The Calgary Canucks are a junior A

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

team in the

Alberta Junior Hockey League The Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) is an Alberta-based Junior A ice hockey league that belongs to the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). It was formed as a five-team league in 1964. There are currently 16 teams in the league. The reg ...

(AJHL). They play in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

, Alberta, Canada, with home games at the Ken Bracko Arena. They have won the AJHL championship nine times and one national championship.

History

Calgary Canucks - Cole Svenson (Quintin Soloviev)

Founded in 1971, the Calgary Canucks are the second-oldest franchise still operating in the

(AJHL), preceded only by the

Spruce Grove Saints The Spruce Grove Saints are a junior A ice hockey team in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL). They play in Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada, with home games at Grant Fuhr Arena. History The Saints' franchise is the only franchise remaining fro ...

. The Canucks franchise has the longest tenure of any in the AJHL in one city. The Canucks organization was formed of a group led by Doug Eastcott in order to create a junior team so that local players did not have to live away from where they attended school. As the team considered itself a Calgary-based development system, it set an internal limit of three "imports" (non-Calgary area players) per season. The import cap was eventually dropped as the AJHL has added more teams in the Calgary region such as the

Calgary Royals The Calgary Mustangs were a junior A ice hockey team in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL). They played in Calgary, Alberta, Canada at the Father David Bauer Olympic Arena. They were known as the Calgary Royals from 1990 until 2010. On Ma ...

and

Okotoks Oilers The Okotoks Oilers are a junior A ice hockey team in the Alberta Junior Hockey League. They play in Okotoks, Alberta, Canada with home games at the Centennial Arenas in South Okotoks. History In June 2004, the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJ ...

, causing the team to recruit from a larger region. The Canucks qualified for the playoffs 34 consecutive seasons, a streak finally broken in 2006–07, The team has 11 regular season titles, nine AJHL championships, two

Doyle Cup The Doyle Cup is an ice hockey trophy won through a best-of-7 series conducted annually by the Canadian Junior Hockey League to determine the Pacific region berth in the Centennial Cup, the national Junior A championship. From 1971 to 2021, the se ...

titles, and one Centennial Cup

National Junior A Championship The Centennial Cup is an annual ice hockey tournament organized by Hockey Canada and the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL), which determines the national champion of junior A ice hockey. It is a ten-team round robin featuring the winners of ...

. The team has developed multiple players that have reached the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

, including

Dany Heatley Daniel "Dany" James Heatley (born January 21, 1981) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger. Originally drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers second overall in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, he won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the National ...

and two-time

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 ...

winner Mike Vernon. Many more have earned scholarships to American and Canadian universities. During the 2021–22 season, while renovations made their home Ken Bracko Arena unavailable, the Canucks played their home games at Henry Viney Arena.

Season-by-season record

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

Junior A National Championship

The

, known as the

Centennial Cup The Centennial Cup is an annual ice hockey tournament organized by Hockey Canada and the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL), which determines the national champion of junior A ice hockey. It is a ten-team round robin featuring the winners of ...

and formerly as Royal Bank Cup or RBC Cup, is the postseason tournament for the Canadian national championship for Junior A hockey teams that are members of the

Canadian Junior Hockey League The Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL) is an association of Canadian junior A ice hockey leagues and teams and was formed in November 1993, emerging from the Canada West Association of Junior 'A' Hockey. The champion of the Canadian Junior H ...

since 1971. Since 1986, the tournament has consisted of the regional Junior A champions and a previously selected host team. Since 1990, the national championship has used a five-team tournament format when the regional qualifiers were designated as the ANAVET Cup (Western),

(Pacific),

Dudley Hewitt Cup The Dudley-Hewitt Cup is a championship ice hockey trophy awarded to the Central Canadian Junior A champion. The trophy is currently decided by round robin tournament format, at the conclusion of the playoffs of the Ontario Junior Hockey League, ...

(Central), and

Fred Page Cup The Fred Page Cup is a championship ice hockey trophy, won by a tournament conducted by the Canadian Junior Hockey League. The award is given to the winner of a round-robin and playoff between the Bogart Cup champions of the Central Canada Hoc ...

(Eastern). From 2013 to 2017, the qualifiers were the

(Central),

(Eastern), and the

Western Canada Cup The Western Canada Cup (WCC); was the Junior 'A' ice hockey championship for western Canada from 2013 to 2017. The annual five-team event consisted of the host team and the champions from the four western leagues (Alberta Junior Hockey League, Bri ...

champions and runners-up (Western #1 and #2). The tournament begins with round-robin play between the five teams followed by the top four teams playing a semifinal game, with the top seed facing the fourth seed and the second facing the third. The winners of the semifinals then face each other in final game for the national championship. In some years, the losers of the semifinal games face each other for a third place game.

NHL alumni

The following former Canucks have gone on to play in the

(NHL):

References

External links