2019-20 WSHL season

This is the 2019-20 Western States Hockey League season. This is the league's 26th season.
==Cancelling the season==
The league issued the following statement on March 12th:
"As of 10:00 pm Wednesday March 11, in follow-up to our initial decision based totally on player, staff, spectator, community safety, the WSHL Executive Committee with the approval of the Board of Governors meeting which has taken place at 11:00am Thursday March 12 has terminated the 2019-2020 season, including the league Championship Event – the Thorne Cup."http://www.wshl.org/news/statement-regarding-2019-2020-season
==Membership Changes==
The Cheyenne Stampede announced they would be sitting out the 2019-20 season as part of a lease dispute.
The Casper Bobcats ceased operations.
The Pueblo Bulls were announced as being added to the league for the 2019-20 season. The team will be based out of the Pueblo Ice Arena in Pueblo, Colorado.
The Las Vegas Thunderbirds were announced as an expansion team for 2019-20. The team will be based out of the SoBe Ice Arena, in the Fiesta Rancho Hotel
and Casino.
The Slave Lake Icedogs were also announced as an expansion team for 2019-20. They would join the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League prior to the start of the 2019-20 season.
The Long Beach Bombers were renamed the Long Beach Jets after being sold during the 2019 off-season. The team would later withdraw.
The Hinton Timberwolves were announced as an expansion team for 2019-20. They basically replaced the Hinton Wildcats when the town of Hinton, Alberta would not renew the team's lease.
An expansion team was awarded to Barrhead, Alberta for the 2019-20 season to be based out of the Barrhead Agrena.http://www.wshl.org/news/barrhead-is-newest-member-of-wshl The team is owned by the former owner of the Long Beach Bombers and the new team is named the Barrhead Bombers.
On June 13, 2019 it was announced that the Western Provinces Hockey Association teams that had been previously affiliated with the Western States Hockey League for the 2018-19 season would become affiliated with the GMHL and form the GMHL's Western Division.https://gmhl.net/article.php?article_id=57383https://thejuniorhockeynews.com/the-death-pool-wpha-leaves-unpaid-bills-on-the-way-to-joining-gmhl/ By early July the WSHL had two teams, the Edson Aeros and Meadow Lake Mustangs that had opted stay with the WSHL and announced the formation of new teams in Cold Lake (Cold Lake Hornets) http://www.wshl.org/news/wshl-returns-to-cold-lake-alberta-for-the-2019-202 and Hinton, Albertahttps://www.hintontimberwolvesjuniora.com/news/wshl-welcomes-timberwolveshttp://www.wshl.org/news/welcome-timberwolves (Hinton Timberwolves), The previous teams in those towns, the Cold Lake Wings and Hinton Wildcats, apparently left a trail of unpaid bills prior to joining the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League. https://thejuniorhockeynews.com/the-death-pool-wpha-gmhl-already-creating-problems-out-west/
The Ontario Avalanche move to the The Rinks-Anaheim Ice from the Center Ice Arena.https://thejuniorhockeynews.com/ontario-avalanche-arena-change/
Over the American Thanksgiving holiday the league removed the Steamboat Wranglers and the West Sound Admirals from league play citing low roster numbers and player safety.https://thejuniorhockeynews.com/the-death-pool-wshl-kills-off-two/
The league assumed operations of the Oklahoma City Blazers on January 1, 2020.http://www.wshl.org/news/blazers-announce-coaching-ownership-changes-for-20 The team would be dissolved once the season was cancelled.
In late January the league removed the Meadow Lake Mustangs from the league.https://thejuniorhockeynews.com/the-death-pool-meadow-lake-mustangs-sent-to-glue-factory/
On March 8th, due the the outbreak of COVID-19 in Washington state the Seattle Totems and Bellingham Blazers announced they would be cancelling the balance of the two teams games and would be vacating their playoff positions.http://www.wshl.org/news/statement-regarding-covid-19
On April 17, 2020 the Anaheim Avalanche, Fresno Monsters, Las Vegas Thunderbirds, Northern Colorado Eagles, Pueblo Bulls, San Diego Sabers, Southern Oregon Spartans, and Utah Outliers were announced as joining the United States Premier Hockey League's Premier League for the 2020-21 season.https://www.usphl.com/news_article/show/1101391 On April 21st the Ogden Mustangs were announced as joining them.https://www.usphl.com/news_article/show/1101884 Both announcements indicated that more announcements on teams from the west coast would be coming shortly.
