The Victoria Cougars were a major

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

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

that played in the WCHL (Western Canadian Hockey League) a precursor to 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 ...

between 1971 and 1994. Prior to 1971, the Cougars were members of the

Pacific Coast Junior Hockey League The Pacific Junior A Hockey League (PJHL) was a Canadian Junior "A" ice hockey league operating within the Greater Vancouver metropolitan area in British Columbia from 1971 until 1979. History From 1962 to 1967, a Pacific Coast Junior Hockey Leagu ...

(1962–1967) and the

British Columbia Junior Hockey League The British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) is a Junior A ice hockey league from British Columbia under Hockey Canada and BC Hockey. Founded in Vernon in 1961, the BCHL now includes 18 teams. From 1993 to 2021, the league was a member of the Can ...

(1967–1971). The Cougars played their home games at the

Victoria Memorial Arena Victoria Memorial Arena was an ice hockey arena, located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It was built in 1949 and demolished in 2003 due to poor acoustics and climbing maintenance costs. Its nickname, the "Barn on Blanshard", was due to it ...

, which was demolished in 2003. They won the WHL championship in 1981. The team moved to

Prince George, British Columbia Prince George is the largest city in northern British Columbia, Canada, with a population of 74,004 in the metropolitan area. It is often called the province's "northern capital" or sometimes the "spruce capital" because it is the hub city for ...

in 1994 and are now the

Prince George Cougars The Prince George Cougars are a Canadian major junior ice hockey team currently members of the B.C. Division of the Western Conference in the Western Hockey League (WHL). The team is based in Prince George, British Columbia, and plays its home ...

. The Cougars earned several WHL records during their time in Victoria, both for most wins (60 in 1980–81) and for fewest points (12 in 1989–90). Their five wins that season set a WHL record for futility within a 72-game season, which included a record setting 32 game losing streak (November 22, 1989 – February 11, 1990).

Season-by-season record

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

NHL alumni

There were 58 alumni of the Victoria Cougars who graduated from junior hockey to play in 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 ...

Source
Goaltender Grant Fuhr was inducted in 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 ...

References

*2005–06 WHL Guide
Victoria Cougars (all junior and pro variations)
at

HockeyDB HockeyDB, originally known as the Internet Hockey Database, is a Canadian-American website dedicated to the specialization of statistics behind the game of ice hockey. It is one of the largest repository of hockey data on the internet, gatherin ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Victoria Cougars (Whl)

Cougars The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

Ice hockey clubs established in 1971 Defunct Western Hockey League teams Defunct ice hockey teams in British Columbia 1971 establishments in British Columbia 1994 disestablishments in British Columbia Ice hockey clubs disestablished in 1994

Season-by-season record

NHL alumni

See also

References