Victoria Salmon Kings

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Victoria Salmon Kings
Founded 1988 (as the Erie Panthers)
Home ice Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre
Based in Victoria, British Columbia
Colors Navy Blue, Gold
League ECHL
Head coach Mark Morrison
General manager Dan Belisle
Affiliates Vancouver Canucks (NHL)
Manitoba Moose (AHL)

The Victoria Salmon Kings are a professional ice hockey team in the ECHL which began play in the 2004-2005 season. They are based in Victoria, British Columbia.

Contents

[edit] History

While the Victoria region has had a long and distinguished hockey history - the Victoria Cougars won the Stanley Cup in 1925 - the region was the largest Canadian region without either professional or Major-Junior hockey when the WHL Victoria Cougars (a team with no connection to the aforementioned Cougars) moved to Prince George in 1994. This was a crippling blow to Victoria hockey fans, whose only remaining local team was the Tier II Junior 'A' Victoria Salsa.

By this time, it had become evident that the 50-year-old Memorial Arena, seating only 4,000 for hockey, would have to be replaced if Victoria expected to be able to attract a new hockey club. After several years of discussion, the construction of a new arena was approved by Victoria voters in a 2002 referendum, with one key condition being that its construction was dependent on Victoria securing a WHL team.

When the private-sector partner, RG Properties, was unable to secure a WHL club, the company bought the rights to the defunct ECHL Baton Rouge Kingfish, formerly the Erie Panthers, a charter member of the ECHL, and announced that Victoria's new team would be named the Salmon Kings. Reaction in the community was somewhat mixed; while securing a club was good enough for construction of the new arena to begin, many were troubled by the perception that they would be receiving a lesser quality of hockey than that seen in the major-junior WHL. In addition, the ECHL was virtually unknown in Canada; Victoria was to be the first Canadian team in league history. In response to all this, the Salmon Kings began marketing efforts to convince Victoria residents that the Salmon Kings and the ECHL would offer a high quality product. Controversy remains about whether or not the ECHL is a better fit than the WHL. While many have embraced the third-tier professional hockey, believing it to be superior to the WHL, others - including many Salmon Kings season ticket holders - say they would prefer the WHL if they had a choice. And, to that end, local businessmen and former NHL'er Len Barrie has made overtures about bringing a WHL franchise to nearby Colwood, to compete head-to-head with the Salmon Kings for the southern Vancouver Island market. In the summer of 2006, it was announced that the Salmon Kings would become the ECHL affiliate of the nearby Vancouver Canucks. While this move will have Canucks prospects playing for the Salmon Kings, only time will tell if this partnership will create more interest in the club, as WHL alumni take to the ice, and the Canucks can travel a much shorter distance to attend their prospects' games, compared to their previous affiliate, in Columbia, South Carolina, in the United States, where the Inferno was well used as a player development team for the Canucks in their five seasons as an affiliate. Time will tell if the Canucks will use the Salmon Kings in the same way as they did with their previous affiliate.

The original logo of the Victoria Salmon Kings lasted for one season.  It is rumoured that the logo needed to be changed as the Los Angeles Kings took exception to this logo.
The original logo of the Victoria Salmon Kings lasted for one season. It is rumoured that the logo needed to be changed as the Los Angeles Kings took exception to this logo.

It became clear as the 2004-2005 ECHL season approached that Victoria's new arena, now called the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, was not going to be ready in time for the season. In response, the ECHL scheduled the Salmon Kings to begin their inaugural season with an unheard-of 14 game road trip. Unfortunately, even this was not enough time for the arena to be completed, and in the summer of 2004 the Salmon Kings were forced to secure ice time in the Bear Mountain Arena in the suburban community of Colwood, which had been constructed with the needs of the junior 'A' Victoria Salsa and the Victoria Shamrocks lacrosse club in mind.

Despite all this, the Salmon Kings took to the ice in their first regular-season game on October 22, 2004, in Bakersfield, California, against the Bakersfield Condors. Former University of Alberta player Ryan Wade scored the first goal in Salmon Kings history. Unfortunately, they lost this game 7-2; the Salmon Kings would struggle during their 14-game road trip, only winning 3 games, losing 10 games in regulation and one in a shootout. Their first victory came at the expense of the Fresno Falcons on October 24th, which the Salmon Kings won by a convincing 5-0 margin. David Brumby, the Kings' starting goaltender at the time, turned away 37 shots for the shutout.

