Sexton would become the new bench boss for the 2022-23 season,[17] but on 17 August 2022 it was announced that a newly-retired Kyle Turris would be returning to the Express as a special advisor to GM Campbell and as a player development coach.[18] Sexton would remain as head coach through to the end of the 2023-24 regular season, where he was replaced with Jeff Wagner for the duration of the team's playoff run following a poor record in the second half of the season.[19] The team would bounce back but would lose in the first round to Alberni Valley in a closely-fought seven game series.
During a game against the Langley Rivermen on 2 November 2022, the Express set a new all-time attendance record of 2209 fans at the Poirier Sport & Leisure Complex.[20][21]
Season-by-season record
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes
The British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) is an independent Canadian Junior ice hockey league with 22 teams in British Columbia and Alberta. It was classified as a Junior 'A' league within the Hockey Canada framework until it became independent in 2023. Since becoming independent, the league characterizes itself simply as a Junior ice hockey league.
The Alberni Valley Bulldogs are a Junior "A" ice hockey team based in Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada. They are members of the Island Division of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). They play their home games at Weyerhaeuser Arena.
The Pacific Junior Hockey League (PJHL), is a Junior A Tier 2 ice hockey league which operates in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. Although the PJHL has included American teams in the past, the league's fifteen franchises all currently reside in the districts of Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley, and the Sunshine Coast. Several National Hockey League stars began their junior hockey careers in the PJHL, but the main focus of the league is player development and education with strong ties to the local hockey community. The PJHL Championship is awarded annually to the league playoff champion and the winner moves on to compete against the champions of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League and the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League for the provincial title, the Cyclone Taylor Cup. From 1983 to 2017, the winner of the Cyclone Taylor Cup moves on to compete for the Western Canada Junior "B" Crown, the Keystone Cup.
The 2006 Royal Bank Cup was the 36th Junior "A" 2006 ice hockey National Championship for the Canadian Junior A Hockey League.
Richard Roman Lanz is a Czech-born Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who spent 10 seasons in the National Hockey League and is best known for his time with the Vancouver Canucks. He was born in Czechoslovakia, but his family defected to Canada following the invasion by the Soviet Union in 1968.
Kyle Turris is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre. He was selected third overall in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft by the Phoenix Coyotes. He has also played with the Ottawa Senators, Oulun Kärpät, Nashville Predators and Edmonton Oilers.
The 2007–08 BCHL season is the 46th season of the British Columbia Hockey League. It began on September 7, 2007, and ran through February 27, 2008, followed by the Fred Page Cup Playoffs, ending in April, 2008. On February 28, the league announced a partnership with INSINC to live video stream the 2008 playoffs.
The 2010–11 BCHL season is the 49th season of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). The regular season began on September 10, 2010 and ended on February 20, 2011.
The Chilliwack Chiefs are a junior hockey team based in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. They are members of the Coastal Conference of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). They play their home games at the Chilliwack Coliseum which was vacated after the Chilliwack Bruins of the Western Hockey League (WHL) were sold and moved to Victoria, where they became known as the Victoria Royals.
The 2013–14 BCHL season was the 52nd season of the British Columbia Hockey League. (BCHL) The sixteen teams from the Interior, Island and Mainland divisions played 58 game schedules, starting with the 2013 BCHL Showcase in Chilliwack, BC.
The 2012-13 BCHL season was the 51st season of the British Columbia Hockey League. (BCHL) The sixteen teams from the Coastal and Mainland Conferences will play 56 game schedules, starting with the 2012 BCHL Showcase in Chilliwack, BC.
The 2011–12 BCHL season marked the 50th anniversary of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). The sixteen teams from the Coastal and Interior Conferences played 60 game schedules.
The 2014-15 BCHL season was the 53rd season of the British Columbia Hockey League. (BCHL) The sixteen teams from the Interior, Island and Mainland divisions played 58 game schedules, starting with the 2014 BCHL Showcase in Chilliwack, BC from September 19 to 21, 2014.
The 2015–16 BCHL season was the 54th season of the British Columbia Hockey League. (BCHL) The seventeen teams from the Interior, Island and Mainland divisions played 58-game schedules, featuring the 2015 BCHL Showcase, hosted in Chilliwack, shortly after the start of the season from September 24 to 27, 2015.
The 2017–18 BCHL season was the 56th season of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). The seventeen teams from the Interior, Island and Mainland divisions played 58-game schedules. The 2017 BCHL Showcase, hosted in Chilliwack, shortly after the start of the season from September 20 to 24, 2017.
Alexander Douglas Kerfoot is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward for the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected in the fifth round, 150th overall, by the New Jersey Devils in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft and has previously played in the NHL for the Colorado Avalanche and Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Langley Trappers are a Junior "A" ice hockey team based in Langley, British Columbia, Canada. They are members of the Harold Brittain Conference of the Pacific Junior Hockey League (PJHL). The Trappers play their home games at the George Preston Recreation Centre, sharing the arena with the Junior "A" Langley Rivermen. Brad Bakken is the team's president and head coach. Brad Bakken is also the general manager.
The 2019–20 BCHL season was the 58th season of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). The seventeen teams from the Interior, Island and Mainland divisions played 58-game schedules. The 2019 BCHL Showcase Festival occurred shortly after the start of the season, on October 2–3, 2019, in Chilliwack and October 4–5, 2019, in Penticton.
The 2020–21 BCHL season is the 59th season of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). Originally, eighteen teams from the Interior and Coastal Conferences were to play 54-game schedules, but due to delays caused by COVID-19 pandemic, sixteen teams played 20-game schedules in five "pods" of three or four teams each. In normal seasons, the top teams from each conference would play for the Fred Page Cup, the BCHL Championship, in March, but no playoffs were held in 2021.
The 2022–23 BCHL season was the 61st season of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). The eighteen teams from the Coastal and Interior Conferences played 54 game schedules. The 2022 BCHL showcase took place in Chilliwack From October 17 to October 20, 2022.
Many other special events took place during the season, such as the All-Star and Top Prospect games to be held in Penticton in January, as well as the BCHL Road Show taking place in Burns Lake on February 18 and 19, 2023.
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