Cougars stay, Ice go?
Big news out of Prince George this morning as the PG Citizen is reporting that the Cougars have been sold. As some of you know, PG has the worst attendance in the league and a lot of this is attributed to the fans lack of support of the ownership. Maybe a change at the top will mean a better bottom line?
Also reported in the article is that it appears the Kootenay Ice will be moving to Winnipeg for next season. It has been said that the Jets have been wanting a WHL team, to follow in the successes in both Calgary and Edmonton. If it’s not the Cougars, the Ice are the next best option.
So, this being a Seattle-skewed blog, how do these two stories affect the Thunderbirds? For one, it sounds like with the new ownership the Cougars will be staying in PG. So count on having to still go up there for those two games a season. But secondly, it may mean more games for Seattle against some of the teams in the US division. Because Cranbrook, where the Ice are located, and Spokane are so close to each other, they played each other more often than the rest of the US division played the BC division. This lead to an imbalance in the schedule. With a team no longer in Cranbrook, in theory, this imbalance should go away. (Everett and Vancouver have a similar schedule because of proximity.)
Here’s what a balanced US division schedule could look like:
- 10 games vs division opponents (5H, 5A) 40 games
- 4 games vs conference opponents (2H, 2A) 20 games
- 1 game vs Central division (1H) 6 games
- 1 game vs East division (1A) 6 games
A total of 72 games. Now that could be adjusted so it skews more towards rivalries but I think a balanced schedule would be best. Would you as a Seattle fan want to continue to see Portland 12 times a year or would you rather them play all the division teams the same amount of times?
It will be interesting to see what all comes out of this story and how much of it is actually true but this is all big news and has ramifications across the league.
Any chance of expansion in the next few years? I would like to see two teams added to the WHL, to balance out the two conferences. If the Ice are truly leaving Cranbrook, perhaps a new WHL franchise could go there (to compete in the B.C. division), and then a 2nd one could be added somewhere here in the U.S. (I know Wenatchee would like a team; also Missoula MT, and Northern Idaho (Coeur d’Alene?), among others, might be possibilities). Either that, or Nanaimo could get a team, and then one of the BC teams (probably Vancouver) could be kicked into our division. (The latter would require that either they change the division name to something other than “U.S. Division”, or else the United States would have to annex Vancouver).
The problem with having a team in Cranbrook in the BC division is that they are on the other side of the province from the rest of the teams and they are much closer to the teams in Alberta. I don’t think you’ll see a team back there again because you’d have to put them in the Western Conference.
Other options: Nanaimo, like you said. But they will need a new rink and the city isn’t going to build it for them.
Chilliwack could be given another go. If the Canucks end up getting their AHL team into Abbotsford, though, then any other Fraser Valley city could be crossed off the list as that would be too tough to compete with.
Wenatchee would be a good fit and they certainly have the arena for it.
I don’t know that the league would want to go any further East in the US than Spokane. The last couple of times they tried Montana, they didn’t end very well. C d’A just built a new rink and it’s not big enough for a WHL team and I can’t imagine they would build another.