The WHL’s vision of having a franchise in each of the four western Canadian province’s capital cities — Victoria, Edmonton, Regina and Winnipeg — lasted four seasons.
The dream was realized in 2019 when the Kootenay Ice, a franchise that had changed hands on April 27, 2017, moved from Cranbrook to Winnipeg.
But it all went up in smoke on Friday with a terse four-paragraph statement from the WHL office stating that the franchise has been sold again and that it will be relocated to Wenatchee, Wash., where it will play as the Wild.
Darren Dreger of TSN broke the news Friday morning.
The WHL is leaving a city of more than 800,000 people for a city of about 
35,000. Wenatchee is located in Chelan County, which according to the U.S. Census Bureau had a population of 79,646 in 2021. Neighbouring Douglas County’s population was 43,696.
The franchise has been purchased by David and Lisa White, who also own the BCHL’s Wenatchee Wild. The Wild is operated by the Shoot the Puck Foundation, a non-profit organization based in California.
The sale and relocation was approved by the WHL’s board of governors on Tuesday.
The WHL’s news release, which didn’t include any quotes from Ron Robison, the commissioner, or Bruce Hamilton, the Kelowna Rockets’ owner and general manager who is chairman of the board of governors, stated: “Unfortunately, multiple attempts by the ICE ownership to construct an arena facility of acceptable WHL standards in Winnipeg, based on the agreed upon timeframes, were unsuccessful, leading to the relocation to Wenatchee.”
It would seem that the mistake the WHL made was allowing 50 Below Sports + Entertainment Inc., headed up by owner and governor Greg Fettes and Matt Cockell, the president and general manager, to move the franchise to Winnipeg without having put a shovel in the ground for a new facility.
The WHL, Fettes and Cockell appear to have spent Friday under a cone of silence. The Winnipeg Sun reported that it wasn’t able to get messages returned from the WHL or Cockell.
The Canadian Press reported Friday that “interview requests left with the team and league were not immediately returned.”
The Winnipeg Free Press reported that it has been shut out for months in attempts to reach WHL and Ice officials.
“Despite repeated attempts by the Free Press to get answers in recent months, the club and league remained silent — until Friday,” the Free Press reported Friday.
The Free Press also reported:
“A source told the Free Press last weekend that the Ice informed game-day production staff, such as camera operators and sound/lighting technicians, to find work elsewhere next season.
“Yet, as recently as last Wednesday, the Ice continued to market season-ticket packages on its social media platforms.
“Repeated attempts to reach Fettes through communications staff from both the hockey club and his business were unsuccessful last week when it became apparent the team was about to be sold.
“A WHL spokesman didn’t return multiple messages seeking comment, either.”
The Free Press had reported a few months ago that the WHL and team governors had soured on the Ice ownership and had, according to sources, hit it with a $500,000 fine because of a failure to address the arena issue. The WHL and Ice issued denials — the WHL never did post its statement on its website — but that was the beginning of speculation that the Ice was in its final season in Winnipeg.
On Friday, the Free Press also reported:
“As recently as this past December, the WHL released a statement that read as follows: ‘The Winnipeg Ice have assembled a highly competitive team this season and the WHL continues to work with the Ice regarding a solution to the club’s long-term plans for a suitable facility in Winnipeg.’
“The league said more information would be released in 2023. No new information followed.”
Until Friday, that is.
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On Jan. 29, 2019, Fettes told a Winnipeg news conference: “We’re building a 4,500-seat arena. We’re expecting it to be full.”
That facility was to have been ready for the start of the 2021-22 season; however, they didn’t even get one shovel into the ground. Thus, the Ice ended up playing four seasons in the 1,600-seat Wayne Fleming Arena on the U of Manitoba campus.
“Despite our success in building the organization,” Fettes said in a state
ment, “we were unable to confirm our ability to build a new facility in Winnipeg that met the WHL standards on a timeline that was acceptable to the WHL. Unfortunately, we were never able to get the project on solid footing due to the changing landscape (during and post-pandemic). Simply put, we ran out of time.”
The original plan apparently was to build an arena in the Rural Municipality of Macdonald, just off the southwest corner of Winnipeg.
Brad Erb, a reeve for the RM, told the Winnipeg Sun in February that he was excited four years ago when he heard about the Ice moving to Manitoba.
“I thought it was pretty exciting for the area and for the municipality . . . that they’d be putting up this entertainment facility within our jurisdiction,” Erb told The Sun. “From that day forward, it was radio silence and I haven’t heard a darn thing about it.”
