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Tri-City Americans
City:	Kennewick, Washington
League:	Western Hockey League
Conference:	Western
Division:	U.S.
Founded:	1988
Home Arena:	Toyota Center
Colors:	navy blue, red, cream & silver
Head Coach:	Don Nachbaur
General Manager:	Bob Tory
Franchise history
1966-67:	Calgary Buffaloes
1967-77:	Calgary Centennials
1977-82:	Billings Bighorns
1982-83:	Nanaimo Islanders
1983-88:	New Westminster Bruins
1988-Present:	Tri-City Americans

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 the Toyota Center.

Contents 1 History 2 Current roster 3 Season-by-season Record 4 Team records 5 NHL alumni 6 Retired numbers 7 External links

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 1977-82 before relocating to Nanaimo, British Columbia as the Nanaimo Islanders. After only 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.

The Americans never enjoyed especially strong local support, mainly due to their startling lack of competitiveness during the first thirteen or so years of franchise history. As a result, in 2004, the former owner of the Tri-City Americans attempted to move the team to Chilliwack, British Columbia in Canada. However, the other Western Hockey League teams voted to prevent the move, including all four other American teams. Shortly after this failure, the team was sold to Tri-Cities natives, including Olaf Kolzig, the goalie for the Washington Capitals, and Stu Barnes of the Dallas Stars, both former Americans players. Since the sale, local support for the team seems to have increased modestly.

The Americans annual series with the Highway 395 rival Spokane Chiefs is always intense and full of action, clearly 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 Years 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.

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.

At end of 2006-07 season.

Goaltenders
#		Player	Age	Hometown	Drafted
30		Kyle Birch	17	Winnepeg, Manitoba	Eligible 2008
37		Chet Pickard	17	Winnepeg, Manitoba	Eligible 2008

Defencemen
#		Player	Age	Hometown	Drafted
3		Jarrett Toll	17	Maple Ridge, British Columbia	Eligible 2007
5		Tyler Schmidt	16	Winnipeg, Manitoba	Eligible 2008
7		Eric Mestery	16	Winnipeg, Manitoba	Eligible 2009

Forwards
#		Player	Age	Hometown	Drafted
6		Drew Hoff	18	Redvers, Saskatchewan	Eligible 2007
11		Kruise Reddick	16	Manor, Saskatchewan	Eligible 2008
15		Colton Yellow Horn	20	Brocket, Alberta	Eligible 2007
16		Shaun Vey	19	Wakaw, Saskatchewan	Eligible 2007
44		Taylor Procyshen	18	Emerald Park, Saskatchewan	Eligible 2007

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties OTL = Overtime losses Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

Season	GP	W	L	T	OTL	GF	GA	Points	Finish	Playoffs
1988-89	72	33	34	5	-	300	299	71	4th West	Lost West Division semi-final
1989-90	72	39	28	5	-	433	354	83	3rd West	Lost West Division semi-final
1990-91	72	36	32	4	-	404	386	76	4th West	Lost West Division semi-final
1991-92	72	35	35	2	-	363	376	72	2nd West	Lost West Division quarter-final
1992-93	72	28	41	3	-	245	312	59	6th West	Lost West Division quarter-final
1993-94	72	19	48	5	-	272	373	43	6th West	Lost West Division quarter-final
1994-95	72	36	31	5	-	295	279	77	4th West	Lost West Division final
1995-96	72	45	25	2	-	336	255	92	3rd West	Lost West Division semi-final
1996-97	72	22	43	7	-	225	288	51	7th West	Out of playoffs
1997-98	72	17	49	6	-	264	371	40	7th West	Out of playoffs
1998-99	72	43	23	6	-	311	219	92	2nd West	Lost West Division final
1999-00	72	24	41	7	2	231	288	57	6th West	Lost West Division semi-final
2000-01	72	21	36	8	7	217	284	57	7th West	Out of playoffs
2001-02	72	31	31	10	0	260	271	72	3rd U.S.	Lost Western Conference quarter-final
2002-03	72	20	44	3	5	240	335	48	4th U.S.	Out of playoffs
2003-04	72	31	27	10	4	205	197	76	3rd U.S.	Lost Western Conference semi-final
2004-05	72	26	34	8	4	172	196	64	4th U.S.	Lost Western Conference quarter-final
Season	GP	W	L	OTL	SOL	GF	GA	Points	Finish	Playoffs
2005-06	72	30	35	4	3	188	221	67	4th U.S.	Lost Western Conference quarter-final
2006-07	72	47	23	1	1	240	190	96	2nd U.S.	Lost Western Conference quarter-final

Team Records for a single season
Statistic	Total	Season
Most Points	96	2006-07
Most Wins	47	2006-07
Most Goals For	433	1989-90
Least Goals For	172	2004-05
Least Goals Against	190	2006-07
Most Goals Against	386	1990-91

Individual player records for a single season
Statistic	Player	Total	Season
Most Goals	Kyle Reeves	89	1990-91
Most Assists	Brian Sakic	122	1990-91
Most Points	Brian Sakic	162	1990-91
Most Points, rookie	Bill Lindsay	85	1989-90
Most Points, defenseman	Steve Jaques	84	1989-90
Best GAA (Goalie)	Carey Price	2.34	2004-05
Goalies = minimum 1500 minutes played

Stu Barnes Milan Bartovic Alexandre Boikov Brian Boucher Jason Bowen Mike Busniuk Kimbi Daniels Brad Ference Dan Focht

Scott Gomez Olaf Kölzig Zenith Komarniski Jaroslav Kristek Jason Labarbera Daymond Langkow Scott Levins Bill Lindsay

Jason Marshall Josef Melichar Steve Passmore Stephen Peat Ronald Petrovicky Carey Price Terry Ryan Terran Sandwith Ray Schultz

Todd Simpson Dan Smith Sheldon Souray Jaroslav Svejkovsky Billy Tibbetts Terry Virtue Vladimir Vujtek B.J. Young

33 - Olaf Kolzig

14 - Stu Barnes, Todd Klassen

8 - Brian Sakic

• Tri-City Americans website
• Tri-City Herald coverage of Tri-City Americans

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