billsportsmaps.com

February 26, 2024

CHL (Canadian Hockey League): 2023-24 location-map of the 60 teams (22 WHL teams, 20 OHL teams, 18 QMJHL teams), plus chart: Memorial Cup Tournament Appearances & Titles by current CHL teams (to 2023)./+New team in the WHL for 2023-24…the Wenatchee Wild (of Wenatchee, Washington, USA).

chl_canadian-hockey-league_2023-24_location-map_60-teams_whl_ohl_qmjhl_w-2023-attendances_post_c_.gif
CHL (Canadian Hockey League): 2023-24 location-map of the 60 teams (22 WHL teams, 20 OHL teams, 18 QMJHL teams), plus chart: Memorial Cup Tournament Appearances & Titles by current CHL teams (to 2023)



By Bill Turianski on the 26th of February 2024; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
-chl.ca.
-ontariohockeyleague.com.
-theqmjhl.ca. lhjmq.qc.ca (Fr).
-whl.ca.

Canadian Hockey League (CHL): the umbrella-organization for the 3 leagues of Major Junior Hockey in Canada. The 3 leagues are: the Western Hockey League (WHL, est. 1966), the Ontario Hockey League (OHL, est. 1933), and the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL/ LMJHQ in French, est. 1969). 60 teams: in the CHL-system, there are 51 teams from Canada (from 9 Canadian provinces), and there are 9 teams from the USA (from 4 American states). The CHL as the umbrella-organization was established in 1975, but as mentioned, the three individual leagues were established earlier; see league side-bars on the upper-part of the map for more info. Also, see this…Quebec Major Junior Hockey League changes name to better represent its 6 Maritime teams (cbc.ca/sports, from 14 Dec. 2023).

CHL teams are for players aged 16-20. Two non-North-American-born players are allowed per team; overage, and underage player-waivers are sometimes allowed. Players receive stipend & board, and believe it or not, this actually qualifies as pay in the NCAA’s monopolistic view, so players who commit to an OHL or QMJHL or WHL team in the CHL-system become ineligible to play later on in the USA in the NCAA-system. Whereas around 30% of NHL players have had a US-collegiate career prior to signing in the NHL, a larger percentage – of around 47-to-48% – of all NHL players originally played in Canadian Major Junior hockey {see this, from the Washington Post}.

The winners of the 3 leagues each season contest the Memorial Cup Tournament (est. 1919), which is usually played in the month of May. The Memorial Cup is a 4-team round-robin competition, which comprises the WHL champion, the OHL champion, the QMJHL champion, plus the host team.

The map is a location-map with the three league’s areas tinted.
The chart on the far-left-hand-side shows: Memorial Cup Tournament Appearances & Titles by current CHL teams (to 2023), and lists 2 things for each team…
-Number of Memorial Cup titles (host-team status noted by italics).
-Number of Memorial Cup tournament appearances (host-team status noted by italics).

26 of the 60 current CHL teams have won a Memorial Cup title.
The reigning champions are the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL, who won their third Memorial Cup title on the 4th of June 2023 in Kamloops, British Columbia, beating the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL 5-0. {See this, Quebec Remparts win 2023 Memorial Cup (globalnews.ca/news).} It was the Quebec Remparts’ 3rd Memorial Cup title. The most titles won by a current CHL team is the 5 titles won by the OHL’s Oshawa Generals (who last won it in 2015). The most Memorial Cup tournament appearances is 16 appearances, by the oldest Major Junior hockey team, the WHL’s Regina St. Pats (established in 1917, in Regina, Saskatchewan).

The 2023-24 CHL season, with about 80-to-85% of the season played [as of the 27th of February 2024]…
- QMJHL. chl.ca/lhjmq/en. Standings with avg. attendances: hockeydb.com/[QMJHL].
(Reigning champions: Quebec Remparts.)
The top 3 teams in the QMJHL currently are: Baie-Comeau Drakkar, Drummondville Voltigeurs, and Victoriaville Tigres.
Top attendance draws in QMJHL currently are: Quebec Remparts (at 9.5-K-per-game), Halifax Mooseheads (at 8.2-K-per-game), and Moncton Wildcats (at 4.5-K-per-game).