In Wenatchee, the team will play out of the 4,300-seat Town Toyota Center. During the 2022-23 BCHL regular season, according to figures compiled by hockeydb.com, the Wild averaged 2,672 fans per regular-season game, second to the Penticton Vees (3,102). The Cranbrook Bucs were third, at 2,310.
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Naturally, Wenatchee will play in the U.S. Division, which now has six teams. The relocation leaves the Western and Eastern Conference each with 11 teams.
Taking Note was told early Friday that the East Division schedule was finalized on Thursday with five teams involved and the Brandon Wheat Kings again serving as the league’s eastern border. The Swift Current Broncos moved from the East to the Central Division to accommodate Winnipeg, and apparently will remain there for one more season. After 2023-24, the Broncos will move back, giving the East Division six teams and the Central Division five.
“It’s been a contentious issue with the arena building in Winnipeg and trying to find a place to play,” Jared Jacobson, the Wheat Kings’ owner and governor, told Perry Bergson of the Brandon Sun. “It’s been going on for a few years. “It’s sad because we had quite the rivalry going since before the hub. They started getting stronger and stronger and they had their run at it this year and we were becoming pretty good rivals.
“They were our closest WHL partner. Having another team in Manitoba was nice in that market but it obviously didn’t work for them.”
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The Wild has been in Wenatchee since 2008 when it operated in the North American Hockey League. The owners relocated the team to Hidalgo, Texas, after the 2012-13 season and the Whites moved the Fresno Monsters — they had purchased the NAHL team in 2009 — from California to Wenatchee. The Whites own a fruit distribution operation in Fresno.
The Wild moved into the BCHL in 2015. Wenatchee won the Fred Page Cup as BCHL champions and the Doyle Cup as the Canadian Junior Hockey League’s Pacific region champion in 2018.
Bliss Littler, a veteran junior hockey man who was head coach of the Wild for its first five seasons in the BCHL, is the organization’s general manager. He signed a 10-year contract extension on June 4, 2021.
Chris Clark, the Wild’s head coach and assistant GM, has been on staff since 2008. He was named head coach prior to the 2020-21 season, although the team didn’t operate that winter due to the pandemic.
Troy Mick, a former WHL player and coach, also is part of the Wild’s organization. He is the director of its development teams and is the head coach of the 16U Wilderness and 18U AAA Wolves. There also are 12U and 14U development teams.
Late Friday afternoon, the Wenatchee Wild Hockey Academy posted on social media that “it is business as usual for our academy and development teams for the 2023-24 season and beyond. We feel this is another step in developing our players for the next level!”
Around 4 p.m. PT, the Wild was on social media: “We’re on the hunt for a full-time equipment manager and a certified athletic trainer for the 2023-24 season – to apply, email General Manager Bliss Littler at blittler@wenatcheewildhockey.com.”
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There wasn’t any mention in the Wild’s news release about the future of the BCHL franchise. However, the BCHL issued a statement early Friday afternoon stating that the Wild franchise “will not operate in the BCHL in 2023-24.”
Graham Fraser, the owner of the Penticton Vees and the chairman of the BCHL’s board of governors, said: “As a league, we are assessing our next steps, including reviewing the best options for players currently on the Wenatchee Wild’s roster and addressing schedule implications for the 2023-24 season.”
The BCHL, now a 17-team league with all franchises located in B.C., recently completed its 2023-24 schedule — it calls for each team to play 54 games — and was soon to release it. It now has been sent back to the drawing board.
As for the players on the Wild roster, Steve Cocker, the BCHL commissioner, told Castanet that there won’t be dispersal draft and that they now are free agents.
Cocker also admitted to Castanet that the BCHL was caught off guard by the news.
“What they have found moving to the WHL provides them with a long-term solution that will give them an instant rivalry with the U.S. Division so you can’t fault them for making that business decision,” Cocker told Castanet. “Is it tough not having an organization like the Wild in our league? Sure. They were one of our top organizations but we have a lot of positive momentum going right now with and we’re excited to move forward.”
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The Ice has been the WHL’s top club each of the past two regular seasons, going 110-20-6. This season, it finished atop the standings, at 57-10-1. After losing to the Edmonton Oil Kings in the Eastern Conference final in 2021-22, the Ice fell to the Seattle Thunderbirds in the championship final in 2022-23.
