British Columbia Hockey League < br > The British Columbia Hockey League is a Junior " A " ice hockey league from British Columbia under Hockey Canada , a subsection of the Canadian Junior Hockey League . Founded in Vernon in 1961 , the BCHL now includes 17 teams . These teams play in two conferences , known as the Coastal and the Interior . The winner of the BCHL playoffs ( Fred Page Cup ) continues on to play in the Doyle Cup in a best - of - 7 series against the champion of the Alberta Junior Hockey League . The winner of the Doyle Cup will compete in the Junior " A " National Championship for the Royal Bank Cup . History . In 1961 , the heads of four junior " B " hockey teams in the Okanagan region of British Columbia got together and formed a new Junior " A " league in British Columbia when no other existed . The Okanagan - Mainline Junior " A " Hockey League , the precursor to the BCHL , was comprised originally of the Kamloops Jr . Rockets , the Kelowna Buckaroos , the Penticton Jr . Vees , and the Vernon Jr . Canadians . In 1967 , the league expanded out of the Okanagan region , bringing in the New Westminster Royals and the Victoria Cougars . With the expansion , the league decided that since it had stretched out of the Okanagan region , that it need a new name - The British Columbia Junior Hockey League . A year later , the Vancouver Centennials joined the league as well . In the 1970s , the Victoria Cougars jumped to the Western Hockey League and the New Westminster team was forced to fold due to the invasion of the Estevan Bruins into their arena . In 1972 , the Bellingham Blazers and the Nanaimo Clippers expanded the league to 8 teams . On a side note , in the early 1970s the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association separated the two tiers of Junior " A " hockey . The BCJHL , being a Tier II league , was disallowed from competing for the Memorial Cup . Therefore , the variety of Tier II Junior " A " leagues across Canada agreed to compete for a new trophy called the Centennial Cup . The ' 70s also saw the rise of a rival league for the BCJHL . The Pacific Coast Junior Hockey League , which briefly existed in the 1960s , was resurrected by Fred Page , the man that the Eastern Champion Junior " A " Fred Page Cup and the BCHL Championship trophy are named for . The Richmond Sockeyes were the PCJHL ' s most dominant team , which even defeated Nanaimo in the BC Championship , the Mowat Cup , to move on to what was the precursor to the Doyle Cup . In 1979 , the PCJHL and the BCJHL merged . The 77 - 78 season proved to be a strange one . The BCJHL sent their regular season champion , the Merritt Centennials off to play in the interprovincial playdowns as league champions without playing a single playoff game . The BCJHL continued their league playoffs without them , crowning Nanaimo as the playoff champion after Penticton refused to finish the playoff finals due to a series of brawls in the third game of the series . Merritt played off against the Prince Albert Raiders of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League in the Abbott Cup ( the Western Canada Championship ) and lost in 5 games ( best - of - 7 ) . The Raiders lost the Centennial Cup finals to the Guelph Platers of the Ontario Hockey Association . In 1986 , Penticton won the BCJHL ' s first ever National Championship defeating the Metro Valley Junior Hockey League ' s Cole Harbour Colts by a score of 7 - 4 to win the Centennial Cup . A year later , the BCJHL ' s Richmond Sockeyes won the league ' s second national title as well . In 1990 , the BCJHL was renamed to its current name , British Columbia Hockey League , and changed its logo twice , in 1990 and 2000 , continues to expand with new teams and younge players . The most notable star to come from the BCHL is Olympian and National Hockey League hall of famer Brett Hull who played for Penticton . Hull holds the BCHL record for most goals in a season ( 105 ) , which he set in 1983 - 84 , a record that still stands today . Other NHLers who once played in the BCHL include Chuck Kobasew of the Boston Bruins who played for the since - renamed Penticton Panthers , Scott Gomez of the New York Rangers , who played for South Surrey , Paul Kariya of the St . Louis Blues who played for Penticton and Carey Price of Montreal Canadiens who played for the Quesnel Millionaires . Willie Mitchell is a native of British Columbia and happens to be the only current member of the Vancouver Canucks to have played in the BCHL , as a member of the Kelowna Spartans , in 1994 - 95 . On April 30 , 2015 the Wenatchee Wild were approved by USA Hockey and Hockey Canada to transfer from the NAHL to the British Columbia Hockey League . The Wild had been trying since 2013 to make this transfer but could not get approval from both national governing bodies . The Wild organization motivation for the move was simply that the BCHL was a better fit travel wise , with the porential savings of tens of thosands of dollars just on travel expenses . Royal Bank Cup champions . The Royal Bank Cup has been captured by a BCHL team eight times since the trophy ' s founding : Centennial Cup champions . The Centennial Cup was the forerunner to the Royal Bank Cup . The Centennial Cup was awarded for 25 years from 1971 to 1995 inclusive : note : The Vernon Lakers won the 1990 tournament as host BCHL Fred Page Cup Champions . All teams with the exception of teams marked with * also won the Mowat Cup as the provincial Junior " A " champions From 1962 to 1970 the league champion was eligible to participate in the Western Canada Memorial Cup Playoffs . However , no league member won the Western Canada championship during this time . Regional Championships . The Pacific Centennial Cup and the Doyle Cup were the Pacific Region qualifier for the Manitoba Centennial Cup and later the Royal Bank Cup . The Doyle Cup was replaced in 2013 with the Western Canada Cup which now included the champions of British Columbia , Alberta , Saskatchewan , and Manitoba as well as a host team . With the new format the winner and runner up of the tournament qualify for the Royal Bank Cup BCHL Records . Individual records Team records