Wichita Thunder

Wichita Thunder
File:WichitaThunder.PNG
City	Wichita, Kansas
League	ECHL
Conference	Western
Division	Mountain
Founded	1992 (in the CHL)
Home arena	Intrust Bank Arena
Owner(s)	Rodney Steven Brandon Steven Johnny Steven
General manager	Joel Lomurno
Head coach	Malcolm Cameron
Captain	Dyson Stevenson
Media	The Wichita Eagle KAKE-TV KWCH
Affiliates	Edmonton Oilers (NHL) Bakersfield Condors (AHL)
Franchise history
1992–present	Wichita Thunder
Championships
Regular season titles	3 (1993–94, 1994–95, 2011–12)
Conference titles	1 (1997–98, 2011–12)
Ray Miron President's Cup	2 (1993–94, 1994–95)
Current season

The Wichita Thunder are a minor league hockey team based in Wichita, Kansas. The team played in the Central Hockey League from 1992 until 2014, and then in the ECHL since the 2014–15 season. From 1992 until December 2009 the Thunder played in the Britt Brown Arena located in the northern Wichita suburb of Park City. In January 2010 (the second half of the 2009–10 season), the team began playing its home games at the newly built Intrust Bank Arena.

Franchise history

Central Hockey League

The Thunder were one of the first six original teams of the second iteration of the Central Hockey League, along with the Oklahoma City Blazers, Tulsa Oilers, Memphis RiverKings, Dallas Freeze and the Fort Worth Fire.

Wichita played their first home game at Britt Brown Arena on November 4, 1992, in front of a crowd of 5,486. In the same season, the Thunder had their first sellout in team history, the crowd of 9,686 fans watched the Thunder defeat Oklahoma City 4-3.

The Thunder were originally coached by Gary Fay, but after a 6-20 start, he was replaced by Doug Shedden. Although they started out with a 6-20 record, the season was quickly turned around by Shedden, and they finished their first season with a 25-32-2 record. On April 5, 1993, Thunder goaltender Robert Desjardins was named the first CHL Rookie of the Year.

In the following two seasons, the Thunder were the regular season champions (Adams Cup) and playoff champions (William Levins Memorial Cup). Ron Handy was the Playoff Most Valuable Player for both seasons, he was the only player in Central Hockey League history to win the award on multiple occasions. In the 1993–94 season Doug Shedden won the Coach of the Year award, Robert Desjardins won the Regular Season Most Valuable Player award and Paul Jackson won the Scoring Champion award.

On May 14, 1995, head coach Doug Shedden resigned to become coach of the Louisiana IceGators of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL).

Don Jackson was hired as the new head coach on July 21, 1995. He led the Thunder to a 22-39-3 record and missed the playoffs for the second time in franchise history.

On July 19, 1996, Don Jackson resigned to become head coach of the Kansas City Blades of the International Hockey League (IHL). Jackson would be replaced by Bryan Wells to become the Thunder's fourth head coach in franchise history. Wells would go on to coach the Thunder for five seasons; they made the playoffs four out of the five seasons he coached. On May 2, 2001, Wells was dismissed as head coach.

After the dismissal of coach Wells, the Thunder announced that James Latos would be the new head coach. In Lato's first season coaching, the team went 24-34-6 and were out of the playoffs. Latos was fired the following season after a disappointing start of just 8-19-7.

Just five days after coach Lato's dismissal, the Thunder announced that Derek Laxdal would become the team's new head coach. Laxdal went on to coach the Thunder for two seasons to an 87-58-8 record while clinching two separate playoff berths. On August 3, 2005, Laxdal announced his resignation to become the head coach of the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads.

Mark French took over as head coach from 2005 to 2007. During his tenure, he compiled a record of 70-59-16. He was fired mid-season in December 2007 with a 4–13 record. He would go on to become the assistant coach of the AHL's Hershey Bears and then the following season take them to a championship as their head coach.

The Thunder then named former player Rob Weingartner to lead the team. Weingartner played for the Thunder from 1992 to 1996 where he was a member of two championship teams. Weingartner compiled a record of 16-29-2 during his tenure. He has since gone on to be the head coach of the Western States Hockey League's Wichita Jr. Thunder.

Brent Bilodeau was hired during the 2008 off-season and lead the team for two seasons and a record of 22-48-0. He was let go early in his second season but would go on to be the assistant coach of the Western Hockey League's Tri-City Americans for two seasons.

After the Thunder fired Brent Bilodeau nine games into the 2009–10 season, Jason Duda was given the job on an interim basis while on injured reserve. Duda owns several franchise records from his Thunder career, scoring 870 points in 14 seasons. He would finish the season with a 7-43-5 record and go on to be an assistant coach under the next head coach, Kevin McClelland.

ECHL

On October 7, 2014, soon before the 2014–15 CHL season was set to begin, it was announced that the Central Hockey League ceased operations and the Thunder, along with the Allen Americans, Brampton Beast, Quad City Mallards, Missouri Mavericks, Rapid City Rush and Tulsa Oilers, were all approved for membership into the ECHL for the 2014–15 season. The team finished 5th out of 7 teams in the Central Division, scoring 73 points out of 144.