As the NHL lockout progressed, Dale Purinton and Dan Blackburn of the New York Rangers and Mark Smith of the San Jose Sharks played for the Salmon Kings. Purinton, an enforcer, was suspended twice by the league, the first for a career-ending check into the boards of Condors player Krzysztof Wieckowski, and the second for returning to the ice to fight after being ejected during a bench-clearing brawl involving the Kings and the Falcons. After the latter suspension, Purinton was suspended indefinitely by the Salmon Kings and did not play again that season.

After the grueling 14-game road trip which lasted for over a month, the Salmon Kings finally played their first home game on December 5th, 2004, Victoria hockey fans packed the tiny Bear Mountain Arena for the first professional hockey game to be played in Victoria since the Victoria Maple Leafs left in 1967. Unfortunately, the Kings lost this game 4-3 in overtime. They would continue to struggle during their first season, going only 15-52-5 over 72 games; notably, they set an ECHL record for a continuous winless streak, going 0-18-2 between December 31, 2004 and February 4, 2005.

[edit] List of head coaches

  • Mark Morrison 2006-
  • Tony MacAulay 2006
  • Troy Ward 2006
  • Bryan Maxwell 2004-06

[edit] Season Results

    Regular Season   Playoffs    
Season Team GP Pts W L OTL/SOL GP W L Result
2004-05 Victoria Salmon Kings 72 35 15 52 5 - - - Out of playoffs
2005-06 Victoria Salmon Kings 72 61 26 37 9 - - - Out of playoffs
2006-07 Victoria Salmon Kings 67 66 31 32 4 - - - In progress

[edit] Current Roster

As of December 31, 2006. Numbers taken from ECHL website. [1]

Goaltenders
# Player Catches Date of birth Place of birth
1 Flag of Canada Bryan Bridges L December 27, 1985 Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
35 Flag of Canada Julien Ellis L January 27, 1986 Sorel, Quebec, Canada
Defencemen
# Player Shoots Date of birth Place of birth
4 Flag of Canada Matt Kelly R March 23, 1985 Tottenham, Ontario, Canada
5 Flag of Sweden Gustav Engman L January 17, 1985 Borlange, Dalarna County, Sweden
6 Flag of Canada Phil Cole L September 6, 1982 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
8 Flag of United States Seamus Young R August 16, 1983 Dedham, Massachusetts, USA
14 Flag of Canada Justin Spencer R May 25, 1981 Tweed, Ontario, Canada
17 Flag of Canada Steve Lingren L April 15, 1973 Lake Cowichan, British Columbia, Canada
21 Flag of Canada James DeMone L July 1, 1982 St. Albert, Alberta, Canada
25 Flag of United States Brad Cook L February 26, 1975 Southgate, Michigan, USA
Forwards
# Player Position Shoots Date of birth Place of birth
9 Flag of Canada Milan Gajic C R June 1, 1981 Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
10 Flag of Canada Derek Krestanovich F L May 31, 1983 Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
11 Flag of Canada Jordan Krestanovich F L June 14, 1981 Langley, British Columbia, Canada
12 Flag of Canada Francois-Pierre Guenette C L January 18, 1984 Laval, Quebec, Canada
16 Flag of Canada Wes Goldie RW R May 5, 1979 London, Ontario, Canada
18 Flag of Canada Mike Stutzel LW L February 28, 1979 Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
19 Flag of Canada Warren McCutcheon C L August 6, 1982 Carmen, Manitoba, Canada
20 Flag of Canada Ryan Wade F R May 11, 1978 Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
24 Flag of Canada Greg Hornby LW R January 18, 1982 Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
27 Flag of Canada Darryl Lloyd C L February 10, 1984 Pickering, Ontario, Canada
71 Flag of Canada Kiel McLeod C R December 30, 1982 Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada
Staff
Title Staff Member
Head Coach Mark Morrison
Trainer Dave Zarn
Equipment Manager Grant Ferguson

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

ECHL
2006-07 teams: Alaska Aces | Augusta Lynx | Bakersfield Condors | Charlotte Checkers | Cincinnati Cyclones | Columbia Inferno | Dayton Bombers | Florida Everblades | Fresno Falcons | Gwinnett Gladiators | Idaho Steelheads | Johnstown Chiefs | Las Vegas Wranglers | Long Beach Ice Dogs | Pensacola Ice Pilots | Phoenix RoadRunners | Reading Royals | South Carolina Stingrays | Stockton Thunder | Texas Wildcatters | Toledo Storm | Trenton Titans | Utah Grizzlies | Victoria Salmon Kings | Wheeling Nailers
Planned 2007-08 teams: Mississippi Sea Wolves
Trophies and Awards: Patrick J. Kelly Cup
Related Articles: NHL | AHL | CHL | SPHL | UHL | World Cup