The Ed Chynoweth Cup is an

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 ...

club championship

trophy A trophy is a tangible, durable reminder of a specific achievement, and serves as a recognition or evidence of merit. Trophies are often awarded for sporting events, from youth sports to professional level athletics. In many sports medals (or, in ...

awarded to the playoff champion 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). Originally called the President's Cup when the league was founded in 1966, the trophy was renamed in 2007 to honour

Ed Chynoweth Edward Chynoweth (December 14, 1941 – April 22, 2008) was a Canadian ice hockey executive. He served as president of the Western Hockey League and the Canadian Hockey League for over 20 years each. He was also a league director, team own ...

's long service to junior hockey in Canada. The WHL champion earns a berth into 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 ...

tournament, Canada's

major junior 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 ...

championship. The

Kamloops Blazers The Kamloops Blazers are a junior ice hockey team in the Western Hockey League (WHL). The team plays in the B.C. Division of the Western Conference, is based out of Kamloops, British Columbia, and play home games at Sandman Centre. The Blazers o ...

have won the most championships with six, followed by the

Medicine Hat Tigers The Medicine Hat Tigers are a junior ice hockey team in the Western Hockey League (WHL) who play in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. Established in 1970, the team has won two national Memorial Cups, five WHL League Championships and seven Divis ...

with five. The

Spokane Chiefs The Spokane Chiefs are a major junior ice hockey team that plays in the Western Hockey League based out of Spokane, Washington. The team plays its home games at the Spokane Arena. Their uniforms are similar to those of the NHL's Montreal Canadi ...

were the first team to win the renamed trophy in the 2007–08 WHL season. The current (2021-22) holders of the Ed Chynoweth Cup are the

Edmonton Oil Kings The Edmonton Oil Kings are a major junior ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, that play in the Western Hockey League. As of July 2008, they are owned by Daryl Katz's Oilers Entertainment Group, which also owns the Edmonton Oilers ...

History

The WHL was founded in 1966 by seven teams from Alberta and Saskatchewan who were hoping to improve the quality of junior hockey in western Canada. Despite gaining approval from the governing bodies of both provinces, the

Canadian Amateur Hockey Association The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA; french: Association canadienne de hockey amateur) was the national governing body of amateur ice hockey in Canada from 1914 until 1994, when it merged with Hockey Canada. Its jurisdiction include ...

(CAHA) objected to the formation of the interprovincial league, refusing to sanction the circuit and suspending all players and officials who participated in the league from participation in any CAHA league or event. Declared an "outlaw league" by the CAHA, the WHL's founders chose to play on, though the league was ruled ineligible to participate in the

, Canada's national junior championship. The first President's Cup champion was the

Moose Jaw Canucks The Moose Jaw Canucks were a junior ice hockey team based in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. They were one of the founding members of the ''Western Canada Junior Hockey League'' (known today as the Western Hockey League) in 1966 following a rebell ...

in 1967. In 1971, the CAHA reorganized the top level of junior hockey into two tiers, sanctioning the WHL as the top league in western Canada and one of three leagues that formed the "Major-Junior" tier, the others being the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) (today the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; french: Ligue de hockey de l'Ontario (LHO)) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 16–19. There are exceptions for overag ...

(OHL)) and

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (french: Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec; abbreviated ''QMJHL'' in English, ''LHJMQ'' in French) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues that constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The l ...

(QMJHL), The 1971 champion

thus faced the

Quebec Remparts There have been two junior ice hockey franchises known as the Quebec Remparts (french: Remparts de Québec) that played in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). The first edition played from 1969 to 1985; the current franchise has pla ...

in the 1972 Memorial Cup final, though, it nearly failed to materialize as the OHA and QMJHL initially refused to face the western champion. The Oil Kings were defeated by Quebec in an abbreviated series. The two teams played a best-of-three series, in which the first team with two victories won the title, as opposed to the normal best-of-seven (first team to four wins). Three years later, in 1974, the

Regina Pats Regina (Latin for "queen") may refer to: Places Canada * Regina, Saskatchewan, the capital city of the province ** Regina (electoral district) ** Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina France * Régina, French Guiana, a commune United States * R ...

became the first WHL champion to win the national title. The

New Westminster Bruins The New Westminster Bruins were a major junior ice hockey team in the Western Hockey League. There were two franchises that carried this name: * 1971–1981 (formerly the Estevan Bruins, now the Kamloops Blazers) * 1983–1988 (formerly the Nan ...

emerged as the first

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

in league history, winning four consecutive championships between 1975 and 1978, along with two Memorial Cups in 1977 and 1978. In 1976, the

Portland Winter Hawks The Portland Winterhawks are a junior ice hockey team based in Portland, Oregon, playing in the Western Hockey League (WHL), one of three leagues making up the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). Prior to the 2021-22 season, the Winterhawks split the ...

became the first American-based team in the WHL. Six years later, the 1981–82 Winter Hawks recorded more firsts, becoming the first American team to win the President's Cup as well as the first American team to compete for the Memorial Cup. One year later, the Winter Hawks won the 1983 Memorial Cup becoming the first American champion, and the first to win the Memorial Cup without winning its own league title, as Portland hosted the tournament and was guaranteed a spot in the tournament despite losing the WHL final to the

Lethbridge Broncos The Lethbridge Broncos were a junior ice hockey team in the Western Hockey League from 1974 until 1986. They played at the Lethbridge Sportsplex. :Division titles won: 1977–78, 1981–82 :Regular season titles won: 1981–82 : WHL Championship ...

