Portland Winter Hawks

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Portland Winter Hawks
City: Portland, Oregon
League: Western Hockey League
Conference: Western
Division: U.S.
Founded: 1976–77
Home Arena: Rose Garden Arena & Memorial Coliseum
Colors: red, white and black
Head Coach: Richard Kromm
General Manager: Ken Hodge, Jr.
Franchise history
1951–1976: Edmonton Oil Kings
1976-Present: Portland Winter Hawks

The Portland Winter Hawks are a major junior ice hockey team, playing in the Western Hockey League, a member league in the Canadian Hockey League, the highest level of non-professional hockey in the world. They play their home games at the Rose Garden Arena, and the old Memorial Coliseum.

The Winter Hawks have won the President's Cup twice, and the Memorial Cup twice in four appearances. The team has been in Portland since 1976–77 when the team moved from Edmonton, Alberta. While known as the Edmonton Oil Kings, the team won the Memorial Cup twice and was runner-up seven times.

Contents

[edit] History

Previous-Owner Brian Shaw was a pioneer in many aspects of Junior Hockey, not only moving a team to the United States for the first time, but also is credited with designing the current CHL championship format of the champion from each of the three leagues (WHL, OHL, and QMJHL) as well as a host-city team competing for the Memorial Cup. Portland won the Memorial Cup in 1983 and 1998.

The Winter Hawks were also pioneers of promotion and are credited with the invention of the "Dash for Cash" where contestants are picked to run onto the ice and try to scoop up as many silver dollars in 2 minutes as they could. This popular promotion has been running for many years. Also, in late November/early December, they hold their annual teddy bear toss, which fans throw teddy bears on the ice at the first Portland goal, which are then donated to local children's charities. In November, 2007, fans threw out more than 20,000 teddy bears.

The Winter Hawks wear jerseys similar to those of the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League, causing some to erroneously assume that the Winter Hawks are a minor league farm team of the Blackhawks. In actuality, the jerseys originally worn by the first Winter Hawks team were a used set of Chicago jerseys obtained through connections between the owners of the two teams. In early photos, the old Chicago jerseys are identifiable by the letter C with crossed tomahawks on the shoulder crest. The Winter Hawks eventually changed the C to a P.

In recent seasons, the Winter Hawks have worn a unique alternate jersey, which is black with a red and white Portland skyline and the word PORTLAND around the bottom hem. Currently, they wear a white alternate jersey loosely based on a Montreal Canadiens jersey. Instead of the Canadiens' 'CH' logo, the jersey has the word PORTLAND in outlined letters across the front stripe, and is black where the Canadiens jersey is blue.

The Portland-Chicago connection runs even deeper, as the Blackhawks were founded in 1926 by Frederic McLaughlin, who simply bought the contracts of most of the members of the Portland Rosebuds and brought them to Chicago.

The team name of the Winter Hawks was inspired by a movie called Winterhawk. Team owner Brian Shaw liked the sound of the name, but decided it would be two words.

The team mascot of the Winter Hawks is a white bird with multicolored tail and wing feathers, named Tom-A-Hawk. Tom-A-Hawk was introduced in 1999–2000. He wears jersey number 00. Tom-A-Hawk's main rival is Cool Bird of the Seattle Thunderbirds.'

[edit] Current Ownership

In 2006 the team was sold to Principal Owner/CEO James Alan Goldsmith, plus Jack Donovan and John Bryant.

Jim Goldsmith is married to Kim Kaufman [1], who is one of three daughters of city developer Melvyn Kaufman. The Kaufman Portfolio [2] is a set of buildings mainly in Manhattan valued at over USD $200 million. Jim Goldsmith was responsible for running the assets of the portfolio for about four years, as the President of Sage Realty [3].

