Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

has seen scant interest from

ice hockey in the United States Ice hockey, rarely referred to in the U.S. simply as "hockey", is a popular sport in the United States. Hockey in the U.S. began in 1894 when the first artificial ice rink was built in Baltimore, Maryland. Now hockey is most popular in regions of ...

. In spite of small investments, the state has seen a decent amount of engagement from residents.

History

Idaho was one of several

Rocky Mountain states The Mountain states (also known as the Mountain West or the Interior West) form one of the nine geographic divisions of the United States that are officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau. It is a subregion of the Western Un ...

that was ignored by the ice hockey community at large for many years. It wasn't until the mid-1990s that the gem state received its first professional team. For its third season, the West Coast Hockey League add the

Idaho Steelheads The Idaho Steelheads are an American professional minor league ice hockey team based in Boise, Idaho, and a member of the ECHL. The Steelheads play in the Mountain Division of the ECHL's Western Conference since the 2016–17 season. In 1996, th ...

as part of its 5-team expansion. The team was middling at best during its first three seasons but that didn't seem to deters fans. The Steelheads averaged just shy of 5,000 per game and they rewarded the patience of the locals when the team reached the league finals in both 2001 and 2002. However, in 2003 the team faced an uncertain future when the WCHL collapsed. Fortunately, the remaining six teams were accepted into the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The E ...

and the Steelheads promptly won the league championship. After a second title in 2007, the team remained one of the better ECHL clubs but they faced a few problems. Following the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...

in 2008, the team saw its attendance figures drop below 4,000 and didn't see any significant recovery for a decade. While the Steelheads managed to survive the downturn, most of their former WCHL compatriots did not. One after another, all of the ECHL's western additions failed, and by 2017 only three ECHL were left in the western half of the United States. Despite losing most of their rivals, Idaho soldiered on and saw its attendance figures swell. Even after the team was forced to cease operations during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Idaho brought in move than 5,000 fans per game for the first time in its history in 2022. Hoping to bank on the success of the pro team, a few attempts were made at placing junior teams in the area. The Idaho Rattlers lasted for parts of three seasons, suspending operations in December 2006. A little over two years later, a more successful attempt was made with the

Idaho Jr. Steelheads The Idaho Jr. Steelheads, also called the Idaho IceCats, were a junior ice hockey team based in McCall, Idaho. The team played in the Western States Hockey League (WSHL) and home games were held at Manchester Ice & Event Centre in McCall. The te ...

. The team was an immediate hit, finishing second in their division in their inaugural season before winning 8 consecutive division crowns. In that span the Jr. Steelheads won three overall league titles and five

Western States Hockey League The Western States Hockey League (WSHL) was a junior ice hockey league established in 1993. It was sanctioned by the United Hockey Union, the junior hockey branch of the Amateur Athletic Union. Previously, it was sanctioned by USA Hockey from 199 ...

Championships. A conflict over their name with the pro Steelheads led the junior club to rebrand as the IceCats in 2017 but the change didn't amount to much. Despite their unqualified success, the team became less of a draw and saw a few as 50 fans per game on some nights. With volunteers and staff feeling the effects as well, the team suspended operations in 2018. The state was left without a junior team for several years but it finally returned in 2022 with the debut of the Idaho Falls Spud Kings.

Teams

Professional

Active

Junior

Active

Inactive

Timeline

DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy ImageSize = width:1500 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:01/01/1995 till:07/01/2028 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:act value:rgb(0.5,0.8,0.5) legend:active id:out value:rgb(0.8,0.5,0.5) legend:out id:inact value:rgb(0.5,0.8,0.8) legend:inactive id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:act from:01/01/1997 till:end text:

(1997–Present) bar:2 color:act from:07/01/2004 till:12/01/2006 text: Idaho Rattlers (2004–2006) bar:3 color:act from:07/01/2009 till:06/01/2018 text: Idaho Jr. Steelheads / IceCats (2009–2018) bar:4 color:act from:07/01/2022 till:end text: Idaho Falls Spud Kings (2022–Present) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:01/01/2000

Players

Though the sport has only recently seen investment in the sport, Idaho has decent engagement numbers. As of 2022, 0.225% of residents were registered with

USA Hockey USA Hockey is the national ice hockey organization in the United States. It is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee as the Sport governing body, governing body for organized ice ...

, putting the state in the middle third of the nation and right between

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. While the low overall population means that only amounts to 4,600 people, a few native Idahoans have gone on to achieve notability.

Notable players by city

Ketchum

* Cody Lampl

Raised elsewhere

* Guyle Fielder * Kevin Kantee † relocated from elsewhere.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ice hockey in Idaho Ice hockey in Idaho