Circle K Tournament getting soft?

[hockeyguy0022]

Just glanced at the pools, lots of the usuals, but there's about 4-5 top 10 teams in Canada not invited/going..

Swift Current being one amongst a few others out east.

I see the academies have taken those spots now, and a couple non-typical American teams...

Pretty inexcusable to cut some of those clubs, especially considering SMAAAHL has near 50% of Gold/Silver over the last 20 years probably closer to 60% if you want to include bronze.

For the premier MAAA league to only have 2 teams is ridiculous.

Smells like a "BCHL" type of money/prestige talks type of thing.

I have no horse in the race, just been watching all levels over the years.

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[timekeep]

Its definitely a tournament for the elite, from my experiences they always wanted the academies and teams from afar. Pretty sure the Hounds used to always come and if they could get an international or US team they were in. Looking at the lineup only one team from Eastern Canada, not even MB. I'm sure they got the commitment early so they could plan and budget. But I don't think this tournament would be very big if it relied on the club teams. Its an additional cost to those teams versus the academies that only go tournaments.

 

[Yukon Joe]

So my kids aren't yet at U18 age so not familiar with this particular tournament.

Based in Calgary, but they have all the big U18AAA Edmonton teams going - Jr Oilers Blue and Orange, NAX, OHA Edmonton.

Travel costs (in particular right after Christmas) are very real. It's kind of cool there are so many US-based teams I've never heard of (including a Team Hungary?) but wouldn't be outraged there's no eastern-Canadian teams attending.

Or I could be out to lunch.