Lacombe Generals pulling out of Allan Cup Hockey West

The decision by the Generals comes after the Rosetown Redwings withdrew from the league earlier this month and the Fort Saskatchewan Chiefs folded mid-season, leaving the Innisfail Eagles and Stony Plain Eagles as the only remaining ACHW teams.

(Supplied)

McInnis says the timing of their decision makes it even tougher to swallow.

“We just had the best Allan Cup we think we’ve ever seen and now we have no one to play. We have all this momentum, all these people, volunteers, fans, coaches, players, everything in place to keep going and no one to play.”

McInnis says change is long overdue in order to make Senior AAA hockey viable across Canada.

“We’ve been writing letters and begging for change for years as we saw the shrinkage, as we saw the reduced amount of participating teams,” he noted. “We need people to step up and run teams, but there are rules that prohibit or don’t foster growth, and I’ve talked about it ad nauseam. We need help. We’ve run out of teams to play.”

McInnis continued, “I understand that we’ve been noisy over the years begging for change, and I feel like a failure for not getting more changes made. But we need help and that’s our leadership – Hockey Alberta and Hockey Canada.”

The Bentley Generals franchise started play in 1999 and won the Allan Cup in 2009, 2013 and 2016 before moving to Lacombe for the 2016-17 season.

“From Clarenville, Newfoundland to Powell River, B.C. and all points in between, we’ve had a lot of fun,” McInnis reminisced. “But all those teams are gone now… we miss all those people and all those teams.”

Innisfail Eagles GM Ryan Dodd says they were surprised by Lacombe’s announcement.

“To be blindsided not just once, but twice (with Rosetown) is unfortunate. Especially after having such a phenomenal tournament put on by Lacombe, and having Innisfail in Lacombe in the final and Rosetown right there,” Dodd said.

“It’s really a shock because Lacombe’s organization had preached to all of us that we all had to stand together and be united if we wanted to keep Senior AAA status going. Then boom, they’re gone.”

Dodd says his team has inquired about joining the North Central Hockey League (NCHL, Senior AA), but says they plan to keep their Senior AAA status.

“I’m pretty sure I can speak for Stony Plain on this as well, because I just had a conversation with Rob (Sklaruk, team GM), we’re not dropping our triple-A status. We are going to play for the Allan Cup next year,” he emphasized.

NCHL President Jerry Muise says Innisfail applied last month to join the league as a Senior AAA club but was denied.

“We have a bylaw that says there are no triple-A teams allowed in the NCHL, which our teams could change if they chose to,” Muise explained, noting Innisfail has since reached out a second time.

“I think our teams would be open to playing exhibition games with them (Innisfail, Stony Plain) for one year to see how it works out and how the games go before we look at possibly letting them into the league full-time,” Muise suggests.

Fort Saskatchewan applied to join the NCHL as a double-A team for 2019-20 and was accepted.

If the Generals go that route, McInnis says it would be under a new management group.

“We would like to see that happen but it won’t be Jeff McInnis and (team president) Wes Gyori, the crew that runs the current team.”

A meeting took place Tuesday morning between Hockey Alberta, Innisfail Eagles and Stony Plain Eagles representatives to discuss future options.

Allan Cup Hockey West is scheduled to hold its annual general meeting this Saturday.

by Troy Gillard

Lacombe Generals pulling out of Allan Cup Hockey West

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