-OHL. chl.ca/ohl. Standings with avg. attendances: hockeydb.com/[OHL].
(Reigning champions: Peterborough Petes.)
The top 3 teams in the OHL currently are: London Knights, Saginaw Spirit, and Soo Greyhounds.
Top attendance draws in OHL currently are: London Knights (at 9.0-K-per-game), Kitchener Rangers (at 6.4-K-per-game), and Oshawa Generals (4.9-K-per-game).

-WHL. chl.ca/whl. Standings with avg. attendances: hockeydb.com/[WHL].
(Reigning champions: Seattle Thunderbirds.)
The top 3 teams in the WHL currently are: Saskatoon Blades, Prince George Cougars, and Portland Winterhawks.
Top attendance draws in WHL currently are: Edmonton Oil Kings (at 6.6-K-per-game), Everett Silvertips (at 5.8-K-per-game), and Saskatoon Blades (at 4.9-K-per-game).




The 2024 Memorial Cup tournament will be hosted by the Saginaw Spirit of the OHL, at the 5,500-capacity Dow Event Center in Saginaw, Michigan, USA in late May/early June. This will be the 5th time that an American-based team will host the Memorial Cup tournament, and the first time in 26 years. (Years that American-based teams that have previously hosted the Memorial Cup tournament…1983 and 1986: Portland Winterhawks [WHL] of Portland, Oregon; 1992: Seattle Thunderbirds [WHL] of Seattle, Washington; 1998: Spokane Chiefs [WHL] of Spokane, Washington. Of those four tournaments, the host-team, Portland, won it their first time in 1983. The other 3 times the host-team didn’t win. Although in 1998, Spokane hosted it, but Portland, that season’s WHL champion, won it. The Portland Winterhawks have won 2 Memorial Cup titles (1983, 1998); the Spokane Chiefs also have won 2 Memorial Cup titles (1991, 2008). Those 4 titles are the only Memorial Cup titles won by American-based teams, although there have been 4 other times an American-based team was a finalist… the Detroit Junior Red Wings [ex-OHL] in 1985, the Portland Winterhawks again in 2013, the Erie Otters [OHL] in 2017, and the Seattle Thunderbirds [WHL] last season in 2023.

    2 new teams in the CHL for 2023-24: Brantford Bulldogs [OHL]; Wenatchee Wild [WHL]

Temporary new team in the OHL for 2023-24…the Brantford Bulldogs (of Brantford, Ontario).
From 2023-24 to 2025-26 for 3 seasons, due to renovations to the FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton, the Hamilton Bulldogs will be playing in Brantford, ON as the Brantford Bulldogs. They will play at the Brantford Civic Centre. Brantford, ON is located, by road, 38 km (24 mi) WSW of Hamilton, ON. I have shown both locations on the map. The team has moved from an 17.3-K-capacity venue to a 2.9-K-capacity venue. But the Bulldogs only drew 3.7-K-per-game in Hamilton last season anyway, despite recent success (as 2022 Memorial Cup finalist).

New team in the WHL for 2023-24…the Wenatchee Wild (of Wenatchee, Washington, USA).
WHL Franchise shift…The Winnipeg Ice franchise moved from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to Wenatchee, Washington, USA…becoming the Wenatchee Wild. Wenatchee, WA is located, by road, 238 km (148 mi) E of Seattle, WA. After 57 games [up to the 27th of February], Wenatchee have 64 points and are in 3rd in the WHL American division. The Wild are drawing 2.9-K-per-game at their 4.3-K-capacity venue. In the captions below you can see the team’s franchise history, which includes a 2002 Memorial Cup title, when the franchise was located in Cranbrook, British Columbia, and were called the Kootenay Ice.

wenatchee-wild_new_whl-team-2023-24_town-toyota-center_wenatchee-washington_f_.gif"
Photo credits above – Wenatchee, WA (taken from East Wenatchee), photo by Jakekoner at reddit.com/r/Washington. Aerial shot of Town Toyota Center, unattributed at in.daotaonec.edu.vn. Street-side shot of venue, unattributed at wenatcheevalleysports.com.

___
Thanks to all at the following…
-Canadian Hockey League (en.wikipedia.org).
-Photo of Memorial Cup (CHL), unattributed at hhof.com.
-Hockey ice photo from dreamstime.com.

