Niagara IceDogs

The Mississauga IceDogs inaugural season began in 1998–99, and the team struggled, winning only 4 of 68 games. In their first three seasons, the IceDogs won a total of 16 games, in 204 games played. The nine season tenure in Mississauga saw the IceDogs finish with a .301 win percentage in 612 regular season games and win one Central Division and Eastern Conference Championship.

On July 12, 2006, Eugene Melnyk, who owned the Toronto St. Michael's Majors, bought the Mississauga IceDogs. After the 2006–07 season, Melnyk sold the IceDogs, and moved the Majors to the Hershey Centre in Mississauga. The team approached the City of St. Catharines about moving the team into Jack Gatecliff Arena. St. Catharines City Council voted on a leasing arrangement on April 23, 2007, which passed. The OHL Board of Governors approved the deal on June 5, 2007.[1]

The Niagara IceDogs spent their first seven seasons in St. Catharines in the Jack Gatecliff arena. In six of the seven years at the Jack Gatecliff arena, the IceDogs led the OHL as the best attended team based on capacity percentage. During this time, the IceDogs qualified for the playoffs in every year, making it to the Eastern Conference finals twice. The IceDogs most successful year was in 2011–12 when they won both the Emms Trophy and Bobby Orr Trophy as Central Division and Eastern Conference Champions. They would ultimately fall in the finals, however, to the London Knights in five games. While playing at the Jack Gatecliff arena, Niagara's line-ups featured a number of eventual high NHL draft picks and NHL alumni. First round draft picks included Alex Pietrangelo, Mark Visentin, Ryan Strome, Dougie Hamilton and Brendan Perlini. Other notable players to play for the IceDogs at the Jack Gatecliff are Stefan Legein, Luca Caputi, Andrew Agozzino, Brett Ritchie, Jamie Oleksiak, Freddie Hamilton and Andrew Shaw, who was the first Niagara IceDogs alumnus to win the Stanley Cup.

The IceDogs entered a new era when they relocated to the brand new Meridian Centre in St. Catharines. On October 16, 2014, the IceDogs won their first game at the Meridian Centre by a score of 7–4 against the visiting Belleville Bulls. The first goal at the new Meridian Centre was scored by Mikkel Aagaard from Denmark. While the arena's initial season saw the IceDogs go down in five games in the second round to the eventual Memorial Cup champions Oshawa Generals, the organization went all in during the 2015–16 season. While adding key veteran acquisitions as the season went on, including star goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic, a second round pick of the Carolina Hurricanes, the IceDogs once again battled their way to the OHL Finals. Niagara went on to face the London Knights, a rematch of the 2012 OHL Finals, but once again came up short, losing the series in four games. With the organization facing a rebuild after a disappointing finish to the season, the IceDogs parted ways with head coach and general manager Marty Williamson, commencing a new era for the organization after six seasons that featured two conference championships, one division championship, and six consecutive years of playoffs.

The next season saw the IceDogs go into rebuild mode, with younger key future players beginning to make the jump, like Akil Thomas, as most of the vets had moved on, aged out, or had been traded around the trade deadline for picks and prospects. They made the playoffs that year, and lost to the Peterborough Petes in the first round in 4 games. The 2017–2018 season saw them become more competitive, and around the trade deadline added some depth pieces to ensure they could be more competitive than last season's playoffs. They beat the Oshawa Generals in the first round in 5 games, and then faced off against a very good Hamilton Bulldogs team. Despite taking 3 games to overtime, they lost in 5 games.

The 2018–2019 season saw the team go all in. Along with the returning vets from last season, they acquired the likes of (eventual CHL Leading Scorer and Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy recipient) Jason Robertson (ice hockey), Jack Studnicka, and depth pieces like Ivan Lodnia, Jason Paquette, and Matt Brassard. The team also saw the rise of sophomore forward Philip Tomasino. The team would finish first in the OHL Central division, winning the Emms Trophy. In the playoffs, they beat the North Bay Battalion in 5 games. In the second round, they faced the Oshawa Generals. Despite going up 2–0, they proceeded to lose 4 straight ending their season. Stephen Dhillon became the winningest goalie in IceDogs history, setting a franchise record for wins in a season (38), and total wins for his time as an IceDog (98). The IceDogs finished the season with the most goals scored in the league, and in franchise history (326).

The 2019–2020 season saw the team go into rebuild mode once again, losing key players to the NHL or simply age out of the league. At the trade deadline they traded away Captain Akil Thomas and other star forward Philip Tomasino. These trades would benefit the team in the long term, as it restocked their draft pick cupboard and managed to get promising prospects as well, all of which they depleted due to going all in the season prior. The team saw younger players begin to shift into leading roles, and had a promising new young goaltender in Tucker Tynan. Unfortunately, Tucker was involved in a freak incident during a game against the London Knights, where he took a major cut to the thigh from a London Knights player driving the net. The story and incident made headlines across Canada and hockey, and received a ton of support from people across the hockey community. The injury resulted in the postponement of that game and 2 more scheduled for that weekend. The team would continue to play through the already tough season, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and caused the subsequent cancellation of the rest of the CHL season/playoffs. The team finished in second last place, and chose 2nd overall in the 2020 OHL draft, where they drafted forward Pano Fimis.

List of first round NHL draft picks:

• 2008 – Alex Pietrangelo, 1st round (4th overall) St. Louis
• 2010 – Mark Visentin, 1st round (27th overall) Phoenix
• 2011 – Ryan Strome, 1st round (5th overall) New York Islanders
• 2011 – Dougie Hamilton, 1st round (9th overall) Boston
• 2014 – Brendan Perlini, 1st round (12th overall) Arizona
• 2019 – Philip Tomasino, 1st round (24th overall) Nashville

Legend: OTL = Overtime loss, SL = Shootout loss

The IceDogs moved into the Meridian Centre on October 16, 2014. Located at 1 Ice Dogs Way in St. Catharines, the Meridian Centre features a combination of 5,300 permanent and retractable seats.

The Gatorade Garden City Complex, formerly known as the Garden City Arena and the Jack Gatecliff Arena, is a publicly owned and operated facility in St. Catharines. It is located at 8 Gale Crescent and features two ice surfaces (the Rex Stimers Arena and the Jack Gatecliff Arena). The IceDogs played in the Jack Gatecliff Arena of the complex for 7 seasons. The arena's capacity is 3,145 including standing room, making it smaller than most CHL arenas. With an ice surface of 190 x 85 feet, its dimensions are also smaller than the typical CHL ice surface. It is commonly referred to by fans as 'the Jack'.

The original arena was built in 1932 and became the oldest arena currently used in the CHL following the Windsor Spitfires move to the WFCU Centre in 2008–09. It was previously used by the St. Catharines Teepees, St. Catharines Black Hawks, St. Catharines Fincups and the St. Catharines Saints. Renovated in 1996, it was named after local sportswriter Jack Gatecliff.

On March 1, 2009, the Niagara IceDogs hosted a home game at Niagara Falls Memorial Arena in nearby Niagara Falls, Ontario. The arena, slated to close in 2010, was the former home to both the Niagara Falls Flyers and the Niagara Falls Thunder. The game was billed as the last OHL game in the arena. The announced crowd of 3,167 was the largest home crowd in franchise history.