Tri-City Americans

The Tri-City Americans are an American major junior ice hockey team playing in the Western Hockey League and based in Kennewick, Washington. Founded in 1966 as the Calgary Buffaloes, the team settled in Kennewick in 1988 after a number of relocations. The team plays its home games at Toyota Center, which was purpose-built for the team. The team has won one Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy as regular season champions and have played in one league playoff final; however, the Americans have not won a playoff championship.

Foundations
The Americans franchise began as a founding franchise of the league, beginning as the Calgary Buffaloes in 1966. The original team was renamed the "Centennials" after one season. In 1977, the franchise relocated to Montana and was known as the Billings Bighorns—part of an initial wave of American teams in the league. In 1982, the team moved again, this time to Nanaimo, British Columbia, where the team played for one season as the Nanaimo Islanders. The team then moved to New Westminster, BC, to become the second incarnation of the New Westminster Bruins.

In 1987, owner Ron Dixon proposed moving the team to the Tri-Cities area if local investors would put together enough money for a new arena; the proposal was endorsed, and the team moved to Kennewick and became known as the Americans in the fall of 1988. The move was seen as a gamble given the lack of hockey history in Tri-City area, but it paid off—within a few seasons, the team counted nearly 4,000 season ticket holders.

Tumultuous beginnings
The team's new arena in Kennewick, the Tri-Cities Coliseum, was not ready in time for the start of the team's first season in Washington, forcing the team to seek practice ice in Walla Walla and to play its first seventeen games on the road. The team's inaugural game was a 4–2 loss in Spokane against the Chiefs. The team finally debuted in their new home arena on November 20, 1988, defeating the Seattle Thunderbirds 4–3 in overtime in front of 6,000 spectators.

Led by stars Stu Barnes and goaltender Olaf Kolzig, the Americans were playoff contenders from the outset. The team gained widespread attention during their second season when they staged a one-game walk-out; Dixon hired Bill LaForge to manage the team, and when he stepped in for coach Rick Kozuback and allegedly levied verbal abuse at players and instructed them to injure their opponents, the players refused to play in their December 31, 1989 game against the Portland Winter Hawks. Dixon ultimately agreed that Kozuback would continue coaching the team, rather than LaForge. In that season's playoffs, during their first round series against the Thunderbirds, Kozuback and several players got into a physical altercation with fans, who had apparently been pouring beer onto the bench; Kozuback and two players were suspended, while Seattle was fined for its fans' actions.

Despite re-branding as the Americans, the team wore the New West Bruins' black-and-gold colors for the first two seasons in Kennewick, before Dixon finally paid for new uniforms in their red, white, and blue color scheme in 1990. The team found limited success in its first two decades, winning its first playoff series in 1995 over Spokane, but never advancing past the Division final.

Twenty-first century
Struggling on and off the ice, the team was nearly relocated to Chilliwack, British Columbia, in 2004. However, an ownership group including former players Kolzig and Barnes, along with Bob Tory and Dennis Loman, purchased the team and kept it in Kennewick. In 2021, Barnes would be named the team's head coach.

The Americans' had their most successful run in a five-season period from 2007–08 to 2011–12, when the team topped the U.S. Division four times. In 2007–08, led by goaltender Chet Pickard and coach-of-the-year Don Nachbaur, the team won the regular season title with a 52-win, 108-point season, before losing a seven-game conference final series against Spokane that featured a then-record five overtime games. The following season, at their annual New Year's Eve game against the Chiefs on December 31, 2008, the Americans set a team record for attendance with 6,042 attendees. In 2009–10, the Americans won their third straight division title and advanced to the championship series for the first time in history. They faced the Calgary Hitmen, losing the series in five games.

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

Championship history

 * Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy: 2007–08
 * Conference championships: 2009–10
 * Regular season Division titles (4): 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2011–12

WHL Championship final

 * 2009–10: Loss, 1–4 vs Calgary Hitmen

Current roster
Updated June 29, 2024.


 * }

NHL alumni
Alumni of the Americans who played in the National Hockey League (NHL). Scott Gomez was the first former American to win the Stanley Cup.


 * Carter Ashton
 * Stu Barnes
 * Milan Bartovic
 * Jake Bean
 * Shawn Belle
 * Alexandre Boikov
 * Brian Boucher
 * Jason Bowen
 * Brandon Carlo
 * Dylan Coghlan
 * Eric Comrie
 * Kimbi Daniels
 * Chris Driedger
 * Brad Ference
 * Brett Festerling
 * Dan Focht
 * Morgan Geekie
 * Scott Gomez
 * Patrick Holland
 * Olaf Kolzig
 * Zenith Komarniski
 * Jaroslav Kristek
 * Jason Labarbera
 * Daymond Langkow
 * Brett Leason
 * Scott Levins
 * Bill Lindsay
 * Jason Marshall
 * Josef Melichar
 * Steve Passmore
 * Stephen Peat
 * Alexander Pechurskiy
 * Ronald Petrovicky
 * Carey Price
 * Michael Rasmussen
 * Terry Ryan
 * Terran Sandwith
 * Jesse Schultz
 * Ray Schultz
 * Brendan Shinnimin
 * Todd Simpson
 * Dan Smith
 * Sheldon Souray
 * Clayton Stoner
 * Jaroslav Svejkovsky
 * Billy Tibbetts
 * Juuso Valimaki
 * Terry Virtue
 * Vladimir Vujtek
 * Tyler Weiman
 * Parker Wotherspoon
 * B. J. Young

Retired numbers
The Americans honored Todd Klassen in 1993, months after he was killed in a car crash. The team also began awarding the Todd Klassen Humanitarian of the Year Award annually.

CHL awards
David Branch Player of the Year Award
 * Brendan Shinnimin: 2011–12

CHL Goaltender of the Year
 * Carey Price: 2006–07
 * Chet Pickard: 2007–08

CHL Top Scorer Award
 * Brendan Shinnimin: 2011–12

Brian Kilrea Coach of the Year Award
 * Jim Hiller: 2011–12

WHL awards
Four Broncos Memorial Trophy

Player of the year
 * Stu Barnes: 1988–89
 * Brendan Shinnimin: 2011–12

Del Wilson Trophy

Goaltender of the year
 * Brian Boucher: 1996–97
 * Carey Price: 2006–07
 * Chet Pickard: 2007–08, 2008–09

Bob Clarke Trophy

Top Scorer
 * Daymond Langkow: 1994–95
 * Brendan Shinnimin: 2011–12

Dunc McCallum Memorial Trophy

Coach of the year
 * Don Hay: 1998–99
 * Don Nachbaur: 2007–08
 * Jim Hiller: 2011–12

Doug Wickenheiser Memorial Trophy

Humanitarian of the year
 * Taylor Procyshen: 2008–09
 * Taylor Vickerman: 2014–15

Lloyd Saunders Memorial Trophy

Executive of the year
 * Don Hay: 1998–99
 * Bob Tory: 2006–07, 2007–08

WHL Plus-Minus Award

Top plus-minus
 * Brendan Shinnimin: 2011–12
 * Zach Yuen: 2011–12