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	Stu Barnes[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
Championships
Regular season titles	1 (2007–08)
Playoff championships	Conference championships 1 (2009–10)

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 Toyota Center. Every game is broadcast locally on the Tri-City Americans' flagship radio station 95.3 U-Rock Radio, and each game can also be heard streaming live on the Jacobs Radio app as well as occasionally being telecast on SWX. The Tri-City Americans have also been featured in the television series Z Nation episode "Day One".

History

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 to 1982 before relocating to Nanaimo, British Columbia, as the Nanaimo Islanders. After 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.^{[citation needed]}

The Americans enjoyed local support until early 2000, the start of four owners in four years, all wanting to relocate the team to Canada. Between selling off team assets, lack of on-ice success, and one owner banning the local newspaper columnist from attending games, the attendance dropped considerably. Although the ownership group represented by Darryl Porter had stated upon purchasing the team that they would create a local presence, Porter had still not moved to the Tri-Cities in his third year of ownership. In 2004, Porter attempted to move the team to Chilliwack, British Columbia. However, other Western Hockey League teams voted to prevent the move, including all four other American teams as well as two Canadian teams. Shortly after this failure, the team was sold to Tri-Cities natives, including former Americans' players Olaf Kolzig, the former goalie for the Washington Capitals, and Stu Barnes of the Dallas Stars. 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

The Americans annual series with the Highway 395 rival Spokane Chiefs is always intense and full of action, 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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, as well as 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 five games.^[4]

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 March 21, 2024.^[5]

#	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace	Drafted
3		Jaxen Adam	D	L	16	2022	Cochrane, Alberta	Eligible 2025
12		Nick Anisimovicz	C	R	17	2021	Calgary, Alberta	Eligible 2024
6		Merrek Arpin	D	R	17	2021	East St. Paul, Manitoba	Eligible 2024
22		Parker Bell	LW	L	20	2018	Campbell River, British Columbia	2022, 155th Overall, CGY
5		David Byrne	D	L	15	2023	Calgary, Alberta	Eligible 2027
88		Camerin Cardona	C	R	18	2021	Anaheim, California	Eligible 2024
25		Max Curran	C	L	17	2023	Prague, Czech Republic	Eligible 2024
2		Lukas Dragicevic (A)	D	R	18	2020	Richmond, British Columbia	2023, 57th Overall, SEA
11		Andrew Fan	RW	L	19	2021	Eagle River, Alaska	Undrafted
60		Mason Finley	RW	R	19	2024	Kelowna, British Columbia	Undrafted
9		Drew Freer	RW	R	19	2020	Calgary, Alberta	Undrafted
13		Jordan Gavin	C	L	17	2021	Surrey, British Columbia	Eligible 2025
20		Clayton Gillmore	RW	R	17	2022	West Kelowna, British Columbia	Eligible 2025
19		Jake Gudelj	C	L	18	2023	North Vancouver, British Columbia	Eligible 2024
35		Armaan Kaila	G	R	17	2023	Ladner, British Columbia	Eligible 2025
1		Kyle Kelsey	G	L	20	2023	Maple Ridge, British Columbia	Undrafted
51		Cash Koch	LW	L	17	2022	Calgary, Alberta	Eligible 2025
29		Carter MacAdams	LW	L	20	2023	Langley, British Columbia	Undrafted
31		Kale Margolis	RW	R	17	2024	Kinistino, Saskatchewan	Eligible 2025
30		Lukas Matecha	G	L	19	2023	Czech Republic	Undrafted
24		Deagen McMillan	C	R	19	2020	Vernon, British Columbia	Undrafted
4		Ethan Peters (A)	D	R	20	2023	Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan	Undrafted
21		Carter Savage	D	L	19	2020	Surrey, British Columbia	Undrafted
37		Alex Serraglio (C)	D	L	21	2021	Langley, British Columbia	Undrafted
15		Jake Sloan (A)	C	R	20	2019	Girvan, Great Britain	Undrafted
7		Jackson Smith	D	R	16	2022	Calgary, Alberta	Eligible 2025
17		Thomas Tien	C	L	19	2019	Richmond, British Columbia	Undrafted
27		Brandon Whynott	LW	L	19	2023	Langley, British Columbia	Undrafted

Team records

NHL alumni

Alumni of the Americans who played in the National Hockey League (NHL):^{[citation needed]}

Retired numbers

• 8 - Brian Sakic
• 14 - Stu Barnes, Todd Klassen^[6]
• 33 - Olaf Kolzig