The Western Hockey League (WHL) is a 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 Maritimes 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. The WHL is composed of 22 teams divided into two conferences of two divisions. The Eastern Conference comprises 11 teams from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, while the Western Conference comprises 11 teams from British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon.
William Dickenson Hunter, was a Canadian sports promoter and ice hockey player, coach, manager, and investor. Also known as "Wild Bill", Hunter co-founded the Western Hockey League (WHL), helped to launch the World Hockey Association (WHA), and worked to bring professional hockey to Edmonton and to his hometown of Saskatoon.
The Portland Winterhawks are a junior ice hockey team based in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1950 as the Edmonton Oil Kings, the team relocated to Portland in 1976 and was known as the Winter Hawks until 2009. The team plays in the U.S. Division of the Western Hockey League (WHL), one of three constituent leagues of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). The Winterhawks have made a record thirteen appearances in the WHL championship series—including a record-tying four straight from 2011 to 2014—winning the Ed Chynoweth Cup three times and capturing two Memorial Cup titles. They were the first American-based team to participate in and win either championship. The team plays its home games at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Jason Matthew Smith is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played in over 1,000 regular season games in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1993 to 2009. Smith played for the New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, Philadelphia Flyers and Ottawa Senators, having been originally selected by New Jersey in the first round, 18th overall, at the 1992 NHL Entry Draft. Smith served as team captain of both the Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers, the former of which he led for five years and guided to the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals.
The Sutter family, originally from Viking, Alberta, Canada, are one of the most famous families in the National Hockey League (NHL). Six brothers: Brent, Brian, Darryl, Duane, Rich and Ron, reached the NHL in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Four brothers, Brent, Brian, Darryl and Duane, have gone on to become coaches and general managers as well, with Brian, Brent and Darryl, each having a stint as head coach of the Calgary Flames. All brothers played for either the Chicago Blackhawks or the St. Louis Blues at one point or another. A seventh brother named Gary is said by his brothers to have been the best hockey player of all seven boys. Rather than making his living as a hockey player, Gary stayed home to work on the family farm, as Rich remarked on an episode of the Canadian sports show Off the Record.
The Edmonton Ice were a Canadian major junior ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta. A Western Hockey League expansion team established in 1996, the team played only two seasons from 1996 to 1998 before relocating to Cranbrook, British Columbia, where the team became known as the Kootenay Ice.
The 1966–67 CMJHL season was the inaugural season of the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League. The fledgling league was formed by five members of the former Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, along with the Edmonton Oil Kings and the Calgary Buffaloes. However, the league did not receive the sanction of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, and was considered an "outlaw league" whose members were ineligible to compete for the Memorial Cup.
The 1969–70 WCHL season was the fourth season of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). It featured eight teams and a 60-game regular season. The Flin Flon Bombers topped the season standings for a third consecutive year, posting 42 wins, and in the playoffs won their second consecutive President's Cup, defeating the Edmonton Oil Kings in a rematch of the previous season's final.
The 1970–71 WCHL season was the fifth season of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). It featured ten teams and a 66-game regular season. For the second time in team history, the Edmonton Oil Kings topped the regular season standings, posting 45 wins on the season. In the playoffs, after losing the previous two league finals to the Flin Flon Bombers, the Oil Kings met the Bombers for a third straight season, this time winning the club's first President's Cup. On the national scene, the season was the first to be sanctioned by the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association under a new agreement signed in 1970, which included the participation of the WCHL champion in the Memorial Cup final. The Oil Kings thus advanced to the 1971 Memorial Cup final, which they lost to the Quebec Remparts.
This is a timeline of events throughout the history of the Western Hockey League (WHL), which dates back to its founding in 1966. The league was founded by a group of team owners and managers in Saskatchewan and Alberta, including Bill Hunter, Scotty Munro, Del Wilson, and Jim Piggott, who thought a larger western league would help western teams compete for the Memorial Cup against teams from the larger associations in Ontario and Quebec. Since the league's founding, it has expanded to include 22 teams across the four Western Canadian provinces along with the Northwest United States, and it has produced 19 Memorial Cup championship teams.
The 1978–79 WHL season was the 13th season of the Western Hockey League (WHL), and the first under that shortened name after previously operating as the Western Canada Hockey League. The season featured twelve teams and a 72-game regular season. The Brandon Wheat Kings secured their third consecutive regular season title, posting the league's best record—accumulating a league record 125 points in the standings—and followed the title up with the team's first playoff championship, defeating the Portland Winter Hawks in the final series to capture the President's Cup.
The Edmonton Oil Kings are a Canadian junior ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta, that play in the Western Hockey League (WHL). The team, founded in 2006, shares an ownership group with the National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers. The team is the fourth WHL team based in Edmonton, and its identity connects to the original Oil Kings club, which was one of the league's founding franchises in 1966. The Oil Kings are three-time WHL champions and won the 2014 Memorial Cup.
Leonard Melvin Lunde was a professional ice hockey player who played 321 games in the National Hockey League and 72 games in the World Hockey Association. He played for the Chicago Black Hawks, Minnesota North Stars, Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, and Detroit Red Wings.
Mark Alexander Terrance Pysyk is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who currently plays for SaiPa in the Finnish Liiga. Pysyk was originally selected in the first round, 23rd overall, in the 2010 NHL entry draft by the Buffalo Sabres. He has also previously played for the Florida Panthers and the Dallas Stars.
The Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) is an Alberta-based Junior A ice hockey league that belongs to the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). It was formed as a five-team league in 1964. The 2023–24 season began with 16 teams, however 5 teams did not finish the season after it was announced that they planned to join the BCHL in the 2024–25 season. The regular season league champions receive the Dave Duchak Trophy. The playoff champions receive the Inter Pipeline Cup. The winner of the AJHL playoffs continues on to play in the Centennial Cup tournament, which determines Canadian Junior A champion.
The Alberta Senior Hockey League was a Canadian senior ice hockey league which operated in Alberta from 1965 and 1978. The Alberta Amateur Hockey Association (AAHA) consolidated its senior hockey leagues in 1965, resulting in one league for the province and folding the Central Alberta Hockey League. Several teams from the AAHA opted instead for inter-provincial play in the Western Canada Senior Hockey League, based in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Jake Neighbours is a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger for the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted by the Blues in the first round of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft with the 26th overall pick.
The Western Canada Junior Hockey League was a junior ice hockey based in Alberta and Saskatchewan from 1948 until 1956. It was formed by teams which sought a higher level of competition and more formal organization. Its teams were eligible for the Memorial Cup as the national junior champion of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, and were runners-up in five seasons as the Abbott Cup junior champion of Western Canada.
Arthur Thomas Potter was a Canadian ice hockey administrator. He was president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) from 1962 to 1964, and oversaw the establishment of a permanent Canada men's national ice hockey team after he decided that sending the reigning Allan Cup champion to international competitions was no longer the answer. He felt that Canada needed discipline to handle Cold War tactics and propaganda at the Ice Hockey World Championships, sought to give its best players to develop as a team, and supported a plan by Father David Bauer to assemble a team of amateur student athletes to complete at the 1964 Winter Olympics.
Brandon Baddock is a Canadian professional ice hockey winger for the Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League (AHL). He was selected in the sixth round, 161st overall, by the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL) in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft and has previously played for the Montreal Canadiens.
