Former Portland Winterhawks Meet At University, Get Ready to Collect Payments

Eight players have been named to the University of Calgary Dinos hockey team for the upcoming year. With the dissolution of Lethbridge’s year, former Calgary Hitmen Luke Coleman, who ended his eligibility two years ago and joined Lethbridge last year, will suit up for the Dinos this year. 

Seven of the eight players drafted have been WHL stars. They include Dakota Krebs (Calgary) Connor Gutenberg (Brandon), Max Patterson (Seattle), Ryan Schottler (Prince George), Zack Wytinck (Regina and Matthew Quigley (Portland). The other  hails from the AJHL. It will be a strong class of talent added to the Dinos this season. Quigley joins former Hawk Brendan DeJong in the Dinos camp. They will be competing for the Vanier Cup. This would be different from the cup competed for with the National team University of Alberta Golden Bears. This University faces Mount Royal University and until last year also included the now disbanded University of Lethbridge.

2020-21 Season Ticket Holder Ticket Relief Request (E-mail)

The Winterhawks Ticket Relief Options are designed to give season ticket holders flexibility during the 2020-2021 Western Hockey League season.  If you have COVID-19 related health or financial concerns that will cause you to attend fewer games or use fewer seats this coming season, please use this form to inform us of your needs.

Please note that all changes made to your account through this process will be temporary.  Your seats and full season ticket holder status will be restored for the 2021-22 Winterhawks season.

A Winterhawks ticket representative will contact you to discuss your desired changes.

A third email has surfaced from the Portland Winterhawks as they try to see if the season will start on October 2, 2020.  The message is below:

Season Ticket Holder COVID-19 Ticket Relief Request Form

The Winterhawks are offering season ticket holders the option to make temporary changes to their ticketing accounts for the 2020-21 WHL season.

  • First Name*
  • Last Name*
  • Ticket Account Number*
  • Preferred Contact Email Address*
  • Preferred Contact Phone Number*
  • What are your concerns about attending Winterhawks game this coming season (2020-21)?*
    Note: Please check all that apply, choose at least one.
    •  Personal Health – Uncertainty about attending large events
    •  Personal Financial – Job loss or income insecurity
    •  General uncertainty about the 2020-21 season in the COVID-19 environment
    •  Other
  • How would you like to temporarily change your account?*
    Note: Please check at least one box
    •  Same number of seats, but attend fewer games
    •  Attend all games, but use fewer seats each game
    •  Combination of both
    •  Other
  • Please provide any further information that will be helpful when our ticket representatives contact you:

The Takeaways: With the ownership announcement on hold for a few weeks, people have tried to contact the Winterhawks office, which is currently furloughed and the answering machine is full. In addition, people have complained that they have not been able to get responses on tickets as the Hawks have announced charges to fans starting August 1st. There have been several voicing displeasure on Facebook and have threatened to either find a way to stop the payments or cancel tickets outright. In this year of uncertainty, this will be one for the ages.

The word is there are three or four really good possibilities for the Portland Winterhawks ownership set to be announced in late August or early September. The Hawks were in a situation where current owner Bill Gallacher leveraged the team on a loan. The loan was defaulted on possibly due to the pandemic, but word is that Gallacher was looking to sell the team as early as December. At the same time, Gallacher was also trying to sell a home in Arizona for 26 million dollars. He purchased the home for just 11 million. 

The house, which has since been taken off the market, received no potential buyers. People may speculate that Gallacher had no money, but that was far from truthful. In that he was a speculator when it came to projects, that he held onto the Hawks for an extended period of time was odd to say the least. The Hawks have been really on their own for some time as Doug Piper has been calling the Hawks’ business shots for quite some time and has been the face and voice when it came to items such as the renovations of the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, upgrades at the now renamed Winterhawks Skating Center in Beaverton (formerly Valley Ice Arena) and a look to see if it was feasible to produce ice sheets further out. There had been underground talk about a twin sheet in Hillsboro, but nothing concrete was made of it.

In addition to Doug Piper, Mike Johnston has also been heavily involved, now as Coach GM and Vice President, only strengthening his foothold in the franchise. The only piece that has been given as a certainty is that the “executive staff” would remain with the franchise following the sale. How far down the chain that goes is not known.

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About Stuart Kemp 350 Articles
Stuart Kemp is the Immediate Past President of 15 years of the Booster Club. and has been following hockey from his native Canada since he can remember, though he can't skate, but played road hockey for several years. Loving hockey and professional wrestling, he has traveled to most of the WHL cities and with wrestling, has seen four provinces and five states. It is true that every Canadian city with more than 500 residents has a hockey rink, well at least it looks that way. Stuart has had his hand in every facet of independent Professional wrestling as he debuted as an announcer in 1986 which started his career.