[1] The Victoria Cougars entered the WHL as an expansion team for the 1949–50 season, but in 1961 they moved to Los Angeles to become the Blades.

[2][3][4][5][6] The team, which was owned by the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League, had lost a reported $150,000 in their first season.

In June 1967, Maple Leaf Gardens Limited sold the team for $500,000 to a group from Phoenix[2][10][11][12] which relocated it to become the Roadrunners,[13][14][15] where they played until the WHL's demise in 1974.

The Maple Leafs finished the 1964–65 season with a 32–36–2 W-L-T record in fourth place in the six-team league, making the WHL playoffs.

The Leafs beat the Seattle Totems in a seven-game semi-final, but lost to the Portland Buckaroos in five games for the championship.

In the 1965–66 season, the Maple Leafs defeated the San Francisco Seals in a seven-game semi-final, to set up a rematch of the previous year's final.

They beat the regular season champion Buckaroos in seven games to capture their only Lester Patrick Cup in Victoria and the first for the franchise going back to Denver and Spokane.

Journeyman Al Millar started 51 games as goaltender before being sent to the Tulsa Oilers of the CPHL and John Henderson played in 24.