After a great five-year run bringing the Nanaimo Clippers from an average BCHL team to one of the premier franchises in the league, Wes Mussio has decided to sell the team to a group with an expansive knowledge of Junior A hockey.
The purchaser, Northern Lights Hockey Canada, is an investment group headed by Brad Kwong, a western-Canadian born investment professional with a long history in the sport of hockey as a player, executive and team owner. Mr. Kwong, who is a former NCAA Division I hockey captain at Harvard University and Pro Hockey player in Italy, also heads up the group which owns the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the USHL. He was also the former Chairman of the USHL’s Board of Governors.
“The BCHL is a leader in junior hockey and we have been very impressed with the strategic plan the league and board members have in place to take things to even greater heights,” said Kwong. “We’re excited to be a part of that plan and, with our staff, we hope to establish the Nanaimo Clippers as one of the preeminent junior hockey franchises in all of North America.”
Northern Lights Hockey Canada will take over the operations of the Nanaimo Clippers effective immediately heading into the 2022-2023 season. There will be a celebration of the end of an era, which is at the Coast Bastion Hotel at 7 PM on Thursday, June 30, 2022. Anyone interested in attending should reach out to the Clippers management for a ticket to the festivities.
There will be a series of guest speakers attending the event, including Wes and Penny Mussio, who will provide their summary of the great experience they had operating the Clippers since the 2017-2018 season.
Wes Mussio commented, “Penny and I became snowbirds last year and are now living in Florida during the winter months. We felt it was best to find another passionate hockey person to take the team to the next level. We can leave Nanaimo and the Clippers believing that we’ve done a great job bringing the Clippers to the elite level of Canadian Junior A hockey through significant personal and financial investment. I’m 100% confident that Brad Kwong will be able to win a league championship, something that we fell short of this year.”