The 1996–97 WHL season was the 31st season of the Western Hockey League (WHL), featuring eighteen teams and a 72-game regular season.
The Lethbridge Hurricanes won both the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy as regular season champions and the President's Cup as playoff champions, both for the first time in team history.
The Hurricanes went on to finish as runners-up at the 1997 Memorial Cup tournament.
The Edmonton Ice joined the WHL as its eighteenth team, and the first to call Edmonton home since the second iteration of the Oil Kings left the city in 1979.
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalties in minutes Note: GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties ; GA = Goals against; SO = Total shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average On January 22, the Western Conference defeated the Eastern Conference 7–5 at Spokane, Washington before a WHL record crowd of 10,455.