BCHL adding 5 Alberta teams

[WarriorofTime]

“Unsanctioned hockey” lol. You’d think players will be competing with battle axes.

 

[oldunclehue]

Not saying we didn't get money but thousands per month is definitely a bit of an exaggeration. It was nice to get but it was a lot less than we would've been making had we been working jobs at that point, it felt more like an allowance than a payment.

It sucks seeing the Blizzard decline so much.

I personally know many guys who played there. One player was given an SUV and an apartment for him and his girlfriend. Also thousands a month. Others were making 1000$-1500$ a month.

Maybe at the time you weren’t making that but the top guys were making a lot more than league minimum lol

 

[MeHateHe]

I don't think there's any way to look at this story and think the BCHL is "making it up". None of the 5 AJHL teams has rebutted the key proposition - that they intend to play in the BCHL next season.

That being said - the AJHL does come across as being kind of sanctimonious here. Talks about "unsanctioned hockey" (like Hockey Canada has some magic wand to wave over sanctioned games) or the negative impact on players (isn't that being caused by the AJHL suspending games?).

This is one of those stories where neither side comes across very well.

Yes, perhaps my "making it up" comment was a bit of overstatement. Maybe better to suggest they are overstating things or claiming an agreement has been reached that has not been reached.

It's a good reminder that business discussions are conducted by people, with all their flaws, and what we're seeing is discussions that should be private spilling out into the public eye. Sometimes it's bad to see the sausage get made.

 

[brentashton]

I thought the AJHL seemed very petty upon initial reaction to the news that they were cancelling games. But if their reasoning is to err on the side of caution so they can ensure they aren't ruining the eligibility of every player in the league, I feel like postponing these games for a later date is absolutely more than reasonable. If these teams had given the league a few days notice, perhaps they would have been able to carry-on without any changes to the schedule.

Only time will tell if this is the actual reason for the cancellation of games, and not out of sheer pettiness. Haven't heard anything on postponements of games scheduled for this weekend that the 5 teams involved in this scenario will be playing in.

Wut? The AJHL wasn’t ruining these players eligibility before all this BS so how would that change if they continued to let them play as carded players in a HC sanctioned league for the remainder of the season.

 

[Giant Panda]

I personally know many guys who played there. One player was given an SUV and an apartment for him and his girlfriend. Also thousands a month. Others were making 1000$-1500$ a month.

Maybe at the time you weren’t making that but the top guys were making a lot more than league minimum lol

I think you have the decades off a bit. There was a fair bit of money flying around in the 90s but that sounds more like the early to mid 2000s Blizzard. The Casino was opened in 2004ish, the Blizzard's peak ended around 2002.

By 2006 though, they were starting to get pretty run-of-the-mill and by 2014, they weren't as special anymore.

 

[oldunclehue]

I think you have the decades off a bit. There was a fair bit of money flying around in the 90s but that sounds more like the early to mid 2000s Blizzard. The Casino was opened in 2004ish, the Blizzard's peak ended around 2002.

By 2006 though, they were starting to get pretty run-of-the-mill and by 2014, they weren't as special anymore.

The last year of their dynasty was in 2003 but they were still top of the league is 204-2005 and paying players a lot then. I just messaged my buddy and he said that he was getting 1000$ a month, $1000 Xmas bonus and custom sticks. And he wasn’t one of their top 5 players at the time.

After that year when they were swept by Portage the money slowed down as a new chief and council came in and stopped the casino money.

Aaron Starr was making bank then!

 

[jetsmooseice]

The last year of their dynasty was in 2003 but they were still top of the league is 204-2005 and paying players a lot then. I just messaged my buddy and he said that he was getting 1000$ a month, $1000 Xmas bonus and custom sticks. And he wasn’t one of their top 5 players at the time.

After that year when they were swept by Portage the money slowed down as a new chief and council came in and stopped the casino money.

Aaron Starr was making bank then!

Good Lord. Don't tell that to the moms and dads of players on some MJHL teams who are dutifully making their monthly pay to play etransfers, it could be too much to bear.

 

[Yukon Joe]

The last year of their dynasty was in 2003 but they were still top of the league is 204-2005 and paying players a lot then. I just messaged my buddy and he said that he was getting 1000$ a month, $1000 Xmas bonus and custom sticks. And he wasn’t one of their top 5 players at the time.

After that year when they were swept by Portage the money slowed down as a new chief and council came in and stopped the casino money.

Aaron Starr was making bank then!

Reminds me of when the Horse Lake Thunder (a senior hockey team based on a reserve in northern Alberta) started hiring a bunch of ex-NHLers in order to compete for the Allen Cup at around that same time. Theo Fleury was I think the most notorious.

