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.
The Flin Flon Bombers are a Canadian junior ice hockey team in Flin Flon, a city located on the Manitoba–Saskatchewan provincial border. The Bombers are members of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL), which is a member of the Canadian Junior Hockey League, and they play home games at the Whitney Forum on the Manitoba side of the city. The team's history dates back to 1927 and includes a decade-long run in the major junior Western Hockey League in the late 1960s and 1970s. The team has won two national championships, including the 1957 Memorial Cup and the 1969 James Piggott National Championship.
Earl Phillip Dawson was a Canadian ice hockey administrator, politician and civil servant. He rose to prominence in Canadian hockey when he served as president of the Manitoba Amateur Hockey Association from 1958 to 1963. He established a council to reverse the decline of hockey in rural Manitoba and saw the association continually increase its registrations by spending more per player to develop minor ice hockey than other provinces in Canada. Dawson became chairman of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) rules committee and organized the first nationwide clinic for referee instructors to standardize the interpretation of hockey rules. Dawson became vice-president of the CAHA in 1966 then served as its president from 1969 to 1971. The International Ice Hockey Federation had approved a limited use of professionals at the 1970 Ice Hockey World Championships, but later reversed the decision when the International Olympic Committee objected. Dawson and the CAHA perceived the situation to be a double standard since the Europeans were believed to be state-sponsored professionals labelled as amateurs, and withdrew the Canada men's national ice hockey team from international competitions until it was allowed to use its best players.
François Xavier Boucher was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and executive. Boucher played the forward position for the Ottawa Senators and New York Rangers in the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Vancouver Maroons in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) between 1921 and 1938, and again from 1943 to 1944. Boucher later became coach and the general manager of the New York Rangers between 1939 and 1955. He won the Stanley Cup three times, all with the Rangers: in 1928 and 1933 as a player, and in 1940 as the coach. Boucher was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958. Three of his brothers also played in the NHL, including Georges, who was also inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League is a Junior 'A' ice hockey league operating in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan and one of nine member leagues of the Canadian Junior Hockey League.
Hockey Manitoba is the governing body of amateur ice hockey in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Hockey Manitoba was founded in 1914 as the Manitoba Amateur Hockey Association and is a branch affiliate of Hockey Canada.
The 1967–68 WCJHL season was the second season of the Western Canada Junior Hockey League (WCJHL). The league adopted its new name after being known as the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League in its inaugural season. The season featured eleven teams, up from seven during the inaugural season, and a 60-game regular season. The Flin Flon Bombers, playing their first season in the league, topped the season standings with 47 wins. In the playoffs, the Bombers faced the Estevan Bruins in the championship series. The Bruins won the series, claiming the President's Cup.
The 1968–69 WCHL season was the third season of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), featuring eight teams and a 60-game regular season. The Flin Flon Bombers topped the season's standings with 47 wins, and in the playoffs defeated the Edmonton Oil Kings to win the club's first President's Cup championship. The Bombers advanced to a national series organized by the Canadian Hockey Association to rival the Memorial Cup. In the series the Bombers defeated the St. Thomas Barons from the Western Ontario Junior A Hockey League.
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 Abbott Memorial Cup, commonly referred to as the Abbott Cup, was awarded annually from 1919 through 1999 to the Junior "A" ice hockey Champion for Western Canada.
The 1957 Memorial Cup final was the 39th junior ice hockey championship of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA). The Flin Flon Bombers won their first Memorial Cup championship by defeating the Ottawa Junior Canadiens four games to three in a best-of-seven final series held at the Whitney Forum and the Regina Exhibition Stadium. CAHA second vice-president Gordon Juckes oversaw the scheduling and discipline for the national playoffs.
Allan Wilfrid Pickard was a Canadian ice hockey administrator, who served as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) from 1947 to 1950. When Canada opted out of the 1947 Ice Hockey World Championships and decided not to participate in the 1948 Winter Olympics, Pickard felt that Canada was obliged to send a team due to its place as a top hockey nation, and nominated the Ottawa RCAF Flyers who won the gold medal for Canada and lived up to the requirements of the Olympic Oath as amateurs. Despite disagreement with the International Olympic Committee, he sought for the International Ice Hockey Federation to adopt the CAHA definition of amateur in the face of increasing difficulty in selecting the Canada men's national ice hockey team.
Frederick Page was a Canadian ice hockey administrator and ice hockey referee. He originated from Port Arthur, Ontario, where he played junior ice hockey, refereed locally and later at the Memorial Cup and Allan Cup competitions. He was a league executive in Fort William, then served as president of the Thunder Bay Amateur Hockey Association from 1958 to 1962. He was elected second vice president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) in 1962, and rose up the ranks to be its president from 1966 to 1968. Page wanted the CAHA to gain more control over its affairs, and become less dependent on the National Hockey League (NHL). Under his leadership, the NHL ended direct sponsorship of junior hockey teams. He was instrumental in negotiating the revised agreement for the NHL Amateur Draft in 1967, and later served as co-chairman of the resulting joint player development committee.
The Canadian Hockey Association (CHA) was a junior ice hockey governing body in Canada from 1968 to 1970. It was formed when the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) broke away from the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA), due to disagreements with the CAHA and the National Hockey League (NHL) establishing the NHL Amateur Draft in 1967. Ron Butlin became president of both the CHA and the WCHL with the objective of the getting a better financial deal for teams in Western Canada which had greater expenses than teams in Eastern Canada, and to fight the age limit on players imposed by the NHL. Butlin was also opposed to the CAHA structure of elected officials who determined hockey policy, rather than representation by team owners and operators of hockey businesses. The CHA added the Western Ontario Junior Hockey League (WOJHL) to its ranks in opposition to how hockey was controlled. The WOJHL was denied the financially desirable junior hockey A-level status by the Ontario Hockey Association despite being based in the industrialized Southwestern Ontario region, and was discontent with losing its best players annually to other leagues in Ontario.
Ronald James Butlin was a Canadian ice hockey executive. He was president of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) from 1968 to 1971, when the league separated from the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) due to grievances arising from the National Hockey League (NHL) agreement for the NHL Amateur Draft. He also served as president of the Canadian Hockey Association from 1968 to 1970, which was formed as a national governing body of junior ice hockey in Canada, in opposition to the CAHA. He sought to raise the age limit imposed by the NHL and negotiate better financial terms for the junior teams which developed future professional players. He criticized the CAHA for its spending on administration and wanted hockey policy to be determined by the teams instead of elected officials. He negotiated an agreement to reunite the WCHL with the CAHA in 1970, where the WCHL gained direct representation on the CAHA junior council, better financial return for drafted players, and received development grants from the NHL.
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.
Lionel Fleury was a Canadian ice hockey administrator who served as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association from 1964 to 1966. Under his leadership, the Canada men's national ice hockey team transitioned from student athletes coached by Father David Bauer into a year-round national team program. Fleury welcomed the Newfoundland Amateur Hockey Association as a new branch member of the national association in 1966, and changed the format of the Memorial Cup playoffs in Eastern Canada from an elimination bracket into a round-robin format to reduce travel costs and address concerns of imbalanced competition. He sought an end to the National Hockey League system of sponsoring amateur teams by replacing it with a draft of players who had graduated from junior ice hockey, and negotiated for a new agreement that was realized after his term as president concluded.
