The Raiders were founded as a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) club in 1971, playing out of the newly constructed Prince Albert Communiplex, later renamed the Art Hauser Centre.

The team won seven consecutive Anavet Cups from 1976 to 1982, defeating Manitoba Junior Hockey League champions for the right to play for the national championship.

[2][3] In this era, the Raiders competed against a number of future Ontario Hockey League teams, including the Guelph Platers and the Belleville Bulls.

[3] However, Dan Hodgson was named the league's rookie of the year, and the team rapidly improved under Simpson's guidance.

In the playoffs, the Raiders lost only one game en route to their first league championship, securing the President's Cup with a sweep of the Kamloops Blazers.

Simpson won his second coach-of-the-year award, and then left the team to coach the New York Islanders, marking the end of an era.

[12]The Raiders originally wore green and yellow uniforms with a logo featuring a skating hockey player.

Although the team moved away from this look in 1996—adopting black as its primary colour and a new logo featuring a pirate's head—the Raiders stirred controversy in the twenty-first century by bringing back elements of branding from the era.

[15] In 2021, the team forced the WHL to apologize when it brought back its 1980s jerseys as a third-jersey; the move was called "insensitive and offensive".

In 2024, the team temporarily re-branded as the Cobra Chickens, unveiling a new jersey featuring a Canada goose logo.