The B.C. Hockey League is expanding, not in the province, but across the border into Alberta.
The BCHL announced Saturday that five current Alberta Junior Hockey League teams will join the BCHL. They include the Brooks Bandits, the defending and four-time Canadian Junior A champions since 2013, who produced NHL star defenceman Cale Makar. The other teams are the Blackfalds Bulldogs, Okotoks Oilers, Sherwood Park Crusaders and Spruce Grove Saints. They are considered the top franchises in the AJHL.
“Further information, such as league structure, will be announced in the coming weeks,” the BCHL said in a statement. “There will be no further comment until more information is available.”
The AJHL responded on X that it had not received official notice from the five teams and all games on Saturday and Sunday involving the Bandits, Bulldogs, Oilers, Crusaders and Saints were being cancelled.
It is another stunning blow for Hockey Canada, which lost the BCHL when the league went independent this season over issues including player recruitment rules. Hockey Canada now appears set to lose five AJHL teams.
The crux of the issue is a glaring discrepancy regarding 16- and 17-year-old players. Under Hockey Canada rules, those players are not allowed to play for out-of-province Junior A teams unless their parents live in that province or relocate to it. There are no such family-residency requirements for 16- and 17-year olds in major-junior hockey in the WHL, OHL or QMJHL.
“We are entering a new era that will eliminate barriers and change the landscape of junior hockey in Canada,” BCHL chairman Graham Fraser said when the BCHL announced it was bolting last May.
BCHL teams are now able to recruit any under-18 players in the country who are interested in the Junior A route. Many of those players previously went to the American-based USHL or NAHL due to the provincial cross-border restrictions in Canada.
“We believe U-18 players should have two development paths in Canada — major-junior leading to the NHL being one and college-tracking junior leading to a U.S. college and then the NHL being the other,” BCHL CEO Chris Hebb said last May. “Both are important. Both should be supported.”
The BCHL said in December there are a record 193 league players this 2023-24 season committed to U.S. collegiate NCAA Div. 1 teams. There were 411 BCHL alumni on NCAA rosters last season, which accounted for nearly one-quarter of all the players in Division 1. A total of 104 former BCHL players skated in the 2023 NCAA Div. 1 tournament, including 14 on the champion Quinnipiac squad.
The Island teams in the BCHL are the Victoria Grizzlies, Cowichan Valley Capitals, Nanaimo Clippers and Alberni Valley Bulldogs.
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