Winnipeg paid a steep price for the team it iced in 2022-23, though. As Paul Friesen of the Winnipeg Sun reported in February: “According to WHL blogger Alan Caldwell, who tracks these things, the Ice has traded away picks in the first, second and fourth rounds in this year’s draft, all its picks from Rounds 1 through 6 in 2024, its top four picks in ’25 and its first six picks in ’26.”
Still, Wenatchee should have starry forwards Zach Benson, Conor Geekie and Matt Savoie, and starting goaltender Daniel Hauser, back when it opens its first training camp south of the border in August.
But decisions about trading high-end talent to restock the cupboard with draft picks likely will have to be made at some point during the season.
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This is the third time that the WHL has failed in the Manitoba capital. The Winnipeg Jets/Clubs/Monarchs ended a 10-season run when they moved to Calgary and became the Wranglers over the summer of 1977. The Winnipeg Warriors, an expansion team spent four seasons there before moving to Moose Jaw in 1984.
Will there be a fourth attempt?
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Here’s Jeff Bromley, a Cranbrook resident who once covered the Kootenay Ice for the Kootenay Advertiser: “(The WHL) becomes more bush by the year. Relocating to a city similar in size to Cranbrook. (Wenatchee) fans don’t get too attached; as soon as there’s another arena at a bigger centre built & ur drawing (fewer than) 2,800, the moving trucks won’t be far behind.”
Here’s Matt Coxford, a former Cranbrook Townsman writer: “I hope the previous owner is sufficiently embarrassed. Did everything he could to get out of town, sold to some bad-faith operators, and now his father’s HHOF banner hangs in a rink twice removed from the franchise.”
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How did players on Winnipeg’s roster find out that they now belonged to a team in another country? The same way you and I did. On social media.
Perry Bergson of the Brandon Sun reported that F Conor Geekie learned of the sale by checking his Instagram account after a workout. He said his teammates were in the same boat.
“The most frustrating thing is how we found out,” Geekie told The Sun. “There wasn’t much notice. We all found at the same time. I’m sure they were swamped but I think we just expected a little bit more in that category.”
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JUST NOTES: Trevor Crawley of the Cranbrook Townsman tweeted Friday that “a lawsuit filed by the City of Cranbrook against the Western Hockey League and the Winnipeg Ice for breach of contract remains outstanding, as far as I know, based on court records.” That lawsuit was filed by the City of Cranbrook in December 2020. . . . Unaddressed is whether the BCHL’s move to operate outside of Hockey Canada had anything to with the decision by the Whites to leave that league and jump into the WHL. . . . 50 Below Sports + Entertainment Inc., still owns two MJHL franchises, theWinnipeg Blues and Winnipeg Freeze. . . . This is the 10th sale of a WHL franchise since 2007, which is when the Kamloops Blazers went from community to private ownership.
the second period was eight minutes old en route to an 8-2 victory over the Moose Jaw Warriors. . . . That allowed the Ice, who finished atop the WHL’s regular-season standings, to win the Eastern Conference semifinal, 4-2. They will open at home against the winner of tonight’s Game 7 between the Red Deer Rebels and host Saskatoon Blades. . . . Last night, the Ice scored two first-period goals 51 seconds apart and took it from there. F Zack Ostapchuk (7) scored at 10:49 and F Vladislav Shilo (3) counted at 11:40. . . . Winnipeg really took control on four straight second-period goals — from F Connor McClennon (7, 8), D Graham Sward (2) and F Conor Geekie (5). . . . Geekie (6) and F Evan Friesen (3) had the Ice’s other goals. . . . D Denton Mateychuk (3) and F Jagger Firkus (10) had PP goals for the Warriors. . . . Firkus is tied for the playoff lead in goals and points (21). . . . Shilo and Sward each had two assists and Geekie had one for three-point nights. . . . Moose Jaw was 2-for-2 on the PP; Winnipeg was 0-for-1. . . . G Daniel Hauser stopped 25 shots in earning the victory.
deficit and went on to beat the Moose Jaw Warriors, 5-2. . . . The Ice holds a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal, with Game 6 in Moose Jaw on Monday night. . . . If they need a seventh game, it would be played in Winnipeg on Wednesday. . . . Last night, the Warriors jumped out to a 2-0 first-period leads on goals from F Jagger Firkus (9), at 13:35, and F Brayden Yager (6), at 15:03. . . . Winnipeg equalized in the second period on two goals from F Conor Geekie (3), at 2:27 and 11:32. . . . F Matt Savoie (9) broke the tie at 15:06 of the third period. . . . Geekie had a chance at the hat trick when he was awarded a penalty shot with his side ahead 3-2 and 4:21 left to play in the third period. But he wasn’t able to beat Moose Jaw G Connor Ungar. . . . Geekie did get a third goal, this one into an empty net, at 17:50. . . . F Zach Benson (2) added another empty-netter, at 19:01. . . . Each team was 0-for-1 on the PP. . . . The Ice got 26 saves from G Daniel Hauser, while Ungar turned aside 33 shots. . . . F Evan Friesen returned to Winnipeg’s lineup after serving a two-game suspension for a headshot on Moose Jaw D Matthew Gallant in Game 2. . . . Gallant hasn’t played since absorbing that hit.
