For the Victoria Grizzlies, the 2024-25 season is important as it’s their 30th anniversary of joining the B.C. Hockey League as an expansion team.
Starting as the Victoria Salsa, the team filled the hole left by the departing Victoria Cougars of the Western Hockey League. The Cougars moved north to Prince George before the 1994-95 season,
The Grizzlies’ last anniversary celebration saw them don special Salsa jerseys, but I’m not sure what they will do this season. For this article, I will examine the Grizzlies’ anniversaries for five, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years, starting with the Salsa’s fifth anniversary in 1999-00.
At the turn of the millennium
During the fifth anniversary season, the Salsa was a rapidly improving team. The head coach and general manager was Campbell Blair and the owner was Mark Wagstaff.
The Salsa’s leading scorer in 1999-00 was forward Brian McCormack, who was in his second season in Victoria. He finished the year with 93 points in 54 games.
The Salsa’s goalie tandem split games between them as Travis Harrington played 32 games and future Boston Bruins draft pick Jordan Sigalet got into 33 games.
McCormack joined the Penticton Panthers in 2000-01 while Harrington ended up with the Powell River Kings. Sigalet stayed with Victoria for one more season before going off to Bowling Green State University to start his NCAA career as a 20-year-old.
As for Blair, he stayed with the Salsa for the 2000-01 season before being hired as part of the coaching staff at the University of Maine. He was with Maine as an assistant coach for five seasons before joining the University of Alaska-Anchorage as associate head coach for seven years.
In the 1999-00 regular season, the Salsa finished first in the Island Division with a 36-20-4 record and was eliminated by the Nanaimo Clippers in the first round of the playoffs.
Playing at a new home
By their 10th anniversary of 2004-05, the Grizzlies franchise was already playing in its current home of Bear Mountain Arena (now known as The Q Centre). The Salsa were also on the verge of rebranding as the Grizzlies.
The Salsa’s head coach and general manager back then was Rylan Ferster, who was in year one of his first tenure with Victoria.
That season, the Salsa’s number-one goaltender was Ryan Riddle. He went 13-33-0 with a 3.81 goals-against average and a .902 save percentage while appearing in 52 of Victoria’s 60 games. The Salsa’s top scorer was forward Adam Naglich, who had a pretty unspectacular 46 points in 60 games.
After the 10th anniversary season, Naglich attended the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. He played four seasons at UAF before a couple of years of pro hockey with the ECHL’s Bakersfield Condors. Naglich left for Europe in 2011 and spent the next four years playing in Croatia, Austria, and Italy.
As for Riddle, he was traded to the Langley Hornets in June 2005. He spent one season with the Hornets before jumping to play Canadian Interuniversity Sport hockey at the University of Western Ontario in 2006-07.
Ferster’s first tenure with Victoria ended after the 2006-07 season, which was the team’s first as the Grizzlies. After 13 seasons coaching various teams in three different leagues, Ferster was hired back in Victoria before the 2022-23 BCHL season.
In the 2004-05 regular season, the Salsa finished with a record of 16-39-0-5. The Surrey Eagles eliminated Victoria in the first round of the Coastal Conference playoffs.
Coming into a new decade
The Grizzlies’ 15th anniversary season came a few months after hosting the RBC Cup National Junior A Championship. For 2009-10, Victor Gervais took over as head coach and general manager. He had previously been an assistant coach under head coach Geoff Courtnall.
In net, the Grizzlies’ number one goaltender was Ryan Holfeld. Holfeld joined the Grizzlies midseason after starting the year with the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League and then the United States Hockey League’s Fargo Force. He posted an eye-popping five shutouts in 28 games for Victoria.
Behind Holfeld were Rich Virtanen and Colin Fernandes. Fernandes and Holfeld finished the season in Victoria. Virtanen was traded to the Williams Lake Timberwolves in November 2009, and a month later, the T-Wolves flipped him to the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Wellington Dukes.That season, Dustin Mowrey was the Grizzlies’ leading scorer. In 58 games, he scored 66 points.
After the 15th anniversary season, Gervais stayed on for two more seasons before spending one year with the Westshore Wolves as general manager and head coach. He’s been a coach for various teams in the Juan de Fuca Minor Hockey Association for more than 15 years.
