Photo by Tim Clinton

Showare Center in Kent remains as the home of the Seattle Thunderbirds junior hockey team.

Thunderbirds are sticking around

By Tim Clinton

And the Seattle Thunderbirds live on, even after the arrival of the National Hockey League Seattle Kraken in 2021.

The Thunderbirds of the junior Western Hockey League are now located down the road at the accesso Showare Center in Kent, where they have been playing since 2008 in a move from Seattle Center.

The team originated as the Vancouver Nats in 1971, became the Kamloops Chiefs in 1973 and moved to Seattle in 1977.

It was originally known as the Seattle Breakers but took on the Thunderbirds' name in 1985.

The Thunderbirds have 11 championship banners to hang from the ceiling at Showare.

They won the overall Ed Chynoweth Cup in 2017 and 2023.

Seattle captured conference championships as the Thunderbirds in 1996-97, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2021-22 and 2022-23.

The Thunderbirds put in a playoff appearance after the recent 2024-25 season, being edged out by the Everett Silvertips in a seven-game series.

Prior to the arrival of the Breakers team that became the Thunderbirds, Seattle had the Totems up until the 1974-75 season.

That season was spent in the Central Hockey League, but the franchise played in the old Western Hockey League from 1952 into 1974 and in the same league previously known as the Pacific Hockey League from 1944-52.

The team was founded in 1943 as a NIHL franchise.

The Totems captured Western Hockey League Lester Patrick Cup championships in 1959, 1967 and 1968.

Seattle took on the name Totems in 1958, after being known as the Seattle Americans from 1955-58, the Seattle Bombers from 1952-54, the Seattle Ironmen from 1944-52 and the Seattle Isacsson Iron Workers in 1943-44.

The old Western Hockey League folded in 1974, and the Totems lasted only one more season,