Nuclear Winterhawks

The WHL's Portland Winterhawks have been one of the more successful clubs in recent history, boasting win after win while sending many players on to greater careers in the NHL once their junior hockey days ended. When this season was postponed in March due to the coronavirus prior to the season being cancelled entirely, the Winterhawks were the top team in the WHL. Clearly, there's a lot of history with the WHL club as well, and there's every reason for the city of Portland to be proud of their junior franchise. If it continues to exist, that is.

You might be saying, "Teebz, what are you talking about," and that's why we're here today. According to a story out of The Oregonian, Jeff Manning reports that "Portland Winterhawks Inc., the company that owns Portland's long-time junior league hockey team, filed bankruptcy Thursday". I find this it be hard to believe considering all the success they've had, but it's very real based on the fact that the team appears to be headed for receivership.

The WHL issued a statement today that read,

The Western Hockey League is aware of the situation with regard to the current ownership of the Portland Winterhawks. The WHL is working closely with the Receiver and the Winterhawks team management to ensure the smooth transition to new ownership in short order.

The Winterhawks leadership team of President Doug Piper, General Manager and Head Coach Mike Johnston, and the executive staff will remain with the team and are committed to conducting business as usual for the organization. The Winterhawks are a highly successful and valuable WHL franchise, and we expect that there will be a great deal of interest in obtaining ownership of the Club.

There are a lot of things that can happen if this move to receivership is true, but it seems that the WHL is willing to see new ownership obtain the club if the receiver, Bridging Financing, is willing to sell the club to new owners. I can't see the WHL wanting to contract the franchise after all the success the Winterhawks has had as a US-based club, so I'm hopeful there's someone out there in Portland who would want to acquire the club.

Manning writes, "The Western Hockey League can terminate a team's ownership agreement if the franchise enters bankruptcy or is in receivership for more than 10 days". That's very likely to happen when it comes to Winterhawks owner William Gallacher's status, so expect this to happen ten days from Thursday or on Sunday, May 17. The WHL won't allow a team to operate in receivership, so Gallacher's ownership run is done.

What should be more concerning for the WHL is the arena lease contract. Manning writes, "The Winterhawks' landlord, Rip City Management LLC, can also void the team's lease to play in the Moda Center and Veteran's Memorial Coliseum", and that would cause all sorts of problems if the WHL can't locate new ownership before the start of next season since a new agreement would be needed to play at their current home arena. I'm sure the WHL will be reaching out to Rip City Management and Anschutz Entertainment Group to see what needs to be done to allow the Winterhawks to remain in the Moda Center if and when Gallacher is removed as owner of the Winterhawks.

There is good news for Winterhawks fans, though.

"At present, the Receiver has no indication that PWH is in financial distress apart from its involvement in the Bridging Loan," the receiver said in court documents as per Manning's report. "Accordingly, the Receiver views it as important to maintain the operations of PWH and the Winterhawks' franchise to preserve their value for the benefit of all creditors of the Debtors in the Canadian Proceeding."

That news sounds like the best news of all in this whole bankruptcy-receivership issue. If the receiver sees that the only issue the Winterhawks franchise has is the bridge financing, finding new owners who can manage that debt would be the only outstanding problem. Keeping the franchise running makes a lot of sense from the receiver's standpoint in order for the new owner to buy a valued franchise while letting the WHL setup its 2020-21 schedule with 22 franchises once again while this whole thing gets sorted out.

In reading that, maybe this isn't a nuclear winter over summer for the Winterhawks just yet.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!