 

[oldunclehue]

Good Lord. Don't tell that to the moms and dads of players on some MJHL teams who are dutifully making their monthly pay to play etransfers, it could be too much to bear.

Ya….I hate how hockey has got down the crapper as a form of entertainment plus add in all the new things people have that they didn’t in 2004. MJHL players all made money to play. $150 a month covered gas and beer for a while!

 

[brentashton]

Reminds me of when the Horse Lake Thunder (a senior hockey team based on a reserve in northern Alberta) started hiring a bunch of ex-NHLers in order to compete for the Allen Cup at around that same time. Theo Fleury was I think the most notorious.

Theo was probably the most drunk in Lloydminster maybe and that’s saying something (but the poor guy was nearing the bottoming out of his personal demons at the time), I think Sasha Lakovic was the most most notorious in my mind on that team. I was at that Allan Cup and it was very good hockey but senior hockey shenanigans were happening.

 

[Giant Panda]

Im hearing news out of the AJHL that the 5 teams will be announcing something in the near future and have cancelled the games they are scheduled to play against each other.

I'm speculating that they might not finish the season under the AJHL umbrella.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Meanwhile in “sanctioned” BC Hockey Canada approved “Junior A” hockey.

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www.cbc.ca

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-hockey-officials-saying-little-after-fight-leaves-goalie-lying-motionless-on-ice-1.7099104

 

[Yukon Joe]

Meanwhile in “sanctioned” BC Hockey Canada approved “Junior A” hockey.

Loading…

www.cbc.ca

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-hockey-officials-saying-little-after-fight-leaves-goalie-lying-motionless-on-ice-1.7099104

Holy shit - that player (who is only 19) had already been suspended for 13 games earlier in the year (which included an extra 3 games for being a repeat offender), and now gives an opposing team's goalie a "severe injury"? That guy should never see the ice again.

 

[MeHateHe]

Im hearing news out of the AJHL that the 5 teams will be announcing something in the near future and have cancelled the games they are scheduled to play against each other.

I'm speculating that they might not finish the season under the AJHL umbrella.

And the remaining AJHL teams are saying they'll be fine, just fine, without those five, who they never really liked anyway, and they had bad breath, and couldn't cook, and never cleaned up after the dog or nothing.

Silver lining in loss of five AJHL teams, says Olds Grizzlys governor

Teams' departure from league may open up opportunities for other Alberta Junior Hockey League franchises

www.mountainviewtoday.ca

Seriously, this sounds more and more like the stereotypical divorce. Business is business, but people in business still have feelings, and sometimes, they act (badly) because of them.

Actually, the real bit of news is that the Olds governor is suggesting someone else in one or more of those markets might try to set up shop and join the AJHL - the implication being that a new AJHL club would squeeze the former club out of an arena lease. Actually, that still sounds like a divorce.

 

[oldunclehue]

This league will likely struggle now....Craig Button announced that CHL players will be eligible for NCAA scholarships within the next 18 months.

No top end player at the 2nd Tier Junior A level will get a sniff of a scholarship if the CHL players are all eligible and any of them who wants NCAA will now be trying to get on a CHL team.

2nd tier Junior A in rural areas will be dead. Sad for smaller communities that own teams and support them now.

 

[Yukon Joe]

This league will likely struggle now....Craig Button announced that CHL players will be eligible for NCAA scholarships within the next 18 months.

No top end player at the 2nd Tier Junior A level will get a sniff of a scholarship if the CHL players are all eligible and any of them who wants NCAA will now be trying to get on a CHL team.

2nd tier Junior A in rural areas will be dead. Sad for smaller communities that own teams and support them now.

Big if true.

I quite like Craig Button, but is he really the guy who is going to have insider information on what the NCAA does? CHL players hhave been NCAA ineligible for forever and that would be a massive change for them.

 

[oldunclehue]

Big if true.

I quite like Craig Button, but is he really the guy who is going to have insider information on what the NCAA does? CHL players hhave been NCAA ineligible for forever and that would be a massive change for them.

He's very very much tied in the CHL world. Just google it and you'll see multiple reports that its happening. I don't doubt that Hockey Canada is pushing this as well...it will ruin the new BCHL model pretty quickly. But it will also kill the other leagues across canada in the long run.

If you are a NCAA scout....why would you ever even go to a Junior A game when the top end WHL, OHL and QMJHL players are available.

 

[ottawah]

Big if true.

I quite like Craig Button, but is he really the guy who is going to have insider information on what the NCAA does? CHL players hhave been NCAA ineligible for forever and that would be a massive change for them.

"In July 2021 to the rules that govern collegiate athletics that allow student athletes to earn money from corporate sponsorships and to accept money from supporters."


That is the massive change. The NCAA can hardly complain on CHL players and what they are paid given what they can now do.

