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BCHL adding 5 Alberta teams

WarriorofTime said:
The Junior Hockey leagues are not slowing down, the demand is still very much there, people are out there and willing to pay, and so the price to play has shot up and likely won't come back down. It's still very competitive and you have to be really good to make Junior A or a high-end Junior B team. Once you get to Junior C, I'm not sure why people are still paying and pursuing, but whatever. Then you have a pure pay to play "junior hockey" league like the GMHL which isn't so much junior hockey as a beer league and will take anyone with money, whether they just started playing last year or not. For the most part across the junior hockey landscape, it's just families like Yukon Joe. The kid is a talented player, they enjoy playing hockey, they are willing to work hard and they want to go wherever they can for the sake of doing so, not necessarily chasing some pie in the sky NHL dream. Just a matter of having the means to do it and choosing to spend on it as a priority in life. That choice isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just sucks that so many get priced out, but the demand amongst talented players still remains.

20 years from now may be a very different landscape, but that's obviously still just speculative for now since the potential participants are not even born yet.
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I've heard that said about junior C but the junior C leagues around here are pretty local, it's not like you are going on super lengthy road trips or whatever. I see it as a way to keep playing fairly competitive hockey. I assume the costs are fairly low. I would think the junior C players are pretty realistic about their prospects, maybe some junior A players are still dreaming big but I doubt any junior C players are.

Besides, what's the difference between playing junior C or just paying for beer league?
 
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jetsmooseice said:
I've heard that said about junior C but the junior C leagues around here are pretty local, it's not like you are going on super lengthy road trips or whatever. I see it as a way to keep playing fairly competitive hockey. I assume the costs are fairly low. I would think the junior C players are pretty realistic about their prospects, maybe some junior A players are still dreaming big but I doubt any junior C players are.

Besides, what's the difference between playing junior C or just paying for beer league?
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I'd be curious, I hear a lot of about "Junior Hockey" fees, in general, but don't know about Junior C in particular and how much more cost-effective it is.
 
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jetsmooseice said:
I've heard that said about junior C but the junior C leagues around here are pretty local, it's not like you are going on super lengthy road trips or whatever. I see it as a way to keep playing fairly competitive hockey. I assume the costs are fairly low. I would think the junior C players are pretty realistic about their prospects, maybe some junior A players are still dreaming big but I doubt any junior C players are.

Besides, what's the difference between playing junior C or just paying for beer league?
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So as I understand it Junior C is really just the upper-most end of minor hockey. As said it's all pretty local, with no need for long road trips.

Speaking as a beer leaguer - the difference would be the general competitiveness and pace. In beer league we play once per week (on average) with no practices. Junior C is not only going to play more often but have organized practices as well. Junior C is probably going to be the end of the line for most players, but some kids may have aspirations of making Junior B or A yet.

I looked up the local Junior C league, and here was their tagline "NORALTA JUNIOR C HOCKEY LEAGUE - Providing organized recreational hockey with a competitive spirit". I think that covers it nicely.

I just snooped on a random kid on a Junior C team. I don't know him at all, but he's played for a lot of the same clubs my kid now plays for. I think he's probably a good example. Looks like he was on the bubble of AA and AAA in minor hockey. A couple years he was released from his home club to make AAA somewhere else. Once he hit 18 he made a Junior B team - but either because it was covid, or because he wasn't good enough, he had hardly any games played. He then played Junior C the last two years (now as a 22 year old) where he put up good stats.

So I dunno - once you're 22 you can definitely make the argument of why are you bothering with Junior C hockey - you're obviously not making "the show". But doing it because you love the game and you want to get every last bit of juice out of it before you're done? Totally understand it.
 
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jetsmooseice said:
I've heard that said about junior C but the junior C leagues around here are pretty local, it's not like you are going on super lengthy road trips or whatever. I see it as a way to keep playing fairly competitive hockey. I assume the costs are fairly low. I would think the junior C players are pretty realistic about their prospects, maybe some junior A players are still dreaming big but I doubt any junior C players are.

Besides, what's the difference between playing junior C or just paying for beer league?
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There is one Junior C league left in Manitoba - Basically it's for local players who don't want to play jr B, lol. I think every team is within two hours driving distance, and most are closer than that.

The HTJHL expanded last year, and I'm hearing it will expand this year as well.

And in my experience, while the worst teams in the league are quite bad, the best teams in that league are Jr B quality.

I love it, it's one of my two favourite hockey leagues to cover - Local players playing for a local audience.
 
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Tom ServoMST3K said:
There is one Junior C league left in Manitoba - Basically it's for local players who don't want to play jr B, lol. I think every team is within two hours driving distance, and most are closer than that.

The HTJHL expanded last year, and I'm hearing it will expand this year as well.

And in my experience, while the worst teams in the league are quite bad, the best teams in that league are Jr B quality.

I love it, it's one of my two favourite hockey leagues to cover - Local players playing for a local audience.
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Are Junior B/C players typically enrolled in University (as full-time students?) while playing hockey?
 
