Saskatoon Blades

The Saskatoon Blades are a Canadian major junior ice hockey team based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Founded in 1964, the Blades were a charter team of the then-Western Canada Hockey League, and are the only club that has played every season in the league in its original location. Today, the team plays in the East Division of the Western Hockey League's Eastern Conference, and hosts games at the SaskTel Centre. Despite five appearances in the championship series, the Blades have never won a league title. History WHL founding member The Blades were established in 1964 as members of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, evolving from the Saskatoon Junior Quakers, who had played in the league since 1956. Owner Jim Piggott saw the team as a junior affiliate for his minor professional Western Hockey League Los Angeles Blades. However, Piggott became an instrumental figure in establishing a new major junior league for western Canada that could compete against teams across Canada for the Memorial Cup. The Blades became one of seven founding members of the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League in 1966, which became the Western Canada Junior Hockey League in 1967, the Western Canada Hockey League in 1968, and, finally, the Western Hockey League in 1978, after the admission of American-based clubs. The Blades are the only one of the founding teams to have played every WHL season in its original location; the Regina Pats were also a founding team, but briefly left the WHL to re-join the SJHL at the end of the 1960s. The Blades spent more than two decades playing out of the 1930s-era Saskatoon Arena before it was replaced in 1988 by Saskatchewan Place. The Blades were a middling team in the late 1960s, failing to win a playoff series in any of their first six seasons.