Rogers Place before an announced crowd of 14,781, the largest gathering in Edmonton this season.
before a sold-out crowd of 10,541. That increased their average attendance to 5,842 and allowed them to pass the Everett Silvertips (5,840) and move into the No. 2 slot.
Chiefs, says his club isn’t going anywhere and the WHL isn’t moving into the Chilliwack Coliseum.
allowing unvaccinated foreigners into the country. Despite all that, Djokovic wants in so that he can play tournaments in in California and Florida in March.
and Victoria Royals. Each organization was fined $500 for a “multiple fight situation” that broke out as the final buzzer sounded. As well, the Royals were fined an additional $500 for “instigator in last five minutes” of the game. F Alex Edwards of the Royals drew the only suspension out of the incident; he will miss one game for being the instigator in the game’s last five minutes. . . .
draft. . . . Ginnell had one goal and two assists in 14 games with the Warriors this season. They acquired him from the Brandon Wheat Kings on Oct. 11 for a fifth-rounder in 2024. In 113 regular-season games over four seasons with Brandon, he had 21 goals and 26 assists. Last season, he had single-season highs in goals (14), assists (20) and points (34). . . . Ginnell’s father, Erin, is a former WHLer who played with the Swift Current Broncos, Calgary Wranglers, New Westminster Bruins, Seattle Thunderbirds and Regina Pats. He played in 27 games with the Pats in 1986-87, putting up 10 goals and 12 assists. . . . Erin is in his seventh season as an amateur scout with the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights. . . . Riley’s grandfather, Pat, was a the WHL’s coach of the year in four different seasons. . . . 
the host Winnipeg Ice. . . . Lethbridge improved to 12-9-1 as it ended Winnipeg’s 15-game winning streak. The Ice now is 20-2-0. . . . Winnipeg is 8-1-0 at home; Lethbridge is 5-5-0 on the road. . . . F Tristan Zandee (2) scored on a PP at 6:14 of the opening period, and F Tyson Zimmer (5) made it 2-0 at 18:20. . . . F Brayden Edwards had the primary assist on each of those goals. . . . F Ty Nash, who was acquired by the Ice from Lethbridge earlier this season, scored his ninth goal of the season, at 1:28 of the third period, to get the home side to within a goal. . . . G Harrison Meneghin, the game’s first star, turned aside 36 shots. . . . The Ice, which was outshot 19-10 in the first period, got 37 stops form Mason Beaupit. . . . Ice F Conor Geekie extended his point streak to 12 games with an assist. . . . These same teams will play again tonight in Winnipeg.
have yet to play a home game.
Which one of those teams doesn’t have child pricing available? The answers to those questions and a whole lot more are right here in a story by Stefanie Davis of CTV News in Regina. . . . It turns out that the Saskatoon Blades have chosen, again, not to increase ticket prices. Tyler Wawryk, the Blades’ director of business operations, told Davis: “This would be our fifth season without any price increases.” Part of the reason for that, he explained, is that the Blades took into account that the provincial government made tickets liable to a PST as of Oct. 1. . . . This really is an interesting read and it shows what WHL teams are up against as they fight to get fans back into their buildings.
which is to be played in Regina. Their playoff hopes ended on Saturday with a 32-21 loss to the visiting Calgary Stampeders. Here’s Rob Vanstone in the Regina Leader-Post: “A paid/pained attendance — 27,192 — that wasn’t even remotely reflective of the actual turnout. . . . One meaningless game remains in this miserable season. At this stage of the game, the Roughriders’ toughest opponent is not the Stampeders — but, instead, indifference.” . . . Too bad the CFL wouldn’t let the Roughriders take a knee on the entire game that is to be played in Calgary on Saturday. . . . Vanstone’s complete column is 
Christine Sinclair, won gold at the Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo. The women had won bronze at London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016, so they had given us at least a taste of success. But the gold in August tasted even better.
TAKING NOTE 