BCHL adding 5 Alberta teams

[Slats432]

This has been a topic of discussion for years. They had to have known it was more than a possibility.

To the topic of what happens to the BCHL, the Vees say they plan to relocate their Penticton franchise, but I don't know where. The province is already way oversaturated with junior hockey.

'New chapter, new legacy': Penticton Vees celebrate moving up to the Western Hockey League - Penticton News

A news conference at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, March 24, 2025, is expected to confirm that the Penticton Vees will be joining the WHL.

www.castanet.net

If they knew it was a possibility, then leaving HC was incredibly dumb. The whole concept was to not have the limitations of the rules on recruiting, age etc. If you were in the JR A stream in Canada, you could not have a player from another province under the age of 18.

The WHL did not have these limitations. While you could agree that it was unfair for the WHL to have this advantage, that was one of the primary reasons the BCHL left, and also the AJHL teams joined them.

Now the BCHL, the 5 AJHL defectors and the AJHL all have to deal with the potential fall out.

 

[Takuto Maruki]

I’d like to know if the BCHL knew the shift in the NCAA was coming.

They had to - again, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the seismic shifts in what constitutes an amateur athlete in the eyes of the NCAA wouldn't just be applied to CFB and CBB - that it would come to D1 hockey eventually, and if anything, hockey with its twin set-up of a wholly funded major junior league in Canada, and an NCAA arm combined with an army of feeder leagues ostensibly set up to support D1 hockey would realistically be the first league to have to move and figure something out considering how much of it is wrapped up in cross-border commerce and movement.

Which really just underlines how much of the BCHL's actions really since the split, even proceeding it, just seemed to be one last smash and grab of profit for some well off teams in lieu of actually trying to find a solution for the health of the entire league, and the junior A system in the country overall. Well, you got what you wanted...but it's pyrrhic victory at best.