Portland Winterhawks

The Winterhawks were founded in 1951 as the Edmonton Oil Kings. The franchise moved to Portland on June 11, 1976. The team, owned by Brian C. Shaw, made the move citing a much cheaper stadium deal in Portland along with low attendance due to the presence of a professional team in Edmonton.[1] In their first season in Portland, the club would lose 7–2 to a travelling Russian club in an exhibition match watched by more than 5,000.[2]

The Winterhawks were pioneers of promotion and are credited with the invention of the "Dash for Cash," in which contestants are picked to run onto the ice and try to scoop up as many silver dollars in two minutes as they can. This popular promotion has been running for many years. Moreover, in late November/early December, they hold their annual teddy bear toss, in which fans throw teddy bears on the ice at the first Portland goal, which are then donated to local children's charities. On December 6, 2008, fans threw out 22,392 teddy bears after Luke Walker scored Portland's first goal against the Seattle Thunderbirds.

The Winterhawks wear jerseys similar to those of the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL, causing some to erroneously assume that the Winterhawks are a minor league farm team of the Blackhawks. In actuality, the jerseys originally worn by the first Winterhawks team were a used set of Chicago jerseys obtained through connections between the owners of the two teams. In early photos, the old Chicago jerseys are identifiable by the letter "C" with crossed tomahawks on the shoulder crest. The Winterhawks eventually changed the "C" to a "P".

Sven Baertschi previously played for the Winterhawks.

The Portland-Chicago connection runs deeper, as the Blackhawks were founded in 1926 by Frederic McLaughlin, who simply bought the contracts of most of the members of the Portland Rosebuds and brought them to Chicago.

In the 2009–10 season, the Winterhawks introduced an alternate "Hawk Eyes" logo as part of a new advertising campaign that featured lightning flashes on a mottled black background and the SMS-style words, "LOC8, NTMD8, DVST8" (read: "locate, intimidate, devastate"). In 2010–11, an alternate Hawk Head logo was added, with a similar design as the Blackhawks logo, but featuring only the three team colors: red, white and black. A new third jersey was also created with the Hawk Eyes on the front over stylized, mottled black fabric throughout; player names, numbers and accents are in gunmetal gray, and the new tri-color Hawk Head is featured as the shoulder patch.

On November 28, 2012, the WHL announced sanctions against the Winterhawks for a series of player benefits violations over the four previous seasons. As punishment for the violations WHL Commissioner Ron Robison suspended the team from participation in the first five rounds of the 2013 WHL Bantam Draft and forfeiture of their first round picks from the 2014 to 2017 WHL Bantam Drafts and were fined $200,000. The WHL also suspended General Manager and Head Coach Mike Johnston for the remainder of the 2012–13 season, including the 2013 WHL playoffs.[3]

On May 12, 2013, the Winterhawks defeated the Edmonton Oil Kings 5–1 in Game 6 to become the 2012–13 WHL champions. On April 25, 2014, the Winterhawks defeated the Kelowna Rockets 7–3 to win their fourth-consecutive Western Conference Championship.

The franchise filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in May 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Winterhawks were financially stable, but owner Bill Gallacher had to sell the franchise in order to repay other debts.[4]

Portland Winterhawks vs. Tri-City Americans, January 24, 2016

The team mascot of the Winterhawks is a white bird with multicolored tail and wing feathers, named Tom-A-Hawk. Tom-A-Hawk was introduced in 1999–2000. He wears jersey number 00. Tom-A-Hawk's main rival is Cool Bird of the Seattle Thunderbirds. Tom-A-Hawk announced in January 2019 that he would retire. A new mascot was introduced, Tommy.

The team was known as the Winter Hawks until May 2009, when it issued a press release that "the space...announced its retirement" and that the team was renaming itself the Winterhawks.[5][6]

Bill Gallacher, a Calgary businessman, purchased the team in October 2008.

The Portland Winterhawks have changed announcers 5 times since 1976. These include; Cliff Zauner (1976-1982), Dean "Scooter" Vrooman (1982-2007), Andy Kemper (2004-2018), Todd Vrooman (2007-2017), Evan Richardson (2017-2018), Nick Marek (2018–present).