Tom ServoMST3K said:
Some are, some just are working.
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That's good. Just would never advise a kid to put their life on hold and falling behind academically/in whatever career path they end up just for the sake of playing Junior Hockey. Makes more sense with Junior A which is a higher level and players still have a shot at playing in College (whether USports, NCAA DIII or the occasional kid that makes NCAA D1)
 
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Bubbles said:
‘This is really a player-driven decision:’ VIJHL shifts to independent league

So the VIJHL, which HC granted Junior A status last year, is going independent and affiliating with the BCHL.
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As had been rumoured for months. It's not terribly surprising, given the close ties between the Island BCHL teams and the VIJHL teams. I wonder about the financial model - is the VIJHL going to follow the BCHL's plans to be a free-to-play league? Most of those teams don't draw well, so they were in a bad situation regardless - they couldn't have afforded to make trips into the Interior if there was to be a single provincial league formed.

On the other hand, this might also be a safer off-ramp for Powell River if they wanted to leave the BCHL - which is also a rumour out there. They could just drop down to Junior B and play in the Island league.
 
MeHateHe said:
As had been rumoured for months. It's not terribly surprising, given the close ties between the Island BCHL teams and the VIJHL teams. I wonder about the financial model - is the VIJHL going to follow the BCHL's plans to be a free-to-play league? Most of those teams don't draw well, so they were in a bad situation regardless - they couldn't have afforded to make trips into the Interior if there was to be a single provincial league formed.

On the other hand, this might also be a safer off-ramp for Powell River if they wanted to leave the BCHL - which is also a rumour out there. They could just drop down to Junior B and play in the Island league.
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I don't think the Feeder League needs to be free-to-play just because the BCHL is.
 
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MeHateHe said:
As had been rumoured for months. It's not terribly surprising, given the close ties between the Island BCHL teams and the VIJHL teams. I wonder about the financial model - is the VIJHL going to follow the BCHL's plans to be a free-to-play league? Most of those teams don't draw well, so they were in a bad situation regardless - they couldn't have afforded to make trips into the Interior if there was to be a single provincial league formed.

On the other hand, this might also be a safer off-ramp for Powell River if they wanted to leave the BCHL - which is also a rumour out there. They could just drop down to Junior B and play in the Island league.
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The other two formerly Junior B leagues have announced they're staying with Hockey Canada, they're not at all salty about it, and oh yeah, they're way better than those poopyheads at the VIJHL.


  • KIJHL and PJHL representatives have a cumulative record of 16 wins and 6 losses against VIJHL competition over the past five championships contested by the three leagues.
  • KIJHL and PJHL representatives have combined to win the last seven championships contested by the three leagues, including six Cyclone Taylor Cup gold medals (2016-2023) and one Mowat Cup gold medal (2024).
  • KIJHL and PJHL representatives have combined to win 38 of the 42 championships that have taken place since the three-league format was adopted.
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This BC Hockey Conference (new terminology to me, but they're acting as if it's been a thing all along) is staking a claim in the oncoming recruiting battles. The first casualty in war is the truth, they say, and so it goes in hockey recruiting wars. But hey, I see the BCHL still talking about supporting BC hockey players while announcing commitments from players from Slovenia and Denmark and Indiana, so.

What will shake out next - either in advance of the 2024-25 season or immediately after, I'd guess - is the delineation of Tier 1 and Tier 2 in the BCHC, in which the top 10-12 KIJHL teams will join up with a handful of strong community based teams in the PJHL (teams outside of metro Vancouver primarily) in one tier - while the remainder will play in a separate tier. I would stilll expect that financial considerations will make life difficult for at least a few of the BCHL teams, so perhaps a few of those clubs will be looking for somewhere else to play in the next couple of years.

Edited to add:
The Minnesota-based owner of the Trail Smoke Eaters has bought the Peninsula Panthers of the VIJHL. Pouring US money into Canadian hockey sounds great. Or it doesn't, depending on your perspective.

 
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The BCHC announced alignment of its "Junior A" teams: BCHC AND BC HOCKEY ANNOUNCE ALIGNMENT OF JUNIOR A LEAGUES FOR THE 2025-26 SEASON | BC Hockey

I put Junior A in quotes because the KIJHL and PJHL are still mostly Junior B quality.

In the PJHL, seven teams are moving up to Tier 1 and eight are staying in Tier 2 next season. In the KIJHL, 11 teams have been approved to move to Tier 1 starting in 2026-27 and seven are still being assessed.

I suspect there will be some more shuffling as the BCHL sorts things out.
 
Posted this in another thread, but…

The where-do-we-go-from-here question is still a little up in the air. The KIJHL will operate as a single Tier 2 league next year and those seven teams in the to-be-determined file are apparently still being considered for Tier 1. The split into separate tiers will be done in time for the 2026-2027 season. For those unfamiliar, the travel and geography makes any split a challenge. If they were to include Quesnel only, for example, their closest game in such a format would be six hours away, but it's feasible that the two closest teams geographically might be better off in the different tier. So, business wise, it's not terrible to keep working if they're not entirely sure.

KIJHL league structure to change for 2026-27 season​


www.kijhl.ca
The PJHL will play Tier 1 and Tier 2 seasons starting next year. There doesn't seem to be a decision on whether the PJHL champion would get invited to the national Junior A tournament. I suspect there's a concern they would get run out of the rink if they did, since they are still transitioning from being Junior B clubs.

FAQ – Junior ‘A’ Tier 1​


www.pjhl.net
 
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