Ken Wheler

Ken Wheler began officiating at the age of 14 in his hometown of Battleford as part of the Battleford Community Youth Club hockey program. He advanced through the ranks and went on to take assignments from the local Minor Hockey Association. He continued to referee while playing Midget hockey but then made the decision to dedicate his time to officiating full time.

Ken refereed several provincial championships at the Midget, Junior A and Senior levels prior to relocating to Saskatoon. He spent one season as a linesman in the Western Canada Hockey League (now WHL) before starting as a referee the following year while continuing to referee Junior A, including the National Junior A Championship. Following that, he refereed WHL games, including the Memorial Cup in 1980. He went on to attend several NHL training camps and, after being offered a Minor League contract, spent three seasons refereeing in the IHL, CHL, and AHL with preseason exposure in the NHL. In addition, Ken worked as a linesman in seven NHL regular season games.

Off the ice, Ken was a clinic instructor in Saskatchewan and later in British Columbia. He instructed one year at the Terry Gregson Referee School in various parts of Europe and instructed at the Western Canada School of Officiating and the Can-Am Referee School.

After retiring from on-ice officiating in 1987, Ken joined the WHL Officiating Supervisory team. In 2008, he became a part-time NHL Officiating Manager, which became full-time three years later. In addition, he continues to do some supervision in the WHL and speaks at various high-performance officiating seminars and training camps. Ken has attended two Olympic Games as a liaison with the NHL and the IIHF as well as a game supervisor. He was also invited to Germany to make a presentation to 33 National Member Associations and travelled to Finland and Sweden to observe World Cup of Hockey exhibition games.