Victoria Cougars (WHL)
The Victoria Cougars were a Canadian ice hockey team from Victoria, British Columbia. The team played from 1971 to 1994 in one of the three highest Canadian Junior Hockey League, the Western Hockey League ( WHL).
History
The Victoria Cougars were founded in 1971 as a franchise of the Western Hockey League. After they had missed the playoffs in each of their first three seasons, they reached in the 1979/80 season for the first time the WHL final, where they lost the Regina Pats. The following year, the Cougars were once again in the final, this time, however, sat against the Calgery Wranglers a 4-1 victory in the best- of-seven series by. This year, the team from British Columbia also reached a WHL record with 60 wins in the regular season. Following the Victoria Cougars were unable to build on this success, so they missed the playoffs eight times in the following 13 years. In addition, they reached in the 1989/90 season another league -wide record, which is still valid. In 72 games, the Cougars won only five times and took twelve points, the worst performance of the season a WHL team represented at all.
Prior to the 1994/95 season the franchise to Prince George, British Columbia, were resettled, where it has since participating under the name Prince George Cougars game on operation of the WHL.
Former Players
The following players who were active for the Victoria Cougars, played in the course of her career in the National Hockey League:
- Greg C. Adams
- Micah Aivazoff
- Murray Bannerman
- Len Barrie
- Fred Berry
- Wayne Bianchin
- Alexander Boikow
- Mel Bridgman
- Don Cairns
- Rich Chernomaz
- Kim Clackson
- Glen Cochrane
- Geoff Courtnall
- Russ Courtnall
- Paul Cyr
- Gary Donaldson
- Kevin Evans
- Tony Feltrin
- Wade Flaherty
- Curt Fraser
- Grant Fuhr
- Richard Hajdu
- Archie Henderson
- Matt Hervey
- Al Hill
- Garry Howatt
- Brent Hughes
- Stu Kulak
- Rick Lapointe
- Mike Leclerc
- Danny Lucas
- Gary Lupul
- David Mackey
- Tom Martin
- Chris Mason
- Jeff McDill
- Bob McGill
- Jack McIlhargey
- Jim McKenzie
- John Mokosak
- Mark Morrison
- John Newberry
- Brad Palmer
- Steve Passmore
- Barry Pederson
- George Pesut
- Ken Priestlay
- Gordie Roberts
- Geordie Robertson
- Torrie Robertson
- Joel Savage
- Greg Tebbutt
- Mike Toal
- Alexander Vasilevski
- Terry Virtue
- Simon Wheeldon
- Darryl Williams