Victoria Cougars sold after VIJHL board approval

The Victoria Cougars, one of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League’s (VIJHL) most decorated franchises, have been sold after more than two decades under the Esquimalt Hockey Society.

The team has been purchased by Chris Lynn and Philip Pang, both longtime fixtures in the organization, in a deal approved Tuesday by the VIJHL’s Board of Governors.

For league president Mark MacDonald, the transition marks the pinnacle of a process that began in April.

Because the Cougars were operated by a nonprofit society, he said, the move required extra steps to ensure a smooth handoff.

“This was a complicated deal because it was the Esquimalt Hockey Society that owned it, so it was not a private ownership,” MacDonald told Victoria News. “There are intricacies to go from that to private ownership,