Four years after moving east, the Winnipeg Ice are returning west.
On Friday, the Western Hockey League announced that the Ice are relocating to Wenatchee, Wash., where the franchise — which started out in Edmonton before relocating to Cranbrook, then Winnipeg — will be rebranded as the Wild.
Wenatchee already had a junior hockey team, which, until Friday, played in the B.C. Hockey League.
In making the jump up from junior A to major junior, the franchise said “it is excited and humbled to announce its approval as the newest member club in the Western Hockey League (WHL), effective with the 2023-24 season.”
Purchasing the Ice franchise were Wild team owners David and Lisa White, owners of the Shoot the Puck Foundation.
The Wild will play in the now-six-team U.S. Division, and became the state’s fifth major-junior team. They will likely play B.C. Division teams four times during the regular season.
“Our vision has always been to operate with the highest level of standards for our players, and we have a responsibility to develop players to the best of our ability and prepare them for the next level,” White said.
“For our players, our community and our organization, this is an incredible opportunity to provide the greatest overall experience in our great sport.
“The state of Washington is a great hockey state at all levels. We have a home now with an American division that finally provides us with the long-term sustainability we have been searching for.”
The Wild have been a model of success, starting life in the North American Hockey League in 2008 before moving up to the BCHL in 2015, where they won the league championship in 2018.
On the BCHL’s website, the league “acknowledged today that the ownership group of the Wenatchee Wild has successfully acquired the Winnipeg Ice of the Western Hockey League and will be moving the team to Wenatchee for next season. This will mean the BCHL’s Wild franchise will no longer play in Wenatchee.”
“The Wenatchee Wild has been a strong BCHL franchise and we extend our best wishes for their continued success in the future,” said Graham Fraser, chairman of the BCHL’s board of governors.
“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.”
In Winnipeg, the Ice were a winning franchise and tallied a remarkable record of 166-49-9-4. Their record for the last two seasons was a stunning 110-20-4-2.
This past season, the franchise advanced to the WHL final, but lost out in five games to the Seattle Thunderbirds. In 2021-22, the Ice advanced to the Eastern Conference final, but fell, again in five games, to the Edmonton Oil Kings.
Despite that success, the Ice were hamstrung in having to play in a small rink that sat less than 1,500 people. Efforts by the ownership group to have a new rink built never came to fruition.
“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,” the WHL said.
“Today is a difficult day for Matt (Cockell) and I,” Winnipeg Ice governor Greg Fettes said on the team’s Twitter account.
“We have invested significant amount of time and money in bringing the best possible major junior hockey product to the Winnipeg market. I think we succeeded there.”
Fettes continued, saying “our failure to get a new facility built that would solidify the future of the WHL in Winnipeg is incredibly heartbreaking.
“I’m sorry we let you down. Please know that we did our absolute best until the very end.”