Wichita Thunder
| Wichita Thunder | |
|---|---|
 2016–17 ECHL season
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| City | Wichita, Kansas, U.S. |
| League | ECHL |
| Conference | Western |
| Division | Central |
| Founded | 1992 (In the CHL) |
| Home arena | Intrust Bank Arena |
| Owner(s) |
Rodney Steven Brandon Steven Johnny Steven |
| General manager | Joel Lomurno |
| Head coach | Malcolm Cameron |
| Captain | Ian Lowe |
| Media |
The Wichita Eagle KAKE-TV KWCH |
| Affiliates |
Ottawa Senators (NHL) Binghamton Senators (AHL) |
| Franchise history | |
| 1992–present | Wichita Thunder |
| Championships | |
| Regular season titles | 3 (1993–94, 1994–95, 2011–12) |
| Conference Championships | 1 (1997–98, 2011–12) |
| Ray Miron President's Cup | 2 (1993–94, 1994–95) |
The Wichita Thunder are a minor league hockey team based in Wichita, Kansas, United States. The team played in the Central Hockey League from 1992 until 2014, and then in the ECHL since the 2014–15 season. From 1992 until December 2009 the Thunder played in the Britt Brown Arena located in the northern Wichita suburb of Park City. In January 2010 (the second half of the 2009–10 season), the team began playing its home games at the newly built Intrust Bank Arena.
The Thunder were one of the first six original teams of the second iteration of the Central Hockey League, along with the Oklahoma City Blazers, Tulsa Oilers, Memphis RiverKings, Dallas Freeze and the Fort Worth Fire.
Wichita played their first home game at Britt Brown Arena on November 4, 1992, in front of a crowd of 5,486. In the same season, the Thunder had their first sellout in team history, the crowd of 9,686 fans watched the Thunder defeat Oklahoma City 4-3.
The Thunder were originally coached by Gary Fay, but after a 6-20 start, he was replaced by Doug Shedden. Although they started out with a 6-20 record, the season was quickly turned around by Shedden, and they finished their first season with a 25-32-2 record. On April 5, 1993, Thunder goaltender Robert Desjardins was named the first CHL Rookie of the Year.
In the following two seasons, the Thunder were the regular season champions (Adams Cup) and playoff champions (William Levins Memorial Cup). Ron Handy was the Playoff Most Valuable Player for both seasons, he was the only player in Central Hockey League history to win the award on multiple occasions. In the 1993–94 season Doug Shedden won the Coach of the Year award, Robert Desjardins won the Regular Season Most Valuable Player award and Paul Jackson won the Scoring Champion award.
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