The Winnipeg Ice are on the move after four seasons in the Manitoba capital.
The team and the Western Hockey League announced Friday that the Ice are headed southwest to Wenatchee, Washington.
The WHL team, which relocated to Winnipeg from Cranbrook, B.C. — where it was known as the Kootenay Ice — in 2019, is coming off a successful season, reaching the WHL’s championship series against the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Although the Ice lost that series 4-1, the 2022-23 season netted the Winnipeg team an Eastern Conference championship as well as the most wins (57) and points (115) during the regular season.
From the team’s beginnings in Edmonton in the 1990s, through their lengthy tenure in Cranbrook and short stay in Winnipeg, they won league titles in 2000 and 2011, plus a WHL championship and a Memorial Cup in 2002.
In Winnipeg, the Ice compiled a winning 166-49-8 record but found themselves in an oversaturated hockey market — alongside the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets and AHL’s Manitoba Moose — and a promised new arena, which was a condition in the move from B.C., never materialized.
Aside from playing at the Jets’ rink of Canada Life Centre for home games in this season’s championship series, the Ice played out of the Wayne Fleming Arena at the University of Manitoba.
In a statement Friday afternoon, Ice governor Greg Fettes said the failure to get a new facility built was “heartbreaking”.
“I believe the Winnipeg Ice was important for our community and provided an affordable option for families to see some of the most exciting hockey in Canada,” he said.
“I’m sure many people in Winnipeg will be disappointed in this outcome. I’m sorry we let you down. Please know that we did our absolute best until the very end.”
The WHL said the team will be will operate under the new ownership of David White of the California-based Shoot the Puck Foundation.
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