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By Josh Hall | @Vancan19

AJHL CANCELS GAMES

Five AJHL teams to become members of BCHL

Jan 20, 2024 | 2:11 PM

UPDATE (see original below) – 5 p.m., Jan. 20 — The AJHL has announced it is cancelling a batch of games involving member clubs who are reportedly leaving to join the BCHL for the 2024-2025 season.

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Five AJHL teams are exiting the league and are to join the BCHL.

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The news first came out Friday night via two reports from reputable sources (seen below) on X, and was affirmed by the BCHL Saturday afternoon.

“The British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) has announced that it has come to terms with five Alberta-based teams to join the league for the 2024-25 season,” the BCHL says in a statement.

“The teams that have committed to terms include the Blackfalds Bulldogs, Brooks Bandits, Okotoks Oilers, Sherwood Park Crusaders and Spruce Grove Saints. Further information, such as league structure, will be announced in the coming weeks. There will be no further comment until more information is available.”

As of Saturday morning, rdnewsNOW has reached out to the Bulldogs, both leagues, and Hockey Alberta.

Both the Bulldogs and AJHL told rdnewsNOW late Friday night that they have no comment on the news at this time. That said, Blackfalds, Brooks and Spruce Grove have each shared the BCHL’s statements on their Facebook pages, as of 2 p.m. Saturday.

Brooks, Sherwood Park, Okotoks and Blackfalds currently comprise the league’s top four teams, while Spruce Grove sits 12th. Brooks is also the three-time reigning AJHL champion, while Okotoks is set to host the national Jr. ‘A’ championship, the Centennial Cup, in 2025.

The last time one of the five teams named wasn’t the league champion was 2009; Spruce Grove has won five league titles since then, and Brooks has won the remaining seven.

The news come nearly a year after the BC Hockey League went independent, detaching itself from the arms of Hockey Canada.

At the time, the league affirmed its mission is to build a world class college-track junior league for players seeking NCAA and U Sport scholarships, and to establish a tier of hockey that has not been seen in Canada.

The BCHL also said at the time that there were challenges with the Hockey Canada system which restrict options for U18 players.

The noted challenges were:

• If a U18 player signs with a Major Junior team in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), it disqualifies them from US colleges because the NCAA considers the CHL a professional league.
• If a U18 player decides to keep their eligibility and play Junior A instead, they are restricted to playing only in their province of residence (note: this isn’t a restriction for players in the CHL and the Canadian Sport School Hockey League (CSSHL) which includes players from the U15-U18 divisions.
• If a U18 player does not have a competitive junior option in their own province, they are often forced to leave Canada to play in the USHL or NAHL to find better competition, while maintaining NCAA eligibility. Or they must uproot their family at a significant cost to move provinces.

The new era of BCHL hockey, the league said last spring, would include more scholarships, new events, a larger player pool, higher standards, and league office reorganization.

The BCHL currently has 16 teams, all within the province, and since it was the only Jr. ‘A’ league in B.C., BC Hockey announced in July that it was promoting the KIJHL, PJHL and VIJHL from Jr. ‘B’ to Jr. ‘A’ status.

If rdnewsNOW receives further responses to our inquiries in the near future, we will update this story.