The Prince Albert Raiders, a team located in the northernmost major city in Saskatchewan, are occasionally an unassuming franchise. This season, they had one of their more successful runs in recent times, capturing the Eastern Division crown, but having a fairly short lived playoff run, being swept by eventual WHL champions the Medicine Hat Tigers in the second round. However, they have had their fair share of pockets of success. Consider that they doubled up as regular season and playoff WHL champions in 2018-19. This most recent division crown was also their sixth overall in their WHL history, which is impressive for a smaller franchise. That all said, though, their pinnacle, at least in the WHL (more on that momentarily), was 40 years ago. Let us look back on the storied 1984-85 Prince Albert Raiders franchise, how they became what they were, and what they accomplished that season.

The origins of the Prince Albert Raiders lie in tier 2, in the SJHL, which they began play in in 1971. The most influential figure in their time in Junior A was, without a doubt, manager and coach Terry Simpson. He architected the team into a juggernaut which won eight SJHL/SAJHL titles, seven Anavet Cups (which pit the SJHL’s champions against the MJHL’s), five Abbott Cup championships as Western Canada’s Junior A champions, and four Centennial Cups as Junior A national champions. James Patrick, who went on to have a lengthy pro playing career primarily with the New York Rangers, Calgary Flames, and Buffalo Sabres and has since carved out a strong coaching resume both as an assistant in the NHL and a head coach in the WHL (where he currently serves as bench boss of the Victoria Royals), was a member of the 1980-81 squad. He had a very strong and decorated sole season in the SJHL with Prince Albert, contributing greatly to their decorated campaign where they captured all four of the aforementioned trophies before departing for the University of North Dakota where he found even more playing success. Despite all that he has done in hockey, as recently as 2023, Patrick remembers his season in Prince Albert very clearly and with great fondness: “I remember it as one of the greatest years of my life, hockey-wise. When I came here, they were a Junior A dynasty. Terry Simpson was synonymous with winning and competing. I learned so much from him and Rick Wilson, and played with incredible teammates. […] We had as good of a Junior A team as there was. We could beat most of the teams in the Western Hockey League. A lot of players went on and played pro, great players. Dave Tippett, he was a defensive, penalty killing centre in the NHL, but he was a fantastic two-way player when I played with him. […] We had toughness, we had great 20-year-olds, incredible team camaraderie. For me, it was the first time I had a taste of what team culture is. The culture that Terry Simpson instilled, you hated losing.” You can read more of his reflections here. In 1981-82, the Raiders would have another campaign in which they won everything they possibly could. However, that would be their swan song in Junior A. They would join the WHL for the following season, with Simpson still at the helm.

Prince Albert’s first year in the Dub was a “cutting their teeth” moment, as they finished with a poor 16-55-1 record. However, they emerged forth in year two, with a record of 41-29-2 and a playoff berth (they would lose, fittingly, to the Medicine Hat Tigers in five games). This improvement in fortune was enough for Simpson to earn Coach of the Year honors. This was only a small leap in fortune, though. The big one was to come in year three. As observed by the Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame, the 1984-85 squad boasted absurd roster depth. They write: “The roster of that championship team was exclusive as it possessed four future first‑round draft picks ‑ David Manson (Chicago Blackhawks), Kim Issel (Edmonton Oilers), Pat Elynuik (Winnipeg Jets) and Dave Pasin (Boston Bruins). Several others including Emanuel Vivieros, Rod Dallman, Curtis Hunt, Dave Goertz, Tony Grenier, Roydon Gunn and Steve Gotaas all had shots at playing in the NHL, but they spent the majority of their professional careers playing in the minors. The three fan favourites ‑ Dan Hodgson, Ken Baumgartner and Brad Bennett ‑ all took different paths to remain in hockey. Hodgson, the Raiders’ leading scorer of all time, made it to the NHL first with the Toronto Maple Leafs and then with the Vancouver Canucks. A serious leg injury forced Hodgson out of the NHL and he played a number of years in the European leagues along with Issel and Vivieros. Baumgartner, affectionately known as the ‘Bomber,’ has enjoyed a lengthy NHL career with the Los Angeles Kings, New York Islanders and Toronto Maple Leafs. He was also one of the main negotiators for the National Hockey League Player’s Association during the strike‑shortened 1994‑95 NHL season. Bennett played overseas for a few years before finally hooking up with his former Raider teammate Doug Hobson as an assistant coach with the Victoria and Prince George Cougars of the WHL. Other members of the Memorial Cup championship team included Ward Komonosky, Dale McFee, Kurt Woolf, Neil Davey, Ken Morrison, Don Schmidt, Colin Feser and Dean Braham. McFee has returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach with the Raiders.” Hodgson (who was also team captain), Grenier, Pasin, and Morrison all had 100+ point campaigns that season, with Hodgson recording an absurd 182 in 64 games played (good for second in the WHL behind only Cliff Ronning of the New Westminster Bruins [now known as the Tri-City Americans], who recorded 197 in 70 games played and subsequently went on to score 306 career NHL goals playing primarily for the Blues, Canucks, Coyotes, and Predators). The team went an absurd 58-11-3, capturing the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy as WHL regular season champions. Hodgson continued to be lights out in the WHL playoffs, tallying 36 points in 13 games played as they defeated the Calgary Wranglers (now known as the Lethbridge Hurricanes), Medicine Hat Tigers, and Kamloops Blazers to capture their first ever President’s Cup (renamed the Ed Chynoweth Cup in 2007), losing only one game along the way.

The Memorial Cup in La belle province presented some stumbling blocks for the Raiders at first, as they dropped the first round robin game to the Shawinigan Cataractes (the host team and a very balanced club who were the QMJHL’s regular season champions that year) by a score of 6-2. However, they bounced back by defeating Q champions the Verdun Junior Canadiens 5-3 and OHL champs the Soo Greyhounds 8-6 to earn a semifinal berth. Not to be denied, they defeated Soo by a whopping five goals in an 8-3 decision, then captured the grand prize by achieving revenge on Shawinigan by defeating them 6-1 in the grand finale. In such short order, the Raiders had achieved the sort of triumph in the Dub/the CHL that they had grown accustomed to in Junior A. The team additionally conducted a clean sweep of the major individual awards. Hodgson was named MVP (Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy) for his 14 points (13 of which were assists) in five games, while Grenier received the George Parsons Trophy for sportsmanship and Komonosky was awarded the Hap Emms Memorial Trophy as best goaltender. Grenier and Hodgson were given the centre and left wing spots on the tournament All-Star team and Goertz was selected as one of the All-Star defensemen. It was an amazing cap-off to a miraculous season.

It is curious that, when examining the 2018-19 squad, which to date is the most successful Prince Albert team since that immortal 1984-85 incarnation, that Simpson was of the mind that they were “probably a lot better coached than the team in 1985.” There may have been some humility driving that statement, but it had probably some truth to it, as well. Irrespective of technical coaching aspects, tactics, preparation techniques, etc., though, Simpson was in a unique position that none of his successors and no contemporary WHL coaches and executives of championship winning teams are in (unless the Penticton Vees have a surprise for us in a few years – We’ll see!). He was building a new foundation after leaving an empire behind. Within just three years’ time, he brought the Raiders to the top of the mountain in a manner reminiscent of their glorious past. That puts him in a special category as their greatest ever leader, and it would take a considerable amount to ever unseat him from that position. Hopefully, Simpson can continue to take comfort and pride in that fact.