.''The Memorial Cup'', p.208 Hitmen 2010 WHL Champs

On December 30, 1986, four members of the

Swift Current Broncos The Swift Current Broncos are a junior ice hockey team in the Western Hockey League. Founded during 1967 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, the Broncos played seven seasons before relocating to Lethbridge from 1974 to 1986 as the Lethbridge Broncos ...

—Scott Kruger, Trent Kresse, Brent Ruff and Chris Mantyka—were killed when the team bus crashed outside Swift Current. The community rallied around the team, and less than three years later, the Broncos emerged as the top team in the

Canadian Hockey League The Canadian Hockey League (CHL; french: Ligue canadienne de hockey ‒ LCH) is an umbrella organization that represents the three Canada-based major junior ice hockey leagues. The CHL was founded in 1975 as the Canadian Major Junior Hockey L ...

(CHL). Featuring Scott Kruger's younger brothers Darren and Trevor, the 1988–89 Broncos became the first team in WHL history to sweep their way through the playoffs, winning the President's Cup without losing a single game in the post-season. The Broncos faced the host

Saskatoon Blades The Saskatoon Blades are a major junior ice hockey team playing in the Eastern Division of the Western Hockey League, formerly the Western Canadian Hockey League (WCHL). They are based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, playing at the 15,195-seat SaskTe ...

in the 1989 Memorial Cup final, defeating their provincial rivals in the first all-WHL national championship. The

dominated the WHL in the early 1990s, capturing four league championships between 1990 and 1995 and three Memorial Cups to cap a period where WHL teams won seven Memorial Cup championships in a nine-year period between 1987 and 1995. In 2007, the league renamed the championship trophy the Ed Chynoweth Cup in honour of

's long tenure with the league. Chynoweth had served as president of both the WHL and CHL, from 1972 and 1975 respectively, until leaving both posts in 1995 to form the

Edmonton Ice The Edmonton Ice were a junior ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, that played two seasons in the Western Hockey League from 1996 to 1998. History The WHL expanded to Edmonton in 1996, and the Ice began play at the Northlands Agri ...

. He remained with the franchise through its transfer to

Kootenay Kootenay, Kootenai, and Kutenai may refer to: Ethnic groups *The Kutenai, also known as the Ktunaxa, Kootenai, or Kootenay, an indigenous people of the United States and Canada **Kutenai language, the traditional language of the Kutenai **Ktunaxa ...

until his death in 2008. Chynoweth was described by

commissioner David Branch as being "the architect of the Canadian Hockey League as we know it today". Chynoweth was posthumously elected to the

Hockey Hall of Fame , logo = Hockey Hall of Fame Logo.svg , logo_upright = 0.5 , image = Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto.jpg , caption = The Hall's present location on Yonge Street since 1992 , map_type = , former_name = , established = 1943 , location = 30 Y ...

in 2008.

List of winners

*Number in parenthesis denotes total championships won to that point

By season

By team

Notes

*In some playoff years, ties were possible, and are noted in win–loss–tie format *The league did not receive official sanctioning by the

until 1971, and thus was not eligible to compete for the Memorial Cup between 1967 and 1970.''The Memorial Cup'', p.141 In spite of this, the 1968 Estevan Bruins did compete in the Memorial Cup final, the only team in the WHL's first four years permitted to do so. *Portland qualified for the 1983 Memorial Cup as the host team. *Portland qualified for the 1986 Memorial Cup as the host team after New Westminster withdrew as the host. *Saskatoon qualified for the 1989 Memorial Cup as the host team. *Seattle qualified for the 1992 Memorial Cup as the host team. *Kamloops both hosted the 1995 Memorial Cup and qualified as the league winner. As the losing finalist, Brandon played as the WHL's second representative. *Spokane qualified for the 1998 Memorial Cup as the host team. *Regina qualified for the 2001 Memorial Cup as the host team. *Kelowna qualified for the 2004 Memorial Cup as the host team. *Vancouver qualified for the 2007 Memorial Cup as the host team. *Brandon qualified for the 2010 Memorial Cup as the host team. *Saskatoon qualified for the 2013 Memorial Cup as the host team.

References