The Coquitlam Express are a Junior "A" ice hockey team based in Coquitlam,

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...

, Canada. They are members of the Coastal Conference of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). They play their home games at the Poirier Sport & Leisure Complex. Although the team had played in the neighbouring city of Burnaby for the previous five years, on 14 January 2010 it was announced that the BCHL Board of Governors unanimously approved the relocation of the franchise back to Coquitlam for the 2010–11 season.

History

The Coquitlam Express began play as a new franchise in the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) for the 2001–02 hockey season, and played in the city for four seasons at the Coquitlam Sports Centre. Due to unsatisfactory conditions at the Sports Centre, specifically a reduction of parking due to the construction of a new aquatic complex next door, the team relocated to Burnaby for the 2005–06 season. Burnaby originally had a junior "A" team by the name of the

Burnaby Bulldogs The Alberni Valley Bulldogs are a Junior "A" ice hockey team based in Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada. They are members of the Island Division of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). They play their home games at Weyerhaeuser Arena. ...

, which played in that city for four seasons (1998–2001). That team relocated to the city of Port Alberni, on Vancouver Island for the start of the 2002–03 season and was renamed the Alberni Valley Bulldogs. The 2005–06 season saw the Express win the league championship (Fred Page Cup) and the

Mowat Cup The Mowat Cup is emblematic of the Junior "A" ice hockey Championship of British Columbia (BC). The winner of the Mowat Cup historically moved on to play the winner of Alberta's Carling O'Keefe Cup for the Doyle Cup, signifying the Canadian Paci ...

by defeating the Langley Hornets in four games, the Chilliwack Chiefs in 5 games, the Victoria Salsa in 5 games, and the Penticton Vees in six games. The team then defeated the

Fort McMurray Oil Barons The Fort McMurray Oil Barons are a Junior A ice hockey team in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL). They play in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada at the Centerfire Place. The Oil Barons have won three AJHL playoff championships, three regula ...

in six games for the

Doyle Cup The Doyle Cup is an ice hockey trophy won through a best-of-7 series conducted annually by the Canadian Junior Hockey League to determine the Pacific region berth in the Centennial Cup, the national Junior A championship. From 1971 to 2021, the ...

and entered the National Championship as Pacific Region winners. The Express won the

Royal Bank Cup 2006 The 2006 Royal Bank Cup was the 36th Junior "A" 2006 ice hockey National Championship for the Canadian Junior A Hockey League. The Royal Bank Cup was competed for by the winners of the Doyle Cup, Anavet Cup, Dudley Hewitt Cup, the Fred Page Cup ...

(National Championship) by defeating the Yorkton Terries by a score of 8–2. In the Semi-Final against the Fort William Northstars, they scored the tying goal with 12 seconds left in the third period then went on to win 3–2 in overtime. During the round-robin they had a record of 3–1, which seeded them 2nd in the Tournament, behind the hometown hosts Streetsville Derbys. In 2006–07 the Express were highly touted as a top team in the Canadian Junior Hockey League, with players like Kyle Turris and Tyler McNeely. In the first round of the BCHL playoffs, the team beat the Langley Chiefs in seven games before losing to the eventual BCHL league champions Nanaimo Clippers in seven games during the second round. The 2007 off-season saw a coaching change from Rick Lanz, a scout for the

Colorado Avalanche The Colorado Avalanche (colloquially known as the Avs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Denver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (N ...

, to Dave McLellan. The team was not very well-supported since the move from Coquitlam and struggled in attendance for the third straight year. By 17 October 2009, the Burnaby Express were averaging just 548 fans per game, which was the second lowest attendance of the 17 teams in the BCHL at the time. This was half the attendance the team averaged in their final season in Coquitlam (1,091 fans per game). With the team in last place in the Coastal Conference, on 16 January 2010 the Express announced the firing of coach Dave McLellan. General manager

Darcy Rota Darcy Irwin Rota (born February 16, 1953) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who spent eleven seasons in the National Hockey League. Playing career Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Darcy's formative years including Ban ...

took over during the interim, with Bill Zaharia and Tyler Kuntz named as assistants for the remainder of the 2009–10 season. On 13 April 2010, the Express named Jon Calvano as their next head coach. The 2010–11 season marked the Express' return to Coquitlam. They played their first game back at the newly renovated and renamed Poirier Sport & Leisure Complex on 24 September 2010, where they defeated the Surrey Eagles 4–2. Coquitlam made the playoffs for the first time in three seasons, losing in the first round to the Eagles in four games. The following year, they would again be eliminated in the first round, this time to the Powell River Kings in six games. Following the 2011–12 season, the Express named Jon Calvano as general manager on top of his existing coaching duties. The 2012–13 season saw a great start for the Express until the team lost players to multiple injuries within a short period, including New Jersey Devils draftee Alexander Kerfoot. The team struggled for most of the latter half of the season and failed to reach the postseason for the third time in five years. Calvano was fired at the end of the season. Barry Wolff became the team's next head coach on 22 April 2013 and in the following season led the Express to their second Fred Page Cup championship, and their first and only appearance in the Western Canada Cup, where they finished fourth following a 5–3 loss in the semifinal to the AJHL's Spruce Grove Saints. Wolff was named the 2014 coach of the year by the Coquitlam Sports Hall of Fame and the team earned team of the year honours. The team achieved mixed success for the next couple of seasons, finishing fourth in the mainland division and eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in two consecutive seasons. The 2016–17 season again had the Express sustain many player injuries, resulting in a franchise worst 11–44–2–1 (25 points) record and finishing last in nearly every statistic. The following season continued the trend and after recording only three wins and eight points in the first half of the season, Wolff was fired and replaced with former OJHL's

