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Tri-City Americans
City	Kennewick, Washington
League	Western Hockey League
Conference	Western
Division	U.S.
Founded	1966
Home arena	Toyota Center
Colors	Navy blue, red, silver, white
General manager	Bob Tory
Head coach	Kelly Buchberger[1]
Website	www.amshockey.com
Franchise history
1966–1967	Calgary Buffaloes
1967–1977	Calgary Centennials
1977–1982	Billings Bighorns
1982–1983	Nanaimo Islanders
1983–1988	New Westminster Bruins
1988–present	Tri-City Americans

The Tri-City Americans are a major junior ice hockey team of the Western Hockey League, based in Kennewick, Washington. The team plays its home games at the Toyota Center. Every game is broadcast locally on the Tri-City Americans flagship radio station 870 AM KFLD, and each game can also be heard streaming live at KFLD's UStream Channel, as well as from time-to-time being telecast on Saturday nights on KVEW 42.2. The Tri-City Americans have also been featured in the television series "Z Nation" episode "Day One".

History

Original logo, used from 1988/89-1990/91.

Logo from 2003/04-2007/08, now a secondary logo.

The Tri-City Americans franchise is an original franchise of the WHL. They began in 1966 as the Calgary Buffaloes before being renamed the Centennials after one season. The franchise was also known as the Billings Bighorns from 1977–82 before relocating to Nanaimo, British Columbia as the Nanaimo Islanders. After only one season, they moved to New Westminster, British Columbia to become the second incarnation of the New Westminster Bruins. They moved to the Tri-Cities in 1988.

The Americans enjoyed local support until early 2000, the start of 4 owners in 4 years, all wanting to relocate the team to Canada. Between selling off team assets and one owner banning the local newspaper columnist from attending games, the attendance dropped considerably. The lack of any banners in the barn didn't help matters either. Although the ownership group represented by Darryl Porter had stated upon purchasing the team that they would create a local presence (the oft-heard criticism of the ownerships groups), Mr. Porter had still not moved to the Tri-Cities in his 3rd year of ownership. In 2004, Porter attempted to move the team to Chilliwack, British Columbia in Canada. However, the other Western Hockey League teams voted to prevent the move, including all four other American teams as well as 2 Canadian teams. Shortly after this failure, the team was sold to Tri-Cities natives, including Olaf Kolzig, the former goalie for the Washington Capitals, and Stu Barnes of the Dallas Stars, both former Americans players. Since the sale the team has doubled attendance figures and won the first division championship in team history. Porter and his investment group were later granted the Chilliwack Bruins as an expansion franchise.

On November 29, 1989 Americans goaltender Olaf Kolzig became the first goalie to register a WHL goal when he successfully shot on an empty net against the Seattle Thunderbirds.

The Americans annual series with the Highway 395 rival Spokane Chiefs is always intense and full of action, clearly their biggest rival year in and year out. The competitiveness of the two team is such that an annual tradition with the Americans is to play the Chiefs at home on New Year's Eve. The only time this tradition was broken was due to a one-day strike by the Americans over the training tactics of one of the coaches.

In the 2002–03 season, sixteen-year-old goaltender Shannon Szabados became the first female player to compete in the WHL when she played one game for the Americans. In 2010 Szabados won gold in Women's Ice Hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympics playing for Canada.

During the 2007–08 WHL season, the Americans won the US Division regular season championship for the first time after a March 15, 2008 game against division rival Spokane Chiefs in Kennewick, Washington at the Toyota Center. The Americans won the Western Conference regular season championship, and the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy for the best overall regular season record in the WHL. The 2009–10 Season marked the third straight year the Americans won the US Division.

At their annual New Year's Eve game against the Spokane Chiefs on December 31, 2008, the Americans set a record for attendance at a hockey game in the Toyota Center, with 6,042 attendees.^[2] The Americans surpassed this number on March 13, 2010, in a game against Spokane, with an attendance of 6,053.^[3]

The Americans won the Western Conference championship for the first time in the 2010 playoffs defeating the Chilliwack Bruins, Kelowna Rockets and Vancouver Giants in successive series before dropping the league championship to the Calgary Hitmen in 5 games.

Charitable work and events

The Americans are charitably-active in the Tri-Cities area. Years ago, the Americans were one of the first teams to do 'The Teddy Bear Toss', which was originally called 'Toy Trick'. This is where the fans would throw stuffed animals onto the rink on a selected night when the home team scores their first goal. The players collect the bears and hand them out to various organizations or the players take them along with them when they visit children in the local hospitals.