June 10, 2022

CHL (Canadian Hockey League): 2021-22 location-map of the 60 teams (18 QMJHL teams, 20 OHL teams, 22 WHL teams), plus chart: Memorial Cup Tournament Appearances & Titles by current CHL teams (2021).

chl_canadian-hockey-league_2021-22_location-map_60-teams_whl_ohl_qmjhl_w-memorial-cup-titles_post_b_.gif
CHL (Canadian Hockey League): 2021-22 location-map of the 60 teams (18 QMJHL teams, 20 OHL teams, 22 WHL teams), plus chart: Memorial Cup Tournament Appearances & Titles by current CHL teams (2021)



By Bill Turianski on the 10th of June 2022; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
-chl.ca.
-ontariohockeyleague.com.
-theqmjhl.ca. lhjmq.qc.ca (Fr).
-whl.ca.
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Memorial_Cup.

Canadian Hockey League (CHL): the umbrella-organization for the 3 leagues of Major Junior Hockey in Canada. The 3 leagues are: the Western Hockey League (WHL, est. 1966), the Ontario Hockey League (OHL, est. 1933), and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL/ LMJHQ in French, est. 1969). 60 teams: in the CHL-system, there are 52 teams from Canada (from 9 Canadian provinces), and there are 8 teams from the USA (from 4 US states). The CHL as the umbrella-organization was established in 1975, but as mentioned, the three individual leagues were established earlier; see league side-bars on the upper-part of the map for more info.

CHL teams are for players aged 16-20. Two non-North-American-born players are allowed per team; overage, and underage player-waivers are sometimes allowed. Players receive stipend & board, and believe it or not, this actually qualifies as pay in the NCAA’s monopolistic view, so players who commit to an OHL or QMJHL or WHL team in the CHL-system become ineligible to play later on in the USA in the NCAA-system. Whereas around 30% of NHL players have had a US-collegiate career prior to signing in the NHL, a solid 47-to-48% of all NHL players originally played in Canadian Major Junior hockey {see this, from the Washington Post}.

The winners of the 3 leagues each season contest the Memorial Cup Tournament (est. 1919), which is usually played in the month of May. The Memorial Cup is a 4-team round-robin competition, which comprises the WHL champion, the OHL champion, the QMJHL champion, plus the host team. The past two tournaments were cancelled due to COVID, so this is the first tournament since 2018-19, when the Quebec league’s Rouyn-Noranda Huskies were Memorial Cup champions. Rouyn-Noranda is a small and isolated mining community of 42,000, 320 miles NW of Montreal. The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies beat the Halifax Mooseheads 4-2, in Halifax on May the 26th 2019, to win the title.

This year’s tournament [2022] will take place in St. John, New Brunswick from June 20-29, at the 6.3-K-capacity TD Station. The St. John Sea Dogs of the QMJHL are the host team. The St. John Sea Dogs won the Memorial Cup in 2011; this will be the team’s 4th appearance in the tournament.
•so, the St. John Sea Dogs are already in the tournament as host team. The other 3 teams to qualify are down to the following…
•WHL: Edmonton Oil Kings or Seattle Thunderbirds.
•OHL: Windsor Spitfires or Hamilton Bulldogs.
•QMJHL: Shawinigan (Quebec) Cataractes or Charlottetown (Prince Edward Island) Islanders.
Scores…CHL.ca.



The map is a location-map with the three league’s areas tinted.

The chart on the far-left-hand-side:
Memorial Cup Tournament Appearances & Titles by current CHL teams (2021)
-Number of Memorial Cup titles (including host-team status noted by italics).
-Number of Memorial Cup tournament appearances (including host-team status noted by italics).
26 of the 60 current CHL teams have won a Memorial Cup title. The most titles won by a current team is the 5 titles won by the Oshawa Generals (who last won it in 2015). The most tournament appearances is 16 appearances, by the oldest Major Junior hockey team, the Regina St. Pats (est. 1917). Note: in the chart, teams are listed, not franchises, thus Kootenay Ice’s one Memorial Cup title and 3 tournament-appearances do not carry over, when the franchise moved from British Columbia, to Winnipeg Manitoba, as the Winnipeg Ice, in 2019. So that makes it 7 for 7 in Canada: now all 7 Canadian cities with NHL teams (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, Winnipeg) also have a Major Junior hockey team. And with the debut of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken this season, Seattle is also in this category.

