Rockets win again: Kelowna has the most wins in the WHL over the last 15 years
Story by: Josh Duncan
The Kelowna Rockets have the most wins of any WHL team since 2003. It’s pretty safe to say you can expect the Kelowna Rockets to be a playoff team every season.
The Rockets have only missed the post-season once in the last 15 seasons, which happened during the 2006-07 season.
According to CHL statistician Geoffrey Brandow, the Rockets have 639 wins in that time, which is more than any other WHL team.
The only other teams with more than 600 are the Medicine Hat Tigers with 623 and the Calgary Hitmen with 602.
That doesn’t even count the 51 wins that the Rockets put up during the 2002-03 season, a year that ended with the team’s first of four WHL championships.
Kelowna’s most successful regular season came in 2013-14, when the team recorded 57 wins and 118 points in the final year under head coach Ryan Huska.
That team was unable to convert their regular season dominance into post-season success, however, as they lost the third round to the high-powered Portland Winterhawks.
But a year later they would right that wrong, winning another 53 games en route to a 112 point season and their most recent WHL championship.
Nick Merkley, Rourke Chartier, Leon Draisaitl, Tyson Baillie, Madison Bowey and Jackson Whistle were key cogs for the Rockets in that run to the Memorial Cup.
In these last 15 years of success, the Rockets have gone through six head coaches, but four of those have come in the last five seasons.
The team can be very proud of their last decade and a half, but so can the fans.
The last time the Rockets averaged less than 5,000 fans a game at Prospera Place was all the way back during the 2001-02 season.
Between 2003 and 2012, the team averaged more than 6,000 fans a game, which peaked with an average of 6,131 during the 2009-10 season.
Needless to say, one of the best CHL franchises in the country is right here in the beautiful Okanagan and we’re ready for another run to the Memorial Cup this year!
The Kelowna Rockets with the WHL Championship in 2015
Photo credit: Marissa Baecker