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Ed Chynoweth Cup comes home

May 15, 2011

Matt Coxford

PORTLAND, Ore. – After posing for pictures with Western Hockey League commissioner Ron Robison and the WHL championship trophy on Friday night, Kootenay Ice captain Brayden McNabb invited someone else to the party.

A few more shutter bursts later, McNabb handed the Ed Chynoweth Cup to the namesake's son. Team general manager and president Jeff Chynoweth lifted it above his head, and gave it a few revelatory shakes before kissing it.

"I thought it was fitting that he got the trophy first," said Ice head coach Kris Knoblauch. "It was our captains who thought of it, and Jeff didn't want to have any part of it because he felt it's the players' moment. But we pushed him out there and he did get it."

Chynoweth insisted the same thing after the game, crediting the players and coaches instead.

"They're the ones that are in the trenches, they're the ones that do it day in and day out," he said. "They deserve all the credit. I'm in the back and don't want to take away from anybody. At the same time, it's very special to me and my family and it's something I'll never forget."

Few who witnessed it will.

"It's tough to put into words," said Chynoweth, his eyes welling at the recollection. "I kept thinking about my dad and everything he did for this league and our organization. A lot of the kids here did meet him, and it's emotional. My mom's in Arizona right now and she's a mess. My brother is in New York and he's a mess. He'd be happy. Let's enjoy it and get ready for the next challenge."

An architect of the Canadian Hockey League and champion of the WHL education program, Ed Chynoweth moved the Edmonton Ice franchise to Cranbrook in 1998. Ten years later, he lost a battle with cancer, and was posthumously inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the builders' category.

The trophy had previously been known as the Presidents Cup. The Spokane Chiefs were the first team to win the Ed Chynoweth Cup, and advanced to win the 2008 Memorial Cup.

A couple of Ed's former employees with the Ice had shots at the Ed Chynoweth Cup as general managers of other clubs: former Ice head scout Roy Stasiuk with the Lethbridge Hurricanes in 2009, and former Kootenay GM Bob Tory with the Tri-City Americans last year.

"This trophy is something we've always wanted, especially when they renamed it three years ago," said Chynoweth. "Roy said the other day: 'It's your turn. We're 0-2 already.'"

Much of the Ice team didn't get to meet Ed, but McNabb got to know him well in short order.

"I remember when I was 15, I got called up and he picked me up at the airport and took me out for a pre-game meal," said McNabb. "He was a great guy and he did a lot for this league and I'm very proud that we won it."

Although another Cup looms large on the horizon – the Memorial, of course – the Ed Chynoweth Cup isn't an interim sort of trophy, like the Eastern Conference mug.

"We can touch this one as much as we want," McNabb laughed.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
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