Vancouver Canucks Star from 2011 Stanley Cup Run Helps Bring WHL Hockey Back to BC City
Mason Raymond and former Abbotsford Canucks head coach Jeremy Colliton are among the owners of the new Chilliwack WHL expansion franchise for the 2027-28 seaosn.
A former Vancouver Canucks star and former Abbotsford Canucks head coach are bringing more hockey to British Columbia.
On Wednesday, the Western Hockey League announced it had granted permission to a Chilliwack expansion franchise for the 2027-28 season, led by an ownership group of Jeremy Colliton, Brett Motherwell, Mason Raymond, Mario Amantea, and Patrick Lathrop.
Colliton will serve as the group's primary leader, taking on a heavy workload as the franchise’s governor, general manager, and head coach. Previously, the Blackie, Alta. native was head coach of the Abbotsford Canucks from 2022 to 2024, before leaving the role ahead of Manny Malhotra’s hiring as the AHL club’s bench boss.
He will lead the group, while Raymond brings the allure of a former Vancouver Canuck and gives back to the province where he advanced to his lone Stanley Cup Final in 2011.
A Calgary native, Raymond played 374 games with the Canucks, scoring 80 goals and 180 points, and proved a vital piece of the 2010-11 run to the Stanley Cup Final, despite suffering a severe vertebral compression fracture in Game 6 of the series against the Boston Bruins.
In addition to his NHL career, which also saw him lace up for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames and Anaheim Ducks, he won a bronze medal at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics and two Spengler Cups with Canada.
Since his retirement, he has held numerous roles and is currently the President of Cochrane General Motors.
“I’m honoured to be back in the Western Hockey League, which played such an important role in my development as a player and person,” Colliton said ahead of his return to the BC hockey community. “Our family is thrilled to be returning to the Fraser Valley. We are grateful for the partners we have at the City of Chilliwack, and in the regional business community. We look forward to building a franchise the hockey fans of Chilliwack will be proud of.”
Arena Details and the Future of BCHL in Chilliwack
The new WHL franchise will call the Chilliwack Coliseum home. This 5,000-seat multipurpose facility also hosted the Chilliwack Bruins in the WHL's previous iteration in the city, when it was known as the Prospera Centre.
The former WHL team played in the Fraser Valley from 2006 to 2011 before relocating to Vancouver Island to become the Victoria Royals in the provincial capital. Since then, the BCHL’s Chilliwack Chiefs have called the Chilliwack Coliseum home, but the WHL’s Wednesday announcement did not mention them.
No name has been given to the new Chilliwack WHL team, and the possibility of keeping the name and replicating the Penticton Vees’ move from the BCHL to the WHL in 2025-26 is unlikely, given the separate ownership groups.
Resurrecting the Bruins name could be on the table, given its history dating back to 1970—but Raymond being part of a “Bruins” organization could raise eyebrows.
Sports Page BC reached out to the Chiefs franchise for comment on the WHL’s introduction to the market, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
The next step for the new WHL franchise is up to Colliton, as he looks to assemble a hockey operations staff before building a roster through the yet-to-be-revealed expansion draft process and the WHL Prospects Draft in the spring.
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