The Calgary Canucks are a junior A ice hockey team in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL). They play in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with home games at the Ken Bracko Arena. They have won the AJHL championship ten times and one national championship. The team was selected to host the 2025 Centennial Cup National Junior A championship tournament.

History

Founded in 1971, the Calgary Canucks are the oldest franchise still operating in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL), taking that title when the Spruce Grove Saints joined the British Columbia Hockey League in 2024. The Canucks franchise also has the longest tenure of any in the AJHL in one city. The Canucks organization was formed of a group led by Doug Eastcott in order to create a junior team so that local players did not have to live away from where they attended school. As the team considered itself a Calgary-based development system, it set an internal limit of three "imports" (non-Calgary area players) per season. The import cap was eventually dropped as the AJHL has added more teams in the Calgary region such as the Calgary Royals and Okotoks Oilers, causing the team to recruit from a larger region. The Canucks qualified for the playoffs 34 consecutive seasons, a streak finally broken in 2006–07, The team has 11 regular season titles, nine AJHL championships, two Doyle Cup titles, and one Centennial Cup National Junior A Championship. The team has developed multiple players that have reached the National Hockey League, including Dany Heatley and two-time Stanley Cup winner Mike Vernon. Many more have earned scholarships to American and Canadian universities. During the 2021–22 season, while renovations made their home Ken Bracko Arena unavailable, the Canucks played their home games at Henry Viney Arena.

Season-by-season record

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

Junior A National Championship

The National Junior A Championship, known as the Centennial Cup and formerly as Royal Bank Cup or RBC Cup, is the postseason tournament for the Canadian national championship for Junior A hockey teams that are members of the Canadian Junior Hockey League since 1971. Since 1986, the tournament has consisted of the regional Junior A champions and a previously selected host team. Since 1990, the national championship has used a five-team tournament format when the regional qualifiers were designated as the ANAVET Cup (Western), Doyle Cup (Pacific), Dudley Hewitt Cup (Central), and Fred Page Cup (Eastern). From 2013 to 2017, the qualifiers were the Dudley Hewitt Cup (Central), Fred Page Cup (Eastern), and the Western Canada Cup champions and runners-up (Western #1 and #2). The tournament begins with round-robin play between the five teams followed by the top four teams playing a semifinal game, with the top seed facing the fourth seed and the second facing the third. The winners of the semifinals then face each other in final game for the national championship. In some years, the losers of the semifinal games face each other for a third place game.

Revised format 2022

Canadian Jr. A National Championships Maritime Junior Hockey League, Quebec Junior Hockey League, Central Canada Hockey League, Ontario Junior Hockey League, Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League, Superior International Junior Hockey League, Manitoba Junior Hockey League, Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, Alberta Junior Hockey League, and Host. The BCHL declared itself an independent league and there is no BC representative. Round-robin play in two 5-team pools with top three in pool advancing to determine a Champion.

NHL alumni

The following former Canucks have gone on to play in the National Hockey League (NHL):