 

[RR44]

Ummmm… has anyone been watching the NCAA lately?

You have big conferences looking to grow their football brand, women’s sports are really growing, but schools outside the big programs are getting DE-funded because media companies don’t want to pay all of them anymore.

So when you characterize college hockey as growing, I question that, more because the core of that operation is under a bigger threat. Worse, if the big schools bolt the NCAA, then what?

On the other hand, with NIL, IF they hold together, does the NCAA still have a legal basis to restrict CHL vets from joining?

Didn’t the BCHL become pay-to-play to some degree?

Funny you bring up the NCAA...the NCAA is a defacto professional league if you believe that there are 16 players in NIL making more per year than Brock Purdy:

Super Bowl quarterback Brock Purdy made $870,000 this season - 16 college football players made more via NIL

www.morningstar.com

 

[KaraLupin]

Major Junior Players Will Not Get NCAA Opportunities - All Of The Reasons And Facts

The rumor of Major Junior players somehow being made eligible to play NCAA hockey in the future has once again reared its ugly and nonsensical head. While we u

thejuniorhockeynews.com

 

[Takuto Maruki]

I feel like, strictly speaking with regards to D1 hockey and NIL, people might be making mountains out of molehills with regards to it and the potential it has towards the CHL and Junior A in general.

Even now, NIL is a Wild West in terms of who ultimately controls it, the universities or state governments. I've spoken with someone very much clued in with the financials and back room dealings of NCAA sports, and even they have a hard time parsing it at this early stage. Also realizing that much of D1 hockey is still made up of Canadian nationals, there hasn't even been a solid discussion *started* about whether foreign nationals can or should benefit from NIL overall, and by the way things are going, it's a US federal government decision on that front and it is so low on the totem pole of issues with regards to NIL that I very much believe it's going to be a 'cross that bridge when we get there' resolution. Especially since professional athletes, on both sides of the border, don't even have the greatest wrap around how taxes are applied to their earnings when they work in one country and live ostensibly in the other.

Major Junior Players Will Not Get NCAA Opportunities - All Of The Reasons And Facts

The rumor of Major Junior players somehow being made eligible to play NCAA hockey in the future has once again reared its ugly and nonsensical head. While we u

thejuniorhockeynews.com

I feel like this article kind of puts things a bit too harshly for my tastes, especially this part:

There is a movement among many State and Federally funded universities to eliminate scholarships for non United States citizens now. Why would any State or public university give money to any family that hasnt paid into those taxes? This is a real question for University regents in todays political climate.

Forgetting that most of those moves to eliminate scholarships to foreign nationals are from Republican politicians in red states, the writer does realize that the entire reason why foreign nationals go to the NCAA, especially in D1 sports like basketball, football (increasingly) and hockey, is because of that desire for a full ride scholarship, and the fast(er) track towards going professional?

 

[jetsmooseice]

It is truly wild how the BCHL, now joined by the AJHL rebel five, made this aggressive move, just as the NCAA is apparently getting set to relax restrictions on major junior players. If it happens, it will pull the rug right out from under junior A hockey, particularly these outlaw leagues focused on appealing to NCAA hopefuls. Could we be seeing the death knell for junior A as @oldunclehue is suggesting? Seems like the BCHL's move came at least a decade too late to really count.

And that choking incident from BC...yikes.

I can't remember a time when there has ever been this much national attention on junior A hockey, it's kind of overwhelming haha

 

[WarriorofTime]

Cynically I think the CHL is working its channels to float out rumors of possible ncaa eligibility as kids are trying to figure out their path to kill competition for top players with tjr BCHL outlaws but that it’ll lead nowhere.

 

[oldunclehue]

Major Junior Players Will Not Get NCAA Opportunities - All Of The Reasons And Facts

The rumor of Major Junior players somehow being made eligible to play NCAA hockey in the future has once again reared its ugly and nonsensical head. While we u

thejuniorhockeynews.com

This is all just opinion and ZERO is fact or facts provided.

It's happening....and it will happen. Hockey Canada is likely pushing this as well to try and quash any other leagues going rogue. The goal for all top Junior A players is an NCAA scholarship or a move up to CHL.

Scouts will all be at CHL games trying to recruit top talent....not going to Kindersley Sask to find a kid.

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

View attachment 812515
So at best the BCHL jumped the gun - the story I'm seeing is that someone on the inside was going to leak it so the league decided to push it out there - and at worst the BCHL is making something up.

No matter what, this is a bad look from a business standpoint to shove your new partners under the bus in this way.

I specifically heard someone in Edmonton in the media had the scoop, and that's what prompted the BCHL to make the move. (At a Junior A game in Manitoba, while talking with a random fan)

Not sure if it was just idle "rink-talk" or actually true.