The Brandon Wheat Kings are a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

junior ice hockey Junior hockey is a level of competitive ice hockey generally for players between 16 and 21 years of age. Junior hockey leagues in the United States and Canada are considered amateur (with some exceptions) and operate within regions of each cou ...

team based in

Brandon, Manitoba Brandon () is the second-largest city in the province of Manitoba, Canada. It is located in the southwestern corner of the province on the banks of the Assiniboine River, approximately west of the provincial capital, Winnipeg, and east of the ...

. They are members of the

Western Hockey League The Western Hockey League (WHL) is a major junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as the highest level of junior h ...

(WHL) since joining the league in the 1967–68 season. Previously, they played in the

Manitoba Junior Hockey League The Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL) is a Junior 'A' ice hockey league operating in the Canadian province of Manitoba and one of nine member leagues of the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). The MJHL consists of thirteen teams all based ...

(MJHL), with the exception of two seasons in the mid-1960s when they played in the

Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League is a Junior 'A' ice hockey league operating in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan and one of nine member leagues of the Canadian Junior Hockey League. Open to North American-born players 20 years of ...

(SJHL). The team was a successor to the Brandon Wheat City senior team that participated in the 1904

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

Challenge, losing to the

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (french: Sénateurs d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a membe ...

. The team was known as the Brandon Elks for a short time in the late 1930s. They won eight

Turnbull Cup The Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL) is a Junior 'A' ice hockey league operating in the Canadian province of Manitoba and one of nine member leagues of the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). The MJHL consists of thirteen teams all based ...

Championships as Manitoba Junior Champions in 1939, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1960, 1962, 1963, and 1964. They appeared in the

Memorial Cup The Memorial Cup () is the national championship of the Canadian Hockey League, a consortium of three major junior ice hockey leagues operating in Canada and parts of the United States. It is a four-team round-robin tournament played between t ...

six times:

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – Luis ...

(as an MJHL team),

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, losing each time. The team plays its home games at the

Keystone Centre The Keystone Centre is a multi-purpose facility located in Brandon, Manitoba. Its main 5,102-seat arena which is known as Westoba Place is the home of the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey League and the annual Royal Manitoba Winter Fair. ...

. They also played at

Wheat City Arena The Wheat City Arena was an indoor arena located in Brandon, Manitoba, Brandon, Manitoba at the corner of 10th Street and Victoria Avenue. It was built in 1913 and hosted the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair as well as numerous ice hockey teams, including ...

until 1969, and the

Manex Arena The Manex Arena was an indoor arena located in Brandon, Manitoba. It briefly hosted the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey League between the demolition of the Wheat City Arena in 1969 and the construction of the Keystone Centre The Keysto ...

from 1969 to 1972. Between 1973 and 1980, the Wheat Kings owned and operated a farm team in the MJHL, called the Travellers. The 1949 Brandon Wheat Kings won the

Abbott Cup The Abbott Memorial Cup, commonly referred to as the Abbott Cup, was awarded annually from 1919 through 1999 to the Junior "A" ice hockey Champion for Western Canada. The Cup was named after Captain E.L. (Hick) Abbott who was a noted hockey pl ...

defeating the

Calgary Buffaloes The Calgary Centennials were a junior ice hockey team that played in the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) from 1966–1977. They played in Calgary, Alberta, Canada at the Stampede Corral. History A charter member of the Canadian Major Junio ...

. They went on to lose the

to the

Montreal Royals The Montreal Royals were a minor league professional baseball team in Montreal, Quebec, during 1897–1917 and 1928–1960. A member of the International League, the Royals were the top farm club (Class AAA) of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1939; pi ...

. The 1949 Brandon Wheat Kings were inducted into the

Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame The Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum is a hall of fame and museum for ice hockey in Manitoba, located on the main level of the Canada Life Centre in downtown Winnipeg. It was established in 1985, when the first honoured members were named an ...

in the team category. The Wheat Kings hold the CHL record for most points (125) in a single season, setting the mark in 1978–79. The

announced on October 16, 2008, that the Wheat Kings had been chosen to host the

2010 Memorial Cup The 2010 Memorial Cup was a four-team round-robin format tournament played during May 14–23, 2010 in Brandon, Manitoba. It was the 92nd annual Memorial Cup competition and determined the major junior ice hockey champion of the Canadian Hockey Le ...

championship at the

. They reached the final game, losing to the

Windsor Spitfires The Windsor Spitfires are a Canadian junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). The team is based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1971, the franchise was promoted to the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League for the 1975� ...

. The Brandon Wheat Kings mascot is Willie, a coyote/wild dog hybrid.

Season-by-season record

''Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against''

WHL Championship history

* 1976–77: Loss, 1–4 vs

New Westminster New Westminster (colloquially known as New West) is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It was founded by Major-General Richard Moody as the capita ...

* 1978–79: Win, 4–2 vs

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

* 1994–95: Loss, 2–4 vs

Kamloops Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the South flowing North Thompson River and the West flowing Thompson River, east of Kamloops Lake. It is located in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, w ...

* 1995–96: Win, 4–1 vs

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

* 1997–98: Loss, 0–4 vs Portland * 2004–05: Loss, 1–4 vs

Kelowna Kelowna ( ) is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the head office of the Regional District of Central Okanagan. The name Kelowna derives from the Okanagan word ''ki� ...

* 2014–15: Loss, 0–4 vs Kelowna * 2015–16: Win, 4–1 vs

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Current roster

Updated November 24, 2022.

Team records

NHL alumni

References

* 2005–06 WHL Guide

External links

Official website of the Brandon Wheat Kings

a

{{Manitoba Sports Ice hockey clubs established in 1936 Western Hockey League teams Sport in Brandon, Manitoba Ice hockey teams in Manitoba Manitoba Junior Hockey League teams 1936 establishments in Manitoba