Jeremy Colliton, Mason Raymond join Chilliwack’s WHL expansion team

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Chilliwack finally has its WHL expansion team and it comes complete with Vancouver Canucks ties.

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The league announced Wednesday that it has accepted an ownership group that includes former Abbotsford Canucks coach Jeremy Colliton and former Vancouver left winger Mason Raymond. It will be the 24th team of the league.

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Colliton will also be the general manager and head coach as well as the team governor. The team will play out of the Chilliwack Coliseum starting next season. The rink previously hosted WHL action with the Chilliwack Bruins, who were part of the league from 2006-11 before moving to Vancouver Island and becoming the Victoria Royals.

In the spring there is an expansion project. The team has yet to be named. Colliton said Wednesday that they are working on it.

The league announced in March 2025 that it had added a team in Chilliwack and began accepting owner applications. The team was scheduled to start this season, but in October 2025, the team’s debut was pushed to next year. That also appeared to be in jeopardy in May, when news broke that the first ownership group to back the league had failed to negotiate a deal with the city.

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There has been no official word on a franchise fee, but league sources have put it in the $20 million range. The league added the Penticton Vees last season and sources had that expansion cost over $16 million, including money going to the Kelowna Rockets to enter their official territory.

There has also been no official word on whether the Vancouver Giants, who play out of the Langley Events Center, will receive extra money from the new Chilliwack team.

Colliton, 41, and Raymond, 41, are both from the Calgary area, and started playing spring hockey together when they were nine. Colliton says the chance to “really reconnect” with Raymond is a big plus in this deal for him.

Colliton was a center for four seasons in the WHL with the Prince Albert Raiders before going on to a nine-year pro career that included 57 games with the New York Islanders.

“I think these are important years. I look back on my time in the Western League development wise as a player and also off the ice,” Colliton said Wednesday.

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“That experience with what you get in a junior career is a big part of who I am today. So to have a chance to create something for kids that age and have a hand in their development personally and then hopefully professionally is a pretty cool opportunity and something I’m really excited about.”

The league originally announced Penticton and Chilliwack additions at the same time. Penticton came on board with the ownership and hockey staff of the BCHL’s version of the Vees.

Announcing a team before it had an owner was a non-traditional game. Chilliwack was a long-time BCHL staple with the Chiefs, but the city was openly eager to have a higher hockey brand with the WHL, and existing WHL teams such as the Rockets and Giants supported a return to Chilliwack in a bid to reduce travel costs.

The league accepted an ownership group headed by Matthew Gibbons, who is president of Vancouver-based entertainment company MRG and a former member of the BCHL’s Chilliwack Chiefs, but news broke in May that Gibbons also wanted to run the Coliseum and the city balked at that. The deal fell apart.

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The city will continue to operate the Coliseum with this new agreement.

“I wasn’t worried,” WHL commissioner Dan Near said when asked about the arrests and starts with the Chilliwack ownership bid.

“I take one to two calls a week about franchise owner inquiries. It was never a question of whether people want this team. It was about finding the right people.

“We’ve been engaging with Jeremy and his group for the past few months and it became abundantly clear that this had all the right ingredients. Being patient paid off.”

There were hard feelings in Chilliwack when the Bruins left for Victoria. Colliton admits “we are aware of the story.”

“At the same time, it’s exciting,” Colliton continued. “We think the community is ready to have the Western League in the Coliseum again. It’s up to us to provide an experience, a product that they feel is theirs, and that’s really it. We’re ready to do that.”

Colliton coached the Chicago Blackhawks for parts of four seasons before coming to Abbotsford. He was at the helm at Abbotsford for two seasons, leading them to a 40-25-3-4 record in 2022-23 and 40-25-5-2 mark in 2023-24. Abbotsford won a single playoff round in both seasons.

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Postmedia reported in May 2024 that he was offered a contract to return to Abbotsford, but turned it down.

The Canucks hired Manny Malhotra soon after to run their farm team. Colliton got an assistant job with the New Jersey Devils soon after and was there for two years. The Devils announced in June 2026 that he was leaving the team for other business opportunities.

Raymond played 10 seasons in the NHL. The first six came with Vancouver, highlighted by part of the race for the 2011 Stanley Cup finals. He also had a 27-goal season with the Canucks in 2009-10.

Former Boston College defenseman Brett Motherwell, an Illinois native who played five years of minor pro in Europe, is also part of the team’s ownership. He and Colliton were teammates in the minors.

The Chiefs play out of the Coliseum this BCHL season. Chiefs principal owner Moray Keith said he plans to keep the team on another rink if the WHL team becomes the main venue at the Coliseum.

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