The Newmarket Royals were a junior ice hockey team in the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; french: Ligue de hockey de l'Ontario (LHO)) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 16–19. There are exceptions for overa ...

from 1992 to 1994. They played out of

Newmarket, Ontario Newmarket ( 2021 population: 87,942) is a town and regional seat of the Regional Municipality of York in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is part of Greater Toronto in the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario. The name stems from th ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

History

The Royals franchise started in 1969 as the

Cornwall Royals The Cornwall Royals were a junior ice hockey team based in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. The team played in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League from 1969 to 1981, and the Ontario Hockey League from 1981 to 1992. This team shared its name with o ...

of the

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (french: Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec; abbreviated ''QMJHL'' in English, ''LHJMQ'' in French) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues that constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The ...

. The Cornwall Royals won the

Memorial Cup The Memorial Cup () is the national championship of the Canadian Hockey League, a consortium of three major junior ice hockey leagues operating in Canada and parts of the United States. It is a four-team round-robin tournament played between t ...

in 1972, 1980, and in 1981. For the 1981–82 season, the team transferred into the Ontario Hockey League. In 1992 the

moved to

to play as the Newmarket Royals. This team should be not be confused with a different Newmarket Royals team in the OMHA in the early 1980s. The first year for the Newmarket Royals was moderately successful, finishing 5th in the Leyden Division with a winning record. In the playoffs that year the Royals faced the Sudbury Wolves in a very heated 7 game series, won by the Wolves. For every goal the Royals scored at home in the series that year (11 in total), a stuffed wolf was hung in the rafters. This was a move mocking the Sudbury Wolves stuffed wolf that howls at opposing bench whenever the home team Wolves score. The second Royals season is best forgotten. The Newmarket Royals were the only team in OHL and CHL history to go winless in away games for an entire season. The Royals finished last in the OHL, 18 points behind the next closest team. At the start of the 1993–94 season, the team was bought by the Ciccarelli brothers and a year later moved to Sarnia, Ontario to begin play as the

Sarnia Sting Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes where Lake Huron fl ...

Coaches

Both Shawn Mackenzie and Don Boyd, coaches of the Newmarket Royals were former goalies. Don Boyd previously coached the

London Knights The London Knights are a junior ice hockey team from London, Ontario, Canada, playing in the Ontario Hockey League, one of the leagues of the Canadian Hockey League. The Knights started out in 1965 as the London Nationals but changed to their cu ...

and the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Shawn Mackenzie, a native of

Bedford, Nova Scotia Bedford is a community of the Halifax Regional Municipality, in Nova Scotia, Canada. History The area of Bedford has evidence of Indigenous peoples dating back thousands of years. Petroglyphs are found at Bedford Petroglyphs National Historic ...

played in the OHL for the Windsor Spitfires and Oshawa Generals, and briefly for the New Jersey Devils in 1983. He later coached the

Halifax Mooseheads The Halifax Mooseheads are a Canadian major junior ice hockey club in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The team was founded in 1994 and began play in the Dilio Division of the QMJHL from the ...

in the

QMJHL The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (french: Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec; abbreviated ''QMJHL'' in English, ''LHJMQ'' in French) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues that constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The le ...

. *1992–1993 Shawn MacKenzie *1993–1994 Don Boyd

Players

The Newmarket Royals sent 9 players to compete in the NHL, all of whom were active for the 1992-1993 season. That year saw Jeff Reid total 106 points that year, Nathan Lafayette lead goal scorers with 49, and defenceman Mark DeSantis was voted a ''first team'' OHL All-Star.

NHL alumni

Season-by-season results

Regular season

Playoffs

*1992–1993 Lost to Sudbury Wolves 4 games to 3 in first round. *1993–1994 Out of playoffs.

Uniforms and logos

The Royals redesigned their logo when the franchise shifted from Cornwall to Newmarket, but kept the same uniforms colours of royal blue, white and red. The new logo was a horizontal hockey stick with the words Newmarket Royals below it. Pictured are the home and away jerseys of # 8 Aaron Brand, that the team wore in their two seasons in the OHL.

Newmarket Recreational Complex

The Royals played home games at the

Newmarket Recreational Complex The Ray Twinney Complex, formerly known as the Newmarket Recreational Complex, is a multi-purpose recreational facility in the southwest portion of Newmarket, Ontario, Newmarket, Ontario, built in 1985. The complex was named for former Newmarket ...

. Since then the arena has been renamed the Ray Twinney Complex, for the former Mayor of Newmarket. It was built in 1985, and has a capacity of 3,700 seats.

External links

The OHL Arena & Travel Guide - Newmarket Recreational Complex
{{OHL Defunct Ontario Hockey League teams Sport in Newmarket, Ontario