A definite first at the Tri-City rink was the Breast Cancer night. Brian Sandy, Senior VP of business operations and Chief Marketing Officer, dreamed up this event, where the ice is tinted pink and the players wear pink jerseys that are auctioned-off at the end of the night. The game on February 2, 2008, every jersey sold for the maximum donation of $500 each, with all proceeds supporting breast cancer research.

The Americans also were active in raising start-up funds for the establishment of a local chapter of The First Tee. Players visit schools and hospitals weekly and assist the young hockey players with their practices. Links are provided on their website to other organizations like the local Humane Society, and opportunities have been provided to the Children's Developmental Center to volunteer to aid in the seating at games for a $15,000 check at the season's conclusion.

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

WHL Championship history

• 
  2009–10: Loss, 1-4 vs Calgary

Current roster

Updated January 10, 2019.^[4]

#	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace	Drafted
7001320000000000000♠32		Parker AuCoin (A)	LW	L	20	2013	St. Albert, Alberta	Undrafted
7000700000000000000♠7		Anthony Bishop	D	L	20	2017	Kelowna, British Columbia	Undrafted
7001290000000000000♠29		Paycen Bjorklund	RW	R	18	2015	Grand Prairie, Alberta	Eligible 2019
7001190000000000000♠19		Connor Bouchard	C	L	17	2016	Cochrane, Alberta	Eligible 2019
7001310000000000000♠31		Talyn Boyko	G	R	16	2017	Drumheller, Alberta	Eligible 2021
7000500000000000000♠5		Mitchell Brown	D	R	17	2016	Salmon Arm, British Columbia	Eligible 2019
7000200000000000000♠2		Riley Bruce	D	L	19	2018	Winnipeg, Manitoba	Undrafted
7000900000000000000♠9		Tom Cadieux	D	R	16	2017	Saskatoon, Saskatchewan	Eligible 2020
7001200000000000000♠20		Krystof Hrabik	C	L	19	2018	Prague, Czech Republic	Undrafted
7001120000000000000♠12		Samuel Huo	C	R	17	2019	Richmond, British Columbia	Eligible 2019
7001380000000000000♠38		Aaron Hyman	D	R	20	2018	Calgary, Alberta	Undrafted
7001230000000000000♠23		Isaac Johnson	LW	R	20	2017	Andover, Minnesota	Undrafted
7000400000000000000♠4		Roman Kalinichenko (A)	D	L	18	2017	Moscow, Russia	Undrafted
7001170000000000000♠17		Kaden Kohle	C	R	17	2017	Cudworth, Saskatchewan	Eligible 2020
7001270000000000000♠27		Wil Kushniryk	LW	L	19	2018	Chilliwack, British Columbia	Undrafted
7001210000000000000♠21		Bryan McAndrews	D	L	17	2016	Edmonton, Alberta	Eligible 2019
7001340000000000000♠34		Sasha Mutala	RW	R	17	2016	Vancouver, British Columbia	Eligible 2019
7000600000000000000♠6		Jarod Newell	D	R	16	2017	Wainwright, Alberta	Eligible 2020
7001250000000000000♠25		Kyle Olson (A)	C	R	19	2014	Calgary, Alberta	2017, 122nd Overall, ANA
7001390000000000000♠39		Jayden Platz	D	R	18	2018	St. Albert, Alberta	Undrafted
7001260000000000000♠26		Riley Sawchuk	C	R	19	2014	Prince Albert, Saskatchewan	Undrafted
7000300000000000000♠3		Dom Schmiemann	D	L	19	2018	Wilcox, Saskatchewan	Undrafted
7001270000000000000♠27		Blake Stevenson	RW	R	18	2016	Calgary, Alberta	Eligible 2019
7001410000000000000♠41		Samuel Stewart	D	L	18	2018	Winnipeg, Manitoba	Undrafted
7001350000000000000♠35		Beck Warm	G	L	19	2014	Whistler, British Columbia	Undrafted
7001220000000000000♠22		Nolan Yaremko (C)	LW	L	20	2013	Spirit River, Alberta	Undrafted

Team records

NHL alumni

Retired numbers

• 8 - Brian Sakic
  


• 14 - Stu Barnes, Todd Klassen^[5]
  


• 33 - Olaf Kolzig
  

References

External links

• Tri-City Americans website


• Tri-City Herald coverage of Tri-City Americans


• Tri-City Americans flagship radio station


• Tri-City Americans celebrate 25 years | Tri-City Herald