Wichita Thunder The Wichita Thunder are a minor league hockey team based in Wichita , Kansas . The team plays in the Central Hockey League . From 1992 until January 2010 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 16th , 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 . 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 Adams Cup Coach of the Year Joe Burton Award Ken McKenzie Trophy Most Outstanding Defenseman Rick Kozuback Award Rookie of the Year