(Logos courtesy NorthCentralHockeyLeague.com)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

No season for Rustlers, Wranglers and Ge

North Central Hockey League cancels Sr. AA season

Oct 15, 2020 | 4:11 PM

There will be no 2020/21 North Central ‘Senior AA’ Hockey League (NCHL) season.

On Wednesday, the board of directors for the NCHL voted 8-1 in favour of cancelling the season.

The league has nine teams, including the Blackfalds Wranglers, Lacombe Generals and Red Deer Rustlers.

For the Rustlers, who were in their second season after reviving the brand in 2018, it’s a disappointing, albeit necessary conclusion.

“It’s one of those things where especially for our organization, we’d gained momentum each year, and then last season got cut short,” says Mike Dempster, club manager and president.

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“We had plans on improving our roster and taking the next step to win the league championship and even provincials, so it’s all a bit of a blow.”

Dempster says with what public health guidelines were dictating the league must do to carry on in 2020/21, it just didn’t make sense to force things.

Restrictions included limiting roster size and barring affiliate players. It also would’ve meant playing a pair of weekend games before sitting out two weeks before playing again.

This is the same method that will try to be employed in the junior and minor hockey ranks.

“For senior hockey, it’d so hard to coordinate with people’s jobs and lives,” Dempster says. “We have parents who are in a cohort coaching, and then they’re going to be in a cohort playing for us, which makes the whole situation that much more difficult.”

Perhaps the tallest hurdle is having no fans, he notes, because the Rustlers and all other teams rely so heavily on what revenue tickets bring in.

On a bright note, Dempster is not under the impression that any of the league’s teams are in jeopardy financially, looking ahead to an eventual 2021/22 season.

Though the Rustlers won’t be on the ice, Dempster says they will be out and about.

“We do have plan to stay relevant within the community. We’ve built our organization under the idea that we’ll give as much back as possible,” he says. “Nothing’s set in stone yet, but we will keep fundraising, keep our name out there and hopefully when do get to come back, the fans will be there.”

2020 marked the first year since the league began play in 1995/96 that no Vanberg Cup champ has been crowned, and 2020/21 will be the first season since the league’s inception that won’t be played.