[edit] Season-by-season Record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties OTL = Overtime losses Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

Season GP W L T OTL GF GA Points Finish Playoffs
1976–77 72 36 29 7 - 359 294 79 3rd West Lost semi-final
1977–78 72 41 20 11 - 361 296 93 1st West Eliminated in West Division round robin
1978–79 72 49 10 13 - 432 265 111 1st West Lost final
1979–80 72 53 18 1 - 398 293 107 1st West Eliminated in West Division round robin
1980–81 72 56 15 1 - 443 266 113 2nd West Lost West Division final
1981–82 72 46 24 2 - 380 323 94 1st West Won championship
1982–83 72 50 22 0 - 495 387 100 1st West Lost final; Won Memorial Cup
1983–84 72 33 39 0 - 430 449 66 3rd West Lost West Division final
1984–85 72 27 44 1 - 365 442 55 4th West Lost West Division semi-final
1985–86 72 47 24 1 - 438 348 95 2nd West Lost West Division final; Memorial Cup host
1986–87 72 47 23 2 - 439 355 96 2nd West Lost final
1987–88 72 24 45 3 - 328 449 51 6th West Out of playoffs
1988–89 72 40 28 4 - 408 395 84 1st West Lost final
1989–90 72 24 45 3 - 322 426 51 5th West Out of playoffs
1990–91 72 17 53 2 - 298 450 36 5th West Out of playoffs
1991–92 72 31 37 4 - 314 342 66 5th West Lost West Division quarter-final
1992–93 72 45 24 3 - 343 275 93 1st West Lost final
1993–94 72 49 22 1 - 392 260 99 2nd West Lost West Division final
1994–95 72 23 43 6 - 240 308 52 6th West Lost West Division semi-final
1995–96 72 30 39 3 - 283 301 63 6th West Lost West Division quarter-final
1996–97 72 46 21 5 - 300 196 97 1st West Lost West Division quarter-final
1997–98 72 53 14 5 - 342 203 111 1st West Won championship and Memorial Cup
1998–99 72 23 36 13 - 215 278 59 5th West Lost West Division quarter-final
1999–00 72 16 49 7 0 173 296 39 7th West Out of playoffs
2000–01 72 37 27 5 3 254 237 82 2nd West Lost final
2001–02 72 36 25 5 6 269 243 83 1st U.S. Lost Western Conference quarter-final
2002–03 72 19 40 8 5 192 243 51 3rd U.S. Lost Western Conference quarter-final
2003–04 72 34 29 6 3 199 206 77 2nd U.S. Lost Western Conference quarter-final
2004–05 72 35 27 5 5 204 198 80 2nd U.S. Lost Western Conference quarter-final
Season GP W L OTL SOL GF GA Points Finish Playoffs
2005–06 72 32 32 3 5 204 258 72 3rd U.S. Lost Western Conference semi-final
2006–07 72 17 52 1 2 146 316 37 5th U.S. Out of playoffs
2007–08 72 11 58 2 1 132 318 25 5th U.S. Out of playoffs

[edit] Championships

[edit] Team records

Team Records for a single season
Statistic Total Season
Most Points 113 1980–81
Most Wins 56 1980–81
Most Goals For 495 1982–83
Least Goals For 146 2006–07
Least Goals Against 196 1996–97
Most Goals Against 450 1990–91
Individual player records for a single season
Statistic Player Total Season
Most Goals Randy Heath; Dennis Holland 82 1982–83; 1988–89
Most Assists Jim Benning 111 1980–81
Most Points Dennis Holland 167 1988–89
Most Points, rookie Cam Neely 120 1982–83
Most Points, defenceman Jim Benning 139 1980–81
Best GAA (Goalie) Blake Grenier 2.06 2004–05
Goalies = minimum 1500 minutes played


[edit] NHL alumni

List of Portland Winter Hawks alumni who have graduated to play in the National Hockey League.

[edit] External links

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Western Hockey League
East Division
Central Division
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WHL: Portland Winter Hawks, NPHL: Eugene Generals · Rogue Valley Wranglers
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