Other changes in teams and their gear since 2019 are the following…
-Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, in 2019, dropped the Screaming from their name and unveiled a smart new logo {Cape Breton Eagles}.
-Portland Winterhawks unveiled a new logo in 2021, dropping their long-time Chicago Blackhawks-derived logo, for one that features a hawk’s head superimposed over a grey mountain range with subtle ‘WH’ inscribed in the mountain’s crags {Portland Winterhawks}.
-Sarnia Sting dropped the disc logo and went back to classic full-wasp-with-hockey-stick design {sportslogos.net/[Sarnia Sting]}.
-Erie Otters went back to their original otter-with-helmet-&-stick logo, in just yellow-gold and navy (no red) {sportslogos.net/[Erie Otters].
-Everett Silvertips’s primary logo is now the green-silver-and-pale-brown shield-with-grizzley-head-&-mountain design {Everett Silvertips}, and their original primary logo (grizzley-with-stick-wordmark) is now their shoulder-patch logo.
___
Thanks to all at the following…
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Memorial_Cup.
-Canadian Hockey League (en.wikipedia.org).
-Photo of Memorial Cup (CHL), unattributed at hhof.com.
-Hockey ice photo from dreamstime.com.

May 4, 2019

CHL (Canadian Hockey League): 2019 location-map of the 60 teams (18 QMJHL teams, 20 OHL teams, 22 WHL teams); with 2018-19 attendances.

chl_canadian-hockey-league_2019_location-map_60-teams_whl_ohl_qmjhl_w-2019-attendances_post_n_.gif
CHL (Canadian Hockey League): 2019 location-map of the 60 teams (18 QMJHL teams, 20 OHL teams, 22 WHL teams); with 2018-19 attendances



By Bill Turianski on 4 May 2019; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
-ontariohockeyleague.com.
-theqmjhl.ca. lhjmq.qc.ca (Fr).
-whl.ca.
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Memorial_Cup.

Canadian Hockey League (CHL): the umbrella-organization for the 3 leagues of Major Junior Hockey in Canada. 60 teams. Est. 1975. For players aged 16-20. The 3 leagues are: the Western Hockey League (WHL), the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL/ LMJHQ in French).

The winners of the 3 leagues each season contest the Memorial Cup Tournament (est. 1919), which is played in the month of May. The Memorial Cup is a 4-team round-robin competition, which comprises the WHL champion, the OHL champion, the QMJHL champion, plus the host team. This year, the host team is the Halifax Mooseheads, of the QMJHL. (The Halifax Mooseheads are celebrating their 25th season; and the QMJHL is celebrating its 50th anniversary.) The reigning champions are the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, a QMJHL team from the small New Brunswick town of Bathurst [which has a metro-area population of only around 30,000]. Acadie-Bathurst Titan beat the Regina Pats 3-0, in Regina, Saskatchewan, to win the 2018 Memorial Cup.

Currently [4 May 2019], the 3 leagues’ playoff Finals are being played (each in a best of 7 series)…
WHL…the Vancouver Giants v Prince Albert [Saskatchewan] Raiders.
OHL…the Ottawa 67s v the Guelph [Ontario] Storm.
QMJHL…the Rouyn-Noranda [Quebec] Huskies v the Halifax Mooseheads.
(Note: since Halifax is host-team, both these QMJHL teams have already qualified for the tournament.)

Next post will be on May 15th or 16th…illustrations for each of the 4 teams that end up qualifying for the 2019 CHL Memorial Cup Tournament {like I did with this post from 2018}.
___
Thanks to all at the following links -
-Blank map of North America by Lokal_profil at File:BlankMap-USA-states-Canada-provinces, HI closer.svg.
-Canadian Hockey League (en.wikipedia.org).
-sportslogos.net.
-hockeydb.com.
Attendance figures…
-hockeydb.com/[2018-19 QMJHL attendance].
-hockeydb.com/[2018-19 OHL attendance].
-hockeydb.com/[2018-19 WHL attendance].

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