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

Updated October 7, 2020.[7]

#	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace	Drafted
27		Jonas Brondberg	D	L	20	2019	Aalborg, Denmark	Undrafted
29		Nick Cicek	D	L	20	2015	Winnipeg, Manitoba	Undrafted
22		Jaydon Dureau	LW	L	20	2016	White City, Saskatchewan	2020, 147th Overall, TBL
11		Robbie Fromm-Delorme	RW	R	18	2017	Richmond, British Columbia	Undrafted
20		Kishaun Gervais	LW	L	19	2016	Yorkton, Saskatchewan	Undrafted
31		Dante Giannuzzi	G	L	18	2017	Winnipeg, Manitoba	Undrafted
58		Clay Hanus	D	L	19	2016	Minnetonka, Minnesota	Undrafted
71		Cross Hanas	LW	L	19	2017	Highland Village, Texas	2020, 55th Overall, DET
30		Joel Hofer	G	L	20	2019	Winnipeg, Manitoba	2018, 107th Overall, STL
24		Seth Jarvis	C	R	19	2017	Winnipeg, Manitoba	2020, 13th Overall, CAR
16		Gabe Klassen	LW	L	17	2018	Prince Albert, Saskatchewan	Eligible 2021
36		Simon Knak	RW	L	19	2019	Kloten, Switzerland	Undrafted
18		Tyson Kozak	C	L	18	2017	Souris, Manitoba	Eligible 2021
15		John Ludvig (C)	D	L	20	2017	Kamloops, British Columbia	2019, 69th Overall, FLA
26		Mason Mannek (A)	C	R	20	2017	Herriman, Utah	Undrafted
12		Reece Newkirk (A)	C	L	19	2016	Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan	2019, 147th Overall, NYI
2		Kade Nolan	D	L	19	2016	Rouleau, Saskatchewan	Undrafted
92		Jack O'Brien	C	L	17	2018	Denver, Colorado	Eligible 2021
23		Kurtis Smythe	D	L	18	2018	Cloverdale, British Columbia	Undrafted
13		James Stefan	RW	R	17	2018	Laguna Beach, California	Eligible 2021

• Memorial Cup (2): 1982–83, 1997–98
• President's Cup (3): 1981–82, 1997–98, 2012-13
• Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy (4): 1979–80, 1997–98, 2012–13, 2019–20
• Conference Champions (6): 1997–98, 2000–01, 2010–11, 2011-12, 2012–13, 2013-14
• Division Playoff Champions (6): 1978–79, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1986-87, 1988–89, 1992–93
• Regular Season Division Champions (13): 1977–78, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1988–89, 1992–93, 1996–97, 1997–98, 2001–02, 2010–11, 2012–13, 2013-14

• 1978–79: Loss, 2-4 vs Brandon
• 1981–82: Win, 4-1 vs Regina
• 1982-83: Loss, 1-4 vs Lethbridge
• 1986-87: Loss, 3-4 vs Medicine Hat
• 1988–89: Loss, 0-4 vs Swift Current
• 1992–93: Loss, 3-4 vs Swift Current
• 1997–98: Win, 4-0 vs Brandon
• 2000–01: Loss, 1-4 vs Red Deer
• 2010–11: Loss, 1-4 vs Kootenay
• 2011–12: Loss, 3-4 vs Edmonton
• 2012–13: Win, 4-2 vs Edmonton
• 2013–14: Loss, 3-4 vs Edmonton

• 1983: Win, 8-3 vs Oshawa
• 1998: Win, 4-3 OT vs Guelph
• 2013: loss, 4-6 vs Halifax

During the 2012–13 season, Winterhawks captain Troy Rutkowski established the new team record for most regular games played as a Winterhawk. His career total of 351 games surpassed the previous mark of 328 games set by Kevin Haupt in the 1998–99 season.[8]

List of Portland Winterhawks alumni who have graduated to play in the National Hockey League.

bold = member of the Hockey Hall of Fame

Players chosen in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft:

Media related to Portland Winterhawks at Wikimedia Commons

• Portland Winterhawks official homepage