Saskatoon Blades

The Saskatoon Blades are a major junior ice hockey team playing in the Eastern Division of the Western Hockey League, formerly the Western Canadian Hockey League (WCHL). They are based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, playing at the 15,195-seat SaskTel Centre.

History

The Saskatoon Blades began play in 1964. The team previously played as the junior counterpart to the Saskatoon Quakers, until team owner Jim Piggott applied to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) to change the team's name and colours. The team had also been known as the Saskatoon Wesleys from 1949 to 1955. A new version of the Wesleys emerged in 1966, and along with the Saskatoon Quakers as they joined the North Saskatchewan Junior B Hockey League. In 1968, the Saskatoon Olympics, a Junior A franchise, was established in Saskatoon and became the main development affiliate for the Saskatoon Blades.

For the 1966–67 season, the team transferred to the new Canadian Major Junior Hockey League. The WCHL renamed itself the Western Hockey League in 1978. Of the seven original WCHL franchises, the Blades are the only team to have never relocated or left the league (the Regina Pats returned to the SJHL from 1968 to 1970).

The Blades spent a number of seasons at the original Saskatoon Arena and there, developed many of the top professional players and coaches of their day, such as Bernie Federko, Wendel Clark, Mike Babcock. In the early 1990s, the team was one of the strongest in the league and made it to the league finals twice, losing to the Kamloops Blazers in both 1992 and 1994. The Blades have not returned to the final round of the playoffs since despite several successful regular seasons, including winning the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy in 2010–11 as the regular season champions. Since then playoff success has been rare, and as of 2016 the Blades have the longest playoff drought in the CHL, having not made the playoffs since 2013. The Blades hold the distinction of having the longest championship drought in the Canadian Hockey League, having never won the WHL Championship or Memorial Cup.

The Blades were owned by the Brodsky family for 37 years.
On August 27, 2013, the team was sold to Go Auto owner Mike Priestner for a reported $9 million. Throughout their existence the team has had a fierce rivalry with the Prince Albert Raiders, although recently the team has placed more of a focus on its growing competition with Regina Pats.

Before the start of the 2005–06 season, the Blades retired their long-time mascot Helmutt, an anthropomorphic dog whose name was a pun on the word helmet, in favor of a mascot that would appeal to younger fans. Helmutt was replaced by Poke Check, a yeti