As for Holfeld and Fernandes, they both moved on from the team in 2010-11. Holdfeld attended the University of Saskatchewan to play CIS hockey for five years. Fernandes played one game in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League with the Melfort Mustangs before joining the OJHL’s Orangeville Flyers, where he established himself as their number-one goalie. He spent the next four seasons at the University of Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, Mowrey moved on to play four seasons of NCAA hockey at Cornell University. He took a hiatus from the sport from 2014 to 2018 before signing in Slovakia for 2018-19. He moved to KRS-BSU Beijing in Russia’s Supreme Hockey League in 2019-20 before wrapping his pro career in France the following season.
During the 2009-10 regular season, the Grizzlies finished with a record of 34-18-2-6, third in the Coastal Conference. They were knocked out by Nanaimo in the first round of the post-season.
Craig Didmon’s tenure begins
During their 20th anniversary season, the Grizzlies saw Craig Didmon become the head coach and general manager. He remained in that role for seven seasons.
The Grizzlies’ number one goaltender that year was Michael Stiliadis, his second stint playing for Victoria after getting into 31 games during the 2012-13 season. In 2014-15, he finished with a 22-21-0 record to go along with a 3.52 goals-against average, an .884 save percentage, and one shutout.
Victoria’s top scorer that year was Dane Gibson. In 56 games, Gibson put up 32 goals and 57 assists for 89 points to finish third in BCHL scoring. Gibson had spent the previous two seasons with the Cowichan Valley Capitals.
After his seventh season as head coach and general manager in 2021-22, the Grizzlies didn’t renew Didmon’s contract. He has remained out of junior hockey since then.
Stiliadis left the Grizzlies at the end of the 2014-15 season to play for the Toronto Blue Ice Jets of the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League. He is currently playing pro hockey in France. As for Gibson, he went on to play college hockey at the University of Maine and the University of Calgary.
The Grizzlies finished the 2014-15 regular season with a 29-18-1-10 record, second in the Island Division. Victoria lost its first-round series to the Powell River Kings in six games.
The 25th anniversary
As mentioned above, the Grizzlies’ 25th anniversary saw them use a special jersey, designed from the same Salsa logo from when they joined the BCHL in 1994.
The team also included Salsa alumni in special events, like forward Matt Pettinger, who was one of several former players who moved on to the National Hockey League.
Behind the bench, Didmon was still the Grizzlies’ head coach and general manager and their top scorer was forward Cody Monds. He finished with 22 goals and 37 assists for 59 points in 57 games.
In goal, the team used three netminders that season. Joseph Howe and Liam Soulière formed the early tandem and after a mid-season injury to Howe, Blake Wood joined the team.
The Grizzlies also finished their season before the emergence of COVID-19. After their season finale on Feb. 22, 2020, Victoria didn’t play a home game in front of fans until Oct. 8, 2021.
After their four-game playoff exit, Monds was signed by the USHL’s Fargo Force for the 2020-21 season. He’s currently playing for Robert Morris University in the NCAA.
As for Howe, the Grizzlies traded him to the Coquitlam Express in January 2020. He last played for the NCAA Division I Cornell University during the 2021-22 season. Meanwhile, Soulière started his college career at Penn State University following the 2019-20 season. After four seasons with the Nittany Lions, he transferred to the University of Minnesota for this season.
Finally, Wood stayed with the Grizzlies until 2021 but didn’t play any games. Before the Vancouver Island Pod started in Port Alberni in March 2021, he accepted a work opportunity.
During the 2019-20 regular season, the Grizzlies finished with a record of 24-33-0-1. The team was eliminated in the first round by the Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
Future anniversaries
Anniversary seasons are interesting — they can take place before a team has its best season ever and they can also take place after a big event.
The Salsa’s fifth anniversary preceded their Fred Page Cup win in 2001. The Grizzlies’ 15th anniversary took place after the team hosted the RBC Cup.
As mentioned earlier, the Grizzlies’ 30th anniversary season is a big one for the team. They’ve already revealed a new jersey for the regular season and as the season rolls along, it will be interesting to see what notable events Victoria has planned to mark the occasion.
