The B.C. Hockey League deals in skates and sticks. But it has put on boxing gloves now, too, and come out punching against observers who say the league’s outlook has suddenly become dim and dire.
The landscape shifted dramatically for the BCHL with this month’s ruling by the U.S. collegiate NCAA allowing players from the major-junior Canadian Hockey League. That used to be the BCHL’s biggest advantage as a major source of players to NCAA Div. 1 hockey. But with a stroke of a pen, that has been taken away. Already leaking players in the weeks following the NCAA decision — media reports indicate 14 players have left the BCHL to join CHL teams in the three weeks since the NCAA decision — the BCHL governors convened this week in an emergency meeting to discuss the issue.
“There is universal acknowledgment that things have changed and we need to adapt,” said David Michaud, president and governor of the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies.
“So much of our identity is tied up with producing players for the NCAA. That might change a bit. If our numbers in that regard go down a bit, does that mean we are doing a bad job? No, it’s just going to be different and we may get older as a league, but that will make for better hockey for the fans on a nightly basis.”
There is another factor Michaud noted: “We will need to adapt but the BCHL has been around for 63 years developing players, and we have decades-long relationships with [NCAA] schools and that is not going to vanish overnight.”
Those are connections the BCHL would like to keep as much as possible. There’s a prestige factor to that as the NCAA has risen to nearly equal the CHL in terms of players selected annually in the NHL draft. The Grizzlies have lived that with two alumni players who are recent Team Canada world junior championship players and first-round NHL draft picks — forward Alex Newhook in 2019 via Boston College and forward Matthew Wood in 2023 via the University of Connecticut Huskies and now the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.
“I’m up to every challenge, including this new ruling [by the NCAA regarding the CHL]. It is part of the ups and downs of sport,” said Grizzlies owner Jim Hartshorne.
“Good programs will continue to get the best players, regardless of the leagues.”
Hartshorne said that’s why the Grizzlies have invested in a new team bus and improvements to the dressing room in The Q Centre: “Players want to come if they feel an organization cares about providing them an environment that enhances their development and playing experience.”
Michaud added augmented staff personnel hirings such as skating coaches and full-time athletic trainers will be important to attract and keep top playes: “Teams will need to invest in those areas, and the ones that do, will have success. We will always be an attractive league but we need to invest in player development.”
The thing nobody in the BCHL is denying, or can deny, is that the biggest seismic shift has occurred in the six-plus-decade history of the venerable junior circuit. Players interested in the NCAA route no longer have to avoid the CHL to get there. All avenues are now open to them. How the BCHL reacts to that development will decide its future.
ON THE ICE: The Grizzlies (11-5-3) host the West Kelowna Warriors (8-9-4) tonight and Coquitlam Express (12-5-3) on Saturday night, both at The Q Centre. The Kings (4-13-3) host the Alberni Valley Bulldogs (13-6-1) tonight in Powell River while the Express is at the Cowichan Community Centre to play the Capitals (9-9-2) and the Nanaimo Clippers (8-9-2) are in Langley to play the Rivermen (9-7-5). … Grizzlies forward Tobias Pitka, committed to Boston College of the NCAA, has been invited to the Slovakian selection camp for the 2025 world junior championship tournament beginning Boxing Day in Ottawa. The 18-year-old Pitka has 15 points in 15 games this season for the Grizzlies.