On April 16, 2016, the Thunder announced that the team would not renew head coach Kevin McClelland's contract for the 2016–17 season. He had been with the Thunder since 2010 and guided the team for six seasons becoming the longest tenured coach in Thunder history, leading the team for 408 games. During his time in Wichita, McClelland compiled a record of 194-166-48, clinching a playoff spot in his first season and taking the team to the playoff finals the following two seasons while still in the CHL. However, he failed to lead the team into the ECHL playoffs in his two seasons leading the team in the ECHL and the finished last in the overall standings in the 2015–16 season.

Malcolm Cameron was announced as the new head coach on May 20, 2016. One of his stated intentions in his opening press conference was to establish the Thunder's first NHL affiliation for the upcoming season. On July 4, 2016, the Ottawa Senators assistant general manager, Randy Lee, stated that his team was in negotiations for an affiliation with the Thunder for the 2016–17 season. The affiliation with the Senators and their American Hockey League affiliate, the Binghamton Senators, was finally confirmed on July 14. After one season, the Thunder changed affiliations to the Edmonton Oilers (NHL) and Bakersfield Condors (AHL).

Season-by-season records

Regular season												Playoffs
Season	GP	W	L	T	OTL	SOL	Pts	GF	GA	PIM	Standing	Year	1st round	2nd round	3rd round	Finals
1992–93	60	25	33	—	0	2	52	242	320	1876	6th of 6, CHL	1993	—	Did not qualify
1993–94	64	40	18	6	—	—	86	309	275	2522	1st of 6, CHL	1994	—	W, 4–3, DAL	W, 4–0, TUL
1994–95	66	44	18	4	—	—	92	320	268	2513	1st of 7, CHL	1995	—	W, 4–1, OKC	W, 4–2, SA
1995–96	64	22	39	—	—	3	47	270	380	2304	6th of 6, CHL	1996	—	Did not qualify
1996–97	66	25	31	—	—	10	60	279	324	2660	4th of 5, Western Div.	1997	—	OKC	L, 1–4, FTW	—
1997–98	70	35	31	—	—	4	74	302	303	2321	2nd of 5, Western Div.	1998	—	W, 3–2, TUL	W, 4–3, OKC	L, 0–4, COL
1998–99	70	34	26	—	—	10	78	257	262	2158	3rd of 6, Western Div.	1999	—	L, 1–3, SA	—	—
1999–00	70	37	26	—	—	7	81	245	231	2049	2nd of 6, Western Div.	2000	—	L, 2–3, OKC	—	—
2000–01	70	30	32	—	—	8	68	251	251	2418	5th of 6, Western Div.	2001	—	Did not qualify
2001–02	64	24	34	—	—	6	54	203	262	1913	3rd of 4, Northwest Div.	2002	—	Did not qualify
2002–03	64	21	36	—	5	2	49	216	261	1837	4th of 4, Northwest Div.	2003	—	Did not qualify
2003–04	64	35	24	—	1	4	75	194	197	1558	2nd of 5, Northwest Div.	2004	—	W, 3–1, COL	L, 1–4, BS	—
2004–05	60	40	17	—	2	1	83	210	158	1784	2nd of 4, Northwest Div.	2005	—	W, 4–3, BS	L, 2–4, COL	—
2005–06	64	38	18	—	4	4	84	233	200	1841	2nd of 4, Northwest Div.	2006	—	L, 1–4, BS	—	—
2006–07	64	28	28	—	0	8	64	191	213	1841	3rd of 4, Northwest Div.	2007	L, 2–4, BS	—	—	—
2007–08	64	20	42	—	1	1	42	156	247	1905	5th of 5, Northwest Div.	2008	Did not qualify
2008–09	64	20	41	—	2	1	43	168	230	1419	4th of 4, Northwest Div.	2009	Did not qualify
2009–10	64	9	50	—	1	4	23	128	257	1354	7th of 7, Northern Conf.	2010	Did not qualify
2010–11	66	34	26	—	2	4	74	249	231	1189	5th of 9, Turner Conf.	2011	L, 2–3, MO	—	—	—
2011–12	66	44	19	—	1	2	91	231	181	1077	1st of 7, Berry Conf.	2012	—	W, 4–1, RGV	W, 4–2, TEX	L, 1–4, FW
2012–13	66	39	19	—	2	6	86	240	182	1106	2nd of 10, CHL	2013	—	W, 4–0, ARZ	W, 4–0, FTW	L, 3–4, ALN
2013–14	66	27	30	—	4	5	63	201	223	973	9th of 10, CHL	2014	—	Did not qualify
2014–15	72	32	31	—	2	7	73	213	240	1508	5th of 6, Central Div.	2015	Did not qualify
2015–16	72	18	41	—	7	6	49	150	240	1152	4th of 4, Central Div.	2016	Did not qualify
2016–17	72	21	44	—	6	1	49	189	278	1291	7th of 7, Central Div.	2017	Did not qualify
2017–18	72	34	30	—	6	2	76	222	235	1091	4th of 7, Mountain Div.	2018	L, 2–4, COL	—	—	—

Players

Current roster

Updated November 3, 2018.

