‘A pretty incredible number:’ Blades playing 4,000th regular-season WHL game

The Saskatoon Blades will make history in Regina on Friday night as they play their 4,000th regular-season WHL game.

“It’s a pretty incredible number,” Blades general manager Colin Priestner said when asked about what the milestone meant to him. “It’s hard to really put into context when you’re playing 68 to 72 games a year.

“It’s a long time — a lot of wins, a lot of losses and thousands of players.”

The club was founded in 1964 and in more than 60 years of hockey, it has played included notable NHLers.

Wendel Clark, Bernie Federko, Bob Bourne, Brian Skrudland, Gerry Pinder and Brent Ashton are all notable alumni who have had their jersey numbers retired by the club.

Federko is the only player on that list to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

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Priestner credits the community for doing what it has done over the years in order to keep the Blades in the city.

“I think it’s a testament to the people in the city – their love for hockey and their love for the Blades,” he said.

“There’s been lots of good times and lots of dark times in those 4,000 games where the team support has probably been up and down in terms of attendance and interest in the market over those decades. The fact they always came out and the dark times when they came up weren’t ever dark enough to consider moving the team and they never will be (moved) as far as we’re concerned.”

Looking at the Blades brand as it is right now, the suggestion can be made that it has never been stronger.

According to Priestner, the club is averaging 5,000 fans per game through just 15 home games and has a lot of home games in 2024.

“It’s amazing the support the city has shown for this team,” he said. “Obviously it helps being the top team in the league right now and we have some big-name players. It’s really exciting to see what the city can do.”

To this day, the Blades are the only founding team remaining to play all of their franchise’s games in the WHL.

They’ve been around for a long time, but there’s one item that has eluded them during their existence in Saskatoon: A WHL championship.

The Blades have been to five WHL finals and have lost all of them. Their most recent appearance was 1994, when they lost in seven games to the Kamloops Blazers.

This season, the Blades are on pace to finish with what could be their best regular season in franchise history. Entering Friday’s game, the Blades have the second-best record in the WHL at 25-8-2-1 for 53 points.

Priestner, the players, coaches and management all know they have one goal in mind.

“We feel this city deserves a championship,” Priestner said. “It’s been way too long without having one. We’re going to do everything we can to get the city that title this year.”