==Teams==
Division 	Team 	City 	Arena 	Joined
Mountain 	 	 	 	
Mountain 	Dallas Snipers 	Plano, Texas 	Plano Star Center 	2011
Mountain 	El Paso Rhinos 	El Paso, Texas 	Sierra Providence Event Center 	2006
Mountain 	Northern Colorado Eagles	Greeley, Colorado 	Greeley Ice Haus 	2013
Mountain 	Oklahoma City Blazers 	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 	Arctic Edge Ice Arena 	2014
Mountain 	Pueblo Bulls 	Pueblo, Colorado 	Pueblo Ice Arena 	2019
Mountain 	Steamboat Wranglers 	Steamboat Springs, Colorado 	Howelsen Arena 	2015
Mountain 	Wichita Jr. Thunder 	Wichita, Kansas 	Wichita Ice Center 	2012
Northwest 	Bellingham Blazers 	Bellingham, Washington 	Bellingham Sportsplex 	2016
Northwest 	Ogden Mustangs 	Ogden, Utah 	The Ice Sheet 	2002
Northwest 	Seattle Totems 	Mountlake Terrace, Washington	Olympic View Arena 	2012
Northwest 	Southern Oregon Spartans	Medford, Oregon 	The RRRink 	2012
Northwest 	Utah Outliers 	West Valley City, Utah 	Acord Ice Center 	2011
Northwest 	West Sound Admirals 	Bremerton, Washington 	Bremerton Ice Center 	2018
Provincial	 	 	 	
Provincial	Barrhead Bombers 	Barrhead, Alberta 	Barrhead Agrena 	2019
Provincial	Cold Lake Hornets 	Cold Lake, Alberta 	Imperial Oil Place at Cold Lake Energy Centre	2019
Provincial	Edson Aeros 	Edson, Alberta 	Repsol Place 	2018
Provincial	Hinton Timberwolves 	Hinton, Alberta 	Dr. Duncan Murray Recreation Centre 	2018
Provincial	Meadow Lake Mustangs 	Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan 	Meadow Lake & District Arena 	2018
Western 	 	 	 	
Western 	Fresno Monsters 	Fresno, California 	Gateway Ice Center 	2009
Western 	Long Beach Jets 	Lakewood, California 	Lakewood Ice 	1994
Western 	Las Vegas Thunderbirds 	Las Vegas, Nevada 	SoBe Ice Arena 	2019
Western 	Ontario Avalanche 	Ontario, California 	The Rinks-Anaheim Ice 	2012
Western 	San Diego Sabers 	Escondido, California 	Iceoplex Escondido 	2001
Western 	Valencia Flyers 	Valencia, California 	Ice Station Valencia 	2001
Note: The Steamboat Wranglers and West Sound Admirals were removed from the schedule during the American Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The Meadow Lake Mustangs were removed in late January.
==Standings==
===Midwest Division===
Team 	GP	W 	L 	OW	OL	GF 	GA 	Pts
El Paso Rhinos 	51	43	4 	2 	2 	294	80 	135
Northern Colorado Eagles	51	30	13	4 	4 	201	136	102
Pueblo Bulls 	51	25	13	7 	6 	270	149	95
Dallas Snipers 	51	23	15	7 	6 	197	140	89
Oklahoma City Blazers 	51	20	26	1 	4 	192	179	66
Wichita Jr. Thunder 	51	6 	40	3 	2 	113	397	26
Steamboat Wranglers 	19	0 	19	0 	0 	27 	191	0
Note:Steamboat was removed from the league over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. League records credit them with one addition additional forfeit loss this is their actual playing record.
===Western Division===
Team 	GP	W 	L 	OW	OL	GF 	GA 	Pts
Fresno Monsters 	51	34	13	2 	2 	294	141	108
San Diego Sabers 	51	31	18	1 	1 	180	145	96
Las Vegas Thunderbirds	51	26	22	2 	1 	194	146	83
Ontario Avalanche 	51	25	21	1 	4 	205	176	81
Valencia Flyers 	51	3 	44	2 	2 	117	359	15
===Northwest Division===
Team 	GP	W 	L 	OW	OL	GF 	GA 	Pts
Ogden Mustangs 	51	46	3 	1 	1 	340	74 	141
Utah Outliers 	51	36	11	2 	2 	290	86 	114
Seattle Totems 	49	21	24	3 	1 	164	172	70
Bellingham Blazers 	48	17	26	3 	2 	157	232	59
Southern Oregon Spartans	50	6 	41	2 	1 	101	361	23
West Sound Admirals 	19	0 	19	0 	0 	34 	169	0
Note:West Sound was removed from the league over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.  Official league records add on six more forfeit losses. Above indicates their actual playing record
===Provinces Division===
Team 	GP	W 	L 	OW	OL	GF 	GA 	Pts
Edson Aeros 	47	44	3 	0 	0 	313	77 	132
Hinton Timberwolves 	47	33	11	1 	2 	255	126	103
Barrhead Bombers 	47	12	32	2 	1 	171	243	41
Cold Lake Wings 	47	9 	35	0 	2 	137	308	29
Meadow Lake Mustangs	28	8 	19	0 	0 	92 	196	24
Note: Meadow Lake was removed from the league late in January They would be credited with one additional forfeit loss. This is their actual playing record. 
==Thorne Cup Playoffs==
Playoffs Cancelled, along with balance of regular season on March 11th.
The 2020 Thorne Cup Finals was to be hosted by the Northern Colorado Eagles at the Greeley Ice Haus in Greeley, Colorado.
==References==
Category:2020 in hockey
Category:WSHL seasons