Team roster

No.	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace	Contract
49		Lane Bauer	C	L	28	2017	Anchorage, Alaska	Thunder
25		Jeremy Beaudry	D	R	30	2017	Montmagny, Quebec	Thunder
4		Travis Brown	D	R	30	2017	Winnipeg, Manitoba	Rampage
22		Greg Chase	C	R	29	2017	Sherwood Park, Alberta	Thunder
55		Marc-Olivier Crevier-Morin	D	L	28	2017	Chateauguay, Quebec	Condors
8		Ralph Cuddemi	RW	R	31	2017	Concord, Ontario	Thunder
16		Tyler Elbrecht	D	L	35	2018	Edwardsville, Illinois	Thunder
62		Hayden Hodgson	RW	R	28	2018	Windsor, Ontario	Thunder
18		Steven Iacobellis	F	R	30	2017	Port Coquitlam, British Columbia	Thunder
28		Colin Jacobs	C	R	31	2018	Coppell, Texas	Thunder
10		Jake Kulevich	D	L	31	2018	Salem, Massachusetts	Condors
27		Dylan Labbe	D	L	29	2018	Saint-Georges, Quebec	Thunder
12		Pierre-Cedric Labrie	LW	L	37	2018	Baie-Comeau, Quebec	Thunder
19		Colin Larkin	C	L	30	2018	Waterford, Michigan	Oilers
23		Mitch Maloney	F	L	29	2018	Macomb, Michigan	Thunder
24		John McFarland	RW	R	32	2018	Richmond Hill, Ontario	Condors
7		Kevin Patterson	D	R	31	2018	Colorado Springs, Colorado	Thunder
17		Matt Schmalz	RW	R	28	2018	Dunnville, Ontario	Thunder
26		Dyson Stevenson (C)	RW	R	30	2017	Shaunavon, Saskatchewan	Thunder
44		Jakob Stukel	LW	L	27	2018	Surrey, British Columbia	Thunder
74		Keoni Texeira	D	L	27	2018	Fontana, California	Thunder
20		Ryan Van Stralen	RW	R	30	2018	Prescott, Ontario	Condors
30		Dylan Wells	G	L	26	2018	St. Catharines, Ontario	Oilers
43		Jared Wilson	D	L	29	2018	Calgary, Alberta	Condors

Retired numbers

• 9 - Ron Handy
• 11 - Jason Duda
• 15 - Rob Weingartner
• 35 - Robert Desjardins
• 38 - Travis Clayton

Notable NHL alumni

List of Wichita Thunder alumni who played more than 25 games in Wichita and 25 or more games in the National Hockey League.

• Theo Peckham

Leaders

Head coaches

Name	Year(s) Coached	Record
Gary Fay	1992	6 - 20
Doug Shedden	1992–1995	103 - 49 - 12
Don Jackson	1995–1996	22 - 50 - 29
Bryan Wells	1996–2001	161 - 146 - 39
James Latos	2001–2003	32 - 53 - 13
Sean O'Reilly	Interim Coach	1 - 0 - 0
Derek Laxdal	2003–2005	87 - 58 - 8
Mark French	2005–2007	70 - 56 - 16
Rob Weingartner	2007–2008	16 - 29 - 2
Brent Bilodeau	2008–2009	22 - 52
Jason Duda	Interim Coach	7 - 40 - 4
Kevin McClelland	2010–2016	194 - 166 - 48
Malcolm Cameron	2016–present	21 - 44 - 7

General managers

Name	Appointment	Departure
Bill Shuck	1992	2002
David Holt	2003	2005
Chris Presson	2005	2008
Joel Lomurno	2008	Present

CHL awards and trophies

The following lists the league awards which have been won by the Thunder team and its players:

William Levins Memorial Cup

• 1993–94, 1994–95

Adams Cup

• 1993–94, 1994–95

Coach of the Year

• Doug Shedden: 1993–94
• Kevin McClelland: 2011–12

Joe Burton Award

• Jason Duda: 2004–05

Ken McKenzie Trophy

• Paul Jackson: 1993–94

Playoff Most Valuable Player

• Ron Handy: 1993–94, 1994–95

Most Outstanding Defenseman

• Paul Esdale: 2004–05
• Andrew Martens: 2010–11
• Kevin Young: 2012–13

Rick Kozuback Award

• Jason Duda: 2009–10

Rookie of the Year

• Robert Desjardins: 1992–93
• Cory Dosdall: 1996–97
• David Beauregard: 1997–98

All-Star Game Most Valuable Player (North)

• Joe Blaznek: 2005–06

External links

• Wichita Thunder official site