The Ontario Reign are a professional

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 ...

team in the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the lea ...

(AHL) that began play in the 2015–16 season. Based in

Ontario, California Ontario is a city in southwestern San Bernardino County in the U.S. state of California, east of downtown Los Angeles and west of downtown San Bernardino, the county seat. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire metropolitan area, i ...

, and affiliated with the

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

's Los Angeles Kings, the team plays its home games at the

Toyota Arena Toyota Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Ontario, California, United States. The arena hosts local sporting events and concerts and is suitable for indoor events, including basketball, ice hockey, ice shows, boxing, graduation ceremonies and co ...

. The franchise is a relocation of the former

Manchester Monarchs Manchester Monarchs may refer to: *Manchester Monarchs (AHL) (2001–2015) *Manchester Monarchs (ECHL) The Manchester Monarchs were a professional ice hockey team in the ECHL which began play in the 2015–16 season. Based in Manchester, New ...

AHL franchise when several other franchises created a Pacific Division in 2015. The team is owned by the Anschutz Entertainment Group. The Reign replaced 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 ...

team of the same name, which played from

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

until

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

, after which they moved to Manchester, New Hampshire, to play as the

History

On January 29, 2015, the Los Angeles Kings announced that they would be moving their AHL affiliate, the

, to Ontario as one of five charter members of the AHL's new Pacific Division. The team retained the Reign nickname from its ECHL predecessor (which moved to Manchester and take on the Monarchs moniker, in essentially a "franchise swap"). The Reign's AHL logo, based on the Kings' 1980s-90s " Chevy" logo, was unveiled on Wednesday, February 11. The franchise retained head coach

Mike Stothers Michael Patrick Stothers (born February 22, 1962) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who is an assistant coach for the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League. He played for the Philadelphia Flyers and Toronto Maple Leafs, an ...

during the move from Manchester. In its inaugural season in California, the Reign won the first Pacific Division regular season title with a 44–19–4–1 record. Goaltender

Peter Budaj Peter Budaj ( ; born 18 September 1982) is a Slovak former professional ice hockey goaltender. He had previously played in the National Hockey League for the Colorado Avalanche, which drafted him, Montreal Canadiens, Los Angeles Kings, and Tam ...

was named to the 2015–16 AHL First All-Star Team and was selected as the league top goaltender with the

Baz Bastien Memorial Award Baz may refer to: Places *Baz, Albania, a village *Baz, Iran, a village in central Iran *Baz (tribe), an Assyrian tribe from eastern Turkey *BAZ, IATA airport code of Barcelos Airport, Barcelos, Brazil *BAZ, FAA airport code of New Braunfels Munic ...

. Sean Backman lead the team in scoring with 21 goals and 34 assists while playing all 68 games for the Reign. The Reign would also win the division in the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eit ...

, defeating the San Jose Barracuda three-games-to-one and the San Diego Gulls four-games-to-one. In the conference finals, the Reign were swept by the eventual

Calder Cup The Calder Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the playoff champions of the American Hockey League. It was first presented in 1937 to the Syracuse Stars. The cup is made of sterling silver mounted on a base of Brazilian mahogany. In its curr ...

champion

Lake Erie Monsters The Cleveland Monsters are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL). The team began play in 2007 as the Lake Erie Monsters and since 2015 has served as the top affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Ho ...

in four games. During the next season in 2016–17, due to goaltender injuries and call-ups for their parent club, the Los Angeles Kings, the Reign ended up using a Canadian father-son duo Dusty and Jonah Imoo during a game in October 2016. Dusty Imoo (age 46) was a goaltending consultant with the Kings. Jonah (age 22) made his AHL debut on a tryout contract. Both the Imoos had grown up in

Surrey, British Columbia Surrey is a city in British Columbia, Canada. It is located south of the Fraser River on the Canada–United States border. It is a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver regional district and metropolitan area. Mainly a suburban city, Su ...

. By the end of the season, the Reign qualified for the playoffs in third place in the Pacific Division, losing in the first round to San Diego. The 2019–20 season was curtailed by the onset of 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 identi ...

in March 2020. During the offseason, Stothers' contract was not renewed and was replaced by

John Wroblewski John Ellsworth Wroblewski (born May 26, 1981) is an American former ice hockey player. He is currently the head coach of the United States women's national ice hockey team. He is the former head coach of the USA Hockey National Team Development Pr ...

as the new head coach. Approaching the delayed 2020–21 season, the Reign announced they would temporarily relocate and play out of the Kings' practice rink,

Toyota Sports Center The Toyota Sports Center (formerly the HealthSouth Training Center) is a practice facility for the Los Angeles Kings, and the Ontario Reign, located on 555 North Nash Street in El Segundo, California. The $24 million, facility broke ground o ...

, in El Segundo due to pandemic-related restrictions. The Sports Center hosted all the Reign's home games closed to spectators.

Season-by-season records

Players

Current roster

Updated December 23, 2022.

Team captains

* Vincent LoVerde, 2015–17 * Brett Sutter, 2017–22 * T.J. Tynan, 2022–present

References

External links

Ontario Reign official website
{{California sports 1 Ice hockey teams in California Sports in Ontario, California Sports in San Bernardino County, California Sports in the Inland Empire Ice hockey clubs established in 2015 2015 establishments in California