In the 60 season long history of the SMJHL, there has been a lot of GMs. A lot of players. And, what will interest me for this article specifically, a lot of team names and franchises. Let’s look at the long and somewhat confusing history of the SMJHL’s team brands.

SMJHL actually didn’t start as the SMJHL back in season 1. The original name for the league was the NWJHL, the North Western Junior Hockey League, and it has begun with 4 teams – Brandon Blazers, Prince George Firebirds, Lethbridge Lions and the Vancouver Whalers. Out of these 4, only Whalers managed to hold onto their name since S1, which makes them the oldest branding in the league, even if they definitely had some smaller cosmetic changes during the years.

Obviously, the 4 teams was far too little for the freshly started league, so S2 already saw a two team expansion – the Anaheim Outlaws and the Kelowna Knights. Kelowna I am mentioning here is the same Kelowna that exists in the league nowadays, but the Anaheim isn’t the same franchise as the current Anaheim. This will be easier to see later, but for now, the Outlaws are playing their first season in the NWJHL.

The league stayed without changes until S5, which saw another expansion, already to 8 teams, with Detroit Falcons and Boston Battalion being added to the mix. However, S5 brought more than just that, with 3 rebrands, changing Anaheim Outlaws into Seattle Stingray, Lethbridge Lions renaming to Chicago Cougars, and Brandon Blazers moving to become Montreal Impact. Under the name of Stingrays, Seattle won a cup in S6 – this is the only cup won by a currently defunct team no longer in the league. That is also the reason why we have two separate Anaheims in the history of the league.

The next few changes are coming in relatively quickly. S6 saw Chicago Cougars change into the Washington Patriots, S7 saw Seattle Stingrays rename to the Stags just to move entirely in S8 to become to Los Angeles Archangels. This all was followed up by biggest news of them all – S9 saw the franchises of Washington Patriots and Los Angeles Archangels disbanded, making them the only two defunct teams within the history of the SMJHL, or even SHL.

S9 also saw Boston Battalion rebrand into the Chicago Hittmen to cap of the most turbulent period of the history of the NWJHL. It was entering the S9 with 6 teams, just like there were before the S5 expansion, proving that one to be a little bit rushed, interestingly enough however the two teams that were added in S5 weren’t the ones to lose their spots. The route to the current SMJHL is however still long, but not nearly as turbulent as the first 9 seasons were.

Going into S14, the NWJHL rebrands into the SMJHL, officially gaining the name we all know today. Alongside the league, Chicago Hittmen rebranded into the St. Louis Scarecrows, which is yet another current day franchise surfacing from the depths of history for the first time. S18 brought in the rebranding of Prince George Firebirds into the Regina Force, just to be reverted back to PGF in S25. S25 brought along more friends though – the league was finally back to 8 teams thanks to the addition of Colorado Mammoth and Halifax Raiders.

The changes now are coming a bit slower. S28 saw Montreal Impact rebrand into Milltia, and then we had to wait until S42 to see two more name changes – Colorado swapped Mammoths for Raptors, and PGF moved to become the Anchorage Armada. Soon followed the expansion of S45 after the massive reddit class forced the addition of two new teams that might sound familiar – Lethbridge Lions and Anaheim Outlaws are reborn to join the league and get it all the way to 10 teams.

The last changes all came within the S50s – rebrand of Montreal Millitia to the Carolina Kraken in S50, rebrand of Lethbridge Lions to the Newfoundland Berserkers in S51, rebrand of Halifax Raiders to Maine Timber in S52, and that leaves us with just the two expansions – the S55 one adding Quebec City Citadelles and Nevada Battleborn, and the most recent one, the S61 one, adding Great Falls Grizzlies and Regina Elk. That gets us all the way to the current day with the full compliment of the 14 SMJHL teams that you can currently become a member of.

Manhattan Rage | General Manager

thanks Sulovilen for the sig!
D | Great Falls Grizzlies | Player Page | Update Page


S46 | Andrej Doskocil | Old-school defenseman | Peak 1579 TPE | Retired
Drafted 32nd overall to the Halifax Raiders in S45 SMJHL Draft
S45|50 GP 1G/10A/11P 92 hits 48 SBs
S46|50 GP 2G/24A/26P 115 hits 57 SBs
S47|42 GP 6G/12A/18P 76 hits 48 SBs
Traded to Detroit Falcons
S47|8 GP 0G/2A/2P 15 hits 7 SBs
Drafted 8th overall to the Manhattan Rage in S46 SHL Draft
S48|50 GP 2G/7A/9P 93 hits 42 SBs
S49|50 GP 3G/12A/15P 97 hits 66 SBs
S50|50 GP 3G/10A/13P 110 hits 70 SBs
S51|50 GP 1G/17A/18P 146 hits 48 SBs
S52|50 GP 2G/20A/22P 118 hits 56 SBs
Won Challenge Cup with Manhattan Rage
S53|50 GP 3G/15A/18P 286 hits 110 SBs
S54|50 GP 3G/12A/15P 303 hits 103 SBs
S55|50 GP 6G/21A/27P 86 hits 117 SBs
S56|50 GP 7G/24A/31P 88 hits 115 SBs
S57|66 GP 8G/23A/31P 110 hits 140 SBs
S58|66 GP 5G/11A/16P 111 hits 204 SBs
S59|66 GP 6G/13A/19P 99 hits 307 SBs
Total SMJHL RS - 150 GP 9G/46A/55P 298 hits 160 SBs
Total SHL RS - 648 GP 49G/185A/234P 1647 hits 1378 SBs
Total SHL playoffs - 68 GP 5G/25A/30P 147 hits 118 SBs



S61 | Archangelo Scaradog Jr. | Defenseman | 1240 TPE

Drafted 17th overall to the Newfoundland Berserkers in S60 SMJHL Draft
Traded to Maine Timber
Drafted 30th overall to the Manhattan Rage


S72 | Arnošt Hlemýžď | Defenseman | 155 TPE

Approved!

+5 TPE @Citizen of Adraa