The Raiders were founded as a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) club in 1971, playing out of the newly constructed Prince Albert Communiplex, later renamed the Art Hauser Centre.[1] The Raiders quickly established themselves as one of the most successful Tier II junior clubs in Canada. The team won seven consecutive Anavet Cups from 1976 to 1982, defeating Manitoba Junior Hockey League champions for the right to play for the national championship. Prince Albert went on to win the national championship, the Centennial Cup, four times between 1977 and 1982.[2][3] In this era, the Raiders competed against a number of future Ontario Hockey League teams, including the Guelph Platers and the Belleville Bulls. The team's early success came under manager and coach Terry Simpson—former player James Patrick called the coach "synonymous with winning and competing"[4]—and he remained coach when the team moved up to the top junior ranks by joining the WHL in 1982.[5]
Joining the WHL
The Raiders' first year in the WHL was a challenging one—the team finished last in the East Division and missed the playoffs.[3] However, Dan Hodgson was named the league's rookie of the year, and the team rapidly improved under Simpson's guidance. The Raiders made the playoffs in their second season, and were a bona fide contender by their third year in the league, boasting a defensive star in Manny Viveiros and future National Hockey League players such as Dave Manson and Ken Baumgartner. Hodgson, now captain, finished second in the league in scoring in 1984–85, and helped pace the Raiders to 58 wins and the league's best regular season record. In the playoffs, the Raiders lost only one game en route to their first league championship, securing the President's Cup with a sweep of the Kamloops Blazers.[6] The Raiders thus earned a spot in the 1985 Memorial Cup.
The Memorial Cup tournament also featured the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, the Verdun Junior Canadiens, and the Shawinigan Cataractes. In an opening game that featured 108 minutes in penalties, Prince Albert lost 6–2 to Shawinigan.[7] The second game saw the Raiders beat Verdun 5–3 with 2 goals from defenceman Dave Goertz.[7] In their third game, the Raiders defeated Sault Ste. Marie 8–6; Hodgson had 5 assists in the match.[7] The Raiders and Greyhounds would play each other again in the semi-finals, and Prince Albert would prevail again by a score of 8–3. The Raiders became national champions by defeating the Cataractes 6–1 in the final.[8] The Memorial Cup victory capped off a decade-long run in which the Raiders won five national championships.
The following season, the Raiders finished second overall before losing the Division Final in seven games to the Medicine Hat Tigers. Simpson won his second coach-of-the-year award, and then left the team to coach the New York Islanders, marking the end of an era. Simpson would return for a single season in 1989–90 before leaving again for the NHL.[5]
Post-Simpson era
The Raiders remained competitive for much of the next decade, including another four runs to the division playoff final between 1990 and 1996. However, despite boasting future NHL players such as Mike Modano, Shane Hnidy, Scott Hartnell, Kyle Chipchura, and Josh Morrissey, the next 22 seasons would see the Raiders win only four playoff series—and none between 2005 and 2019—missing the playoffs altogether eleven times.
Habscheid era
Marc Habscheid joined the team as coach in 2014, and he worked to rebuild the team into a contender. That work paid off by 2018, when the Raiders began their most successful season in more than two decades. Led by Brett Leason, Noah Gregor, and Ian Scott, 2018–19 saw the Raiders put together their first 100-point season since 1995–96 and their best since 1984–85, securing their second Scotty Munro Trophy as regular season champions. They had a longer road in the playoffs than in 1985, culminating in a seven-game championship series against the Vancouver Giants, a series in which they led 3 games to 1.[6] The Raiders won their second WHL title with a 3–2 game 7 overtime win over the Giants, with Dante Hannoun scoring the overtime winner.[9] The win sent the Raiders to their second Memorial Cup tournament, where they were knocked out in the preliminary round.[10]
Led by the team's first 18-year old captain in Kaiden Guhle, the Raiders had another strong season in 2019–20; however, with the team atop the East Division, the season was cut short and the playoffs cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ending the Raiders' hopes of repeating.[11] The team participated in a shortened 2020–21 campaign featuring only East Division opponents.[11] Due to the modified campaigns, the Raiders were the last team to win the Ed Chynoweth Cup at when the 2021–22 campaign began.[12]
Kyle Chipchura with the Raiders in 2005. Chipchura served as captain in 2005–06.
Logos and uniforms
The Raiders originally wore green and yellow uniforms with a logo featuring a skating hockey player.[13] From 1985 until the mid-1990s, the team adopted imagery featuring an Arab mascot wielding a scimitar. Although the team moved away from this look in 1996—adopting black as its primary colour and a new logo featuring a pirate's head—the Raiders stirred controversy in the twenty-first century by bringing back elements of branding from the era.[13] In 2014, the team faced criticism for introducing a mascot that was a caricature of an Arab man;[14] the team ultimately retired the mascot and would late introduce a parrot mascot in its place.[15] In 2021, the team forced the WHL to apologize when it brought back its 1980s jerseys as a third-jersey; the move was called "insensitive and offensive".[16]
The Raiders re-adopted green as the primary colour in 2013, and ditched the pirate logo in favour of a sword-and-shield logo featuring "PA" initials.[13] A new third jersey introduced in 2022 paid homage to the pirate era.[17]
Like many junior teams, the Raiders frequently adopt limited-edition and special-event jerseys. In 2024, the team temporarily re-branded as the Cobra Chickens, unveiling a new jersey featuring a Canada goose logo.[18]
The following list includes alumni from the Prince Albert Raiders of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) and the Western Hockey League (WHL) who went on to play in the National Hockey League.[citation needed]
