The Brandon Wheat Kings are a Canadian major junior ice hockey team based in Brandon, Manitoba. Founded in 1936, the team was for three decades a successful junior team playing principally in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League. The Wheat Kings joined the Western Hockey League ahead of the 1967–68 season, and today play in the East Division of the Eastern Conference, hosting games at Keystone Centre. The team owns the best regular season record in WHL history from the 1978–79 season, when the Wheat Kings posted 58 wins and 125 points. That season, they won their first of three league championships.
History
Early years
The Wheat Kings are a spiritual successor to the Brandon Wheat City senior team that participated in the 1904 Stanley Cup Challenge, losing to the Ottawa Senators. The Wheat Kings team was founded in 1936 as a member of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL), although the team was known as the Elks for a short time in the late 1930s. Playing out of Wheat City Arena, the team won eight Turnbull Cup Championships as Manitoba Junior Champions and appeared in the Memorial Cup finals in 1949 after winning the Abbott Cup as the Western Canadian junior champion. The 1949 Brandon Wheat Kings were inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame.[2] During the 1950s, the Wheat Kings left the MJHL for a time to play in the Big Six Intermediate Hockey League. Later, in 1964, Brandon left the MJHL again and spent two seasons playing in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League instead. The team then returned to the MJHL for one season before joining the major junior Western Canada Junior Hockey League in 1967.[3]
Western Hockey League
The Wheat Kings had a challenging start in the new league—over their first nine seasons, the team posted only two winning records and won only a single playoff series. In 1970, the team moved briefly to Manex Arena, before moving to the new Keystone Centre in 1973.[4] The same year, the team began operating a farm team in the MJHL, called the Brandon Travellers, an arrangement that would last until 1980.[5] The Wheat Kings began a short period of success in 1976.[6] Led by the likes of Brian Propp, Brad McCrimmon, and Ray Allison, the team won three straight regular season titles from 1976–77 to 1978–79, advancing to two league finals and capturing their first championship in 1979, defeating the Portland Winter Hawks in 6 games in the final.[7] The Wheat Kings advanced to the Memorial Cup for the first time since 1949, again to lose in the final, this time in a 2–1 overtime defeat against the Peterborough Petes in what has been cited as one of the best finals in the tournament's history.[8] Infamously, with the team down three defencemen, McCrimmon played all but two minutes of the Memorial Cup final—he left the ice only to serve a minor penalty.[9] The Wheat Kings 1978–79 campaign set a WHL record for points with 125.[10] At the 1979 National Hockey League draft, ten members of the 1978–79 Wheat Kings were selected, including four in the first round.[6] This proved to be a peak for the club, as over the following fourteen seasons the Wheat Kings would miss the playoffs altogether eight times, and win only two playoff series.[7] One highlight came in the 1983–84 season, when Ray Ferraro set a league record with a 108-goal season.[11]
In the late 1980s, Brad McCrimmon's brother, Kelly McCrimmon, took over as team manager.[12] Under his guidance, the Wheat Kings again rose to prominence, making three finals appearances in a four-season span between 1994–95 and 1997–98. Despite losing the 1995 final, the team advanced to the Memorial Cup because they lost to the host Kamloops Blazers; at the tournament, Brandon lost the semi-final 2–1 to the Detroit Junior Red Wings.[13] Their best result came in 1995–96, when the team, coached by Bob Lowes and led on the ice by the likes of Wade Redden and Peter Schaefer, posted its first 50-win season since 1979, winning the regular season title. The team then lost only three games in the playoffs en route to its second playoff championship. The Wheat Kings thus advanced to a second consecutive Memorial Cup tournament; they again bowed out in the semi-final, losing 4–3 to Peterborough.[7] Throughout this period the Wheat Kings became a perennial playoff contender, missing the postseason only twice between 1993 and 2018.
The Wheat Kings were selected to host the 2010 Memorial Cup tournament, ensuring their fifth appearance. Led by Matt Calvert, Brayden Schenn, and Toni Rajala, Brandon put together a 50-win season, reached the Eastern Conference final and the Memorial Cup final.[14] There, the Wheat Kings lost to the Windsor Spitfires, who claimed their second straight national title.[15] Brandon would return to the Memorial Cup for a sixth time in 2016 after winning its third Ed Chynoweth Cup as league champions. However, the 2016 tournament would mark the first time the team failed to advance to at least the semi-final as they dropped three straight games.[14] After the season, Kelly McCrimmon was hired by the National Hockey League's Vegas Golden Knights—his departure from Brandon marked the end of an era.[16]
In a shortened 2020–21 WHL campaign played exclusively in-division and without playoffs—the season was modified due to the COVID-19 pandemic—Brandon finished atop the East Division with an 18–4–2 record.[17] In 2022, the team hired former player Marty Murray to be its new coach and manager.[18]
Season-by-season record
The Wheat Kings facing the Calgary Hitmen in the 2007 WHL playoffs.The Wheat Kings have played out of Keystone Centre—now Westoba Credit Union Place—since 1973.
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against
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