History
The Grande Prairie North Stars were members of the Peace Junior B Hockey League in the early 1970s. When the Quesnel Millionaires and Prince George Spruce Kings joined the league in 1975, the league became the Peace-Cariboo Junior Hockey League. In 1980, the league was promoted to Junior A and the North Stars with it. The North Stars were not financially strong and ended up sitting out two years (1989-1991). They came back as the Grande Prairie Chiefs in 1991, but the league had brought in teams from the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League and reformed as the Rocky Mountain Junior Hockey League.
The Grande Prairie Storm franchise is the successor to the Grande Prairie Chiefs of the Rocky Mountain Junior Hockey League. The Storm came into being after a community led group bought the team with the goal of paying off its $150,000 in debts, and restoring junior A hockey to prominence in the Peace Country. Already having a brand new arena, the Canada Games Arena, built for the 1995 Canada Winter Games.
In 1996, the Storm jumped to the AJHL, where they have competed since. In their ten-year tenure, the Storm have never failed to qualify for the post season. In 2004, the Storm won their first AJHL championship. They also hosted the Royal Bank Cup tournament that season, however they failed to win the Canadian national championship.
The Storm have been a major success off the ice as well, as the franchise perennially leads the AJHL in attendance, and often leads the entire Canadian Junior A Hockey League in attendance. The Storm broke the previous attendance record for the Royal Bank Cup by over 9000 fans in 2004.
Read more about this topic: Grande Prairie Storm
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