Toronto Patriots The Toronto Patriots are a junior "A" ice hockey team from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are a part of Ontario Junior Hockey League. History Quinte (1996–1998) In 1996, the Quinte Hawks of Deseronto, Ontario were granted expansion into th ...

head coach Jason Fortier. The team turned around under Fortier until the 2019–20 season where the Express posted a franchise-best 47–9–1–1 (96 points) and won the Ron Boileau Memorial Trophy for the first time as regular season champions. Their performance over the regular season was enough to earn Fortier Coach of the Year honors for the 2019–20 season. Unfortunately, after winning their first round matchup with the Langley Rivermen,

Hockey Canada Hockey Canada (which merged with the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association in 1994) is the national governing body of ice hockey and ice sledge hockey in Canada. It is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation and controls the majority ...

cancelled the remainder of the Junior A season nationally due to the global

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 identified ...

, ending their run for a third league title. Fortier would leave the team in the off-season, with Dan Cioffi, coach of the BCMML's

Valley West Giants A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ov ...

, named as his replacement. He, however, would resign after the league's extended pre-season was paused by the Provincial Health Officer. Adam Nugent-Hopkins, older brother of Edmonton Oiler Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, took his place for the rest of the season alongside new GM Tali Campbell. He would coach the team to a 6-11-3 record in a 20 game pod season played against the Surrey Eagles and Powell River Kings. Brandon Shaw, previously assistant coach of the Alberni Valley Bulldogs, would be named head coach for the team's first full season since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. After a rough start, he would rally the team to a 22-26-6 record to bring the team back up to 7th in the Coastal Conference. The Express would be eliminated by the Chiefs in the first round but not without taking the series to a full seven games. Shaw would move up to become an assistant coach with the OHL's

Niagara Icedogs The Niagara IceDogs are a major junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League based in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. The franchise was originally known as the Mississauga IceDogs and founded in 1996. The team was relocated to St. Cat ...

, leaving the team to find their fourth head coach in three seasons. Not only was it announced that Vees assistant coach

Patrick Sexton Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name *Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick or ...

would become the new bench boss for the 2022-23 season, but on 17 August 2022 it was announced that a newly-retired Kyle Turris would be returning to the Express as a special advisor to GM Campbell and as a player development coach.

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, PIM = Penalties in minutes''

Notable alumni

* Mathew Barzal * Mark Dekanich * Brad Hunt * David Jones * Alexander Kerfoot * Andrew Ladd * Milan Lucic * Wyatt Russell *

Clay Stevenson Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay parti ...

* Kyle Turris * Patrick Wiercioch * Brandon Yip

Awards and trophies

Royal Bank Cup *2006

*2006

*2006 *2014 Fred Page Cup *2006 *2014 Cliff McNabb Memorial Trophy
Coastal Conference Champions *2006 Mainland Division Champions *2014 Ron Boileau Memorial Trophy
Regular Season Champions *2020

Bob Fenton Trophy
Most Sportsmanlike (Coastal) * Colton Kerfoot: 2016 * Alexander Kerfoot: 2012 *Brock Bradford: 2004 Bruce Allison Memorial Trophy
Rookie Of The Year (Coastal) * Brett Supinski: 2015 * Alexander Kerfoot: 2012 *

Destry Straight Destry may refer to: * Destry, Moselle, a French commune * Destry Wright (born 1977), retired American football player * Destry (band) Destry is an indie folk band centered on Michelle DaRosa. History Michelle DaRosa announced her departure fro ...

: 2011 * Kyle Turris: 2006 * Brett Hemingway: 2002 Brett Hull Trophy
Top Scorer * Corey Mackin: 2015 *

Carlo Finucci Carlo is a given name. It is an Italian form of Charles. It can refer to: *Carlo (name) *Monte Carlo *Carlingford, New South Wales, a suburb in north-west Sydney, New South Wales, Australia *A satirical song written by Dafydd Iwan about Prince Char ...

: 2008 Vern Dye Memorial Trophy
Most Valuable Player (Coastal) * Corey Mackin: 2015 *

Alex Petan Alex Petan (born May 2, 1992) is an Italian professional ice hockey player for Fehérvár AV19 in the ICE Hockey League (ICEHL) and the Italian national team. Petan was born on May 2, 1992, in Delta, British Columbia to mother Rosanna and father ...

: 2012 *

: 2008 * Kyle Turris: 2007 Michael Garteig Trophy
Top Goaltender *

: 2020 Wally Forslund Trophy
Top Goaltending Duo *

& Jack Watson: 2020 Joe Tennant Memorial Trophy
Coach of the Year * Jason Fortier: 2020

References

External links