SJHL keeping close eye on BCHL’s split from Hockey Canada

There’s a breakaway going on that has the SJHL’s attention.

The BCHL announced Monday it was splitting off from Hockey Canada as of June 1, a move the league believes will offer more options to players under the age of 18 who eventually want to play in the NCAA.

With the move, the BCHL’s 18 teams will be able to recruit 16- and 17-year-old players from other provinces. Hockey Canada regulations don’t permit that kind of recruiting, and say any player who wants to play junior A hockey must do so in their home province.

SJHL commissioner Kyle McIntyre isn’t sure if the BCHL’s move will have an impact on his league.

“It could. I sure hope not, but it certainly could,” McIntyre told The Green Zone’s Jamie Nye on Thursday before offering a warning to potential BCHL prospects.

“If there were any parents or players that were contemplating a move to British Columbia to the BCHL, I strongly encourage you to do as much homework as possible. It might be a great fit for your child, but make sure that you have all the facts available and you know what the repercussions are before you make that decision to move.”

The biggest repercussion McIntyre pointed to involves high-performance events. He noted that anyone who plays in a non-sanctioned junior A league can’t participate in Hockey Canada events like the World Junior A Challenge or the Centennial Cup.

“If you’re a kid who’s a high-end player and you have opportunities to go on and play at a high level with Hockey Canada, you probably don’t want to make this decision (of going to the BCHL) too lightly,” McIntyre said.

The BCHL hasn’t competed in the Centennial Cup — the national junior A championship tournament — since the league withdrew its membership in the Canadian Junior Hockey League in 2021.

When it comes to the SJHL, McIntyre believes the BCHL’s decision could produce pros and cons for his league.

“Cons might be that we might be losing some of our players from our league who might feel that there’s better opportunity in B.C.,” he said. “A pro would be we might have more players from B.C. now, or players who were once from Saskatchewan or Alberta, wanting to come back to the SJHL.”

Hockey Canada’s affiliated branches — including Hockey Saskatchewan — don’t release players under the age of 18 so they can play in another branch. Those kids are still in school, McIntyre said, and the goal is to limit the disruptions in their lives.

Leaving the Hockey Canada umbrella will allow the BCHL to pluck players under the age of 18 from other provinces if they’re interested in moving west.

“The biggest thing that (league officials) want to do is they don’t want to have restrictions on their roster,” McIntyre said. “They want to be able to have more American kids play, to have more kids from Europe or Asia or other parts of the world, and also to not be restricted by certain local quotas for their league.”

McIntyre couldn’t hazard a guess as to why the BCHL wanted to follow that route, especially given the SJHL’s mantra.

“Ours is ‘Stay here, play here’ and we want to put the ‘Saskatchewan’ back in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League,” he said. “And I’m proud of that commitment. This year, we’ve had an exceptional year in terms of our commitments of players to continue with hockey at a post-secondary level.

“Right now, we have 20 (NCAA) Division 1 scholarships that have been handed out, we have 13 NCAA Division 3 (scholarships), we have six from U Sports, we have six from the (Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference) and we have one from the (American Collegiate Hockey Association). We’re still putting out a lot of scholarships here for players that play in our league.

“I think we’re doing a better job of marketing our league and marketing our players and our teams. I’m biased, of course, but I think the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League is doing quite well.”

Even so, McIntyre said the league is pondering the implementation of programs to strengthen its 12 teams — and off the ice as much as on.

“We’re looking at raising the level of performance of all of our franchises so that we’re all stable and fiscally solvent, and we all have great opportunities for the kids who are on our list or the kids who are playing in our organization,” he said.