The Stockton Heat were a professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team in the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league in North America that serves as the primary developmental league of the National Hockey League (NHL). The league comprises 32 teams, with 26 in the United States and 6 in Cana ...

(AHL) that played from 2015 to 2022. The team was based in

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. It is the most populous city in the county, the List of municipal ...

, and was affiliated with the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL)

Calgary Flames The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary. The Flames compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. The ...

. The Heat played its home games at Stockton Arena. It was a relocation of the Adirondack Flames, joining four other relocated AHL franchises in California that formed the basis for a Pacific Division following the 2014–15 season. The Heat replaced the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a minor professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams across the United States and Canada. Competitively, it is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ...

's Stockton Thunder, which played from

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

until

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, after which they moved to

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, where the franchise became the Adirondack Thunder. After the 2021–22 season, the Heat would be relocated to

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

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, and would become the Calgary Wranglers. The team had played the entire 2020–21 season in Calgary due to the

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restricting cross-border travel.

History

On January 29, 2015, the Calgary Flames announced that they would be moving their AHL affiliate, the Adirondack Flames, to Stockton as one of five charter members of the AHL's new Pacific Division. The team held a name-the-team contest and announced the five finalists as the Blaze, Fire, Heat, Inferno and Scorch on February 24, 2015. The winning name was announced by the Calgary Flames on March 11. In support of the new division's first season, the AHL played an outdoor game hosted by the Heat. The game, called the Golden State Hockey Rush, was the first AHL outdoor game to be held in California at Raley Field in West Sacramento on December 18, 2015. The Heat defeated the Bakersfield Condors 3–2 in front of 9,357 fans. The 2019–20 AHL season was curtailed by the

while Stockton was in third place in the Pacific Division and no playoffs were held. The Heat's initial five-year lease with the city to use Stockton Arena expired, but a one-season extension was signed in February 2020. The start of the 2020–21 AHL season was then postponed and eventually led to the creation of temporary Canadian Division due to border crossing restrictions amidst the ongoing pandemic. Due to the Heat being separated from its parent team by the border, the team was relocated for the shortened season to

and shared the Flames' home arena, Scotiabank Saddledome and played only against other Canadian-based AHL teams. On May 23, 2022, the Calgary Flames announced the relocation of the Heat, to Calgary, starting in the 2022-23 season. On June 14, 2022, the Heat played their final game, losing to the Chicago Wolves in game six of the Western Conference Finals of the 2022 Calder Cup playoffs.

Season-by-season results

Players

Team captains

* Aaron Johnson, 2015–16 * Mike Angelidis, 2016–17 * Rod Pelley, 2017–18 * Byron Froese, 2019–2022

Team records and leaders

Scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers for the Stockton Heat during their tenure in the AHL. ''Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game;''

References

{{Defunct AHL Calgary Flames minor league affiliates Defunct ice hockey teams in California Sports in Stockton, California Ice hockey clubs established in 2015 Ice hockey clubs disestablished in 2022 2015 establishments in California 2022 disestablishments in California