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Photo Courtesy Brooks Bandits Social Media
By Tanner Smith
BCHL Alberta Division

Ex-AJHL teams start B.C. league campaigns this weekend, sparking new era of Junior A hockey

Feb 2, 2024 | 2:49 PM

Five former AJHL teams kicking off their campaigns in the British Columbia Hockey League on Friday mark a new era of high-level Junior A game play in Canada.

That’s according to BCHL CEO Chris Hebb, who said the merge is sparking excitement in junior hockey.

“First of all, the five teams coming in are high end teams that want to get better, that want to play at a level of hockey that we haven’t seen before in Canada at the Junior A level,” Hebb told CHAT News.

Hebb said in the BCHL players are more likely to be picked up by U.S. colleges competing in the NCAA — the American equivalent to the major junior Canadian Hockey League.

“We have the highest number of college commitments every year of any league in Canada,” he said.

“We think that putting the best players on the ice is what we’re supposed to do and then get them college commitments.”

Originally, the five defecting teams were set to join the BCHL next season.

The information was leaked early, causing the AJHL to cancel games including those five teams.

Hebb said the BCHL then rushed to get franchise agreements signed with those five teams, so they could get the players back on the ice.

With those agreements being official, the Brooks Bandits will hit the ice for the first time in their new league on Sunday.

“We’re so looking forward to seeing Brooks playing our BCHL teams,” Hebb explained.

“The only time we ever got to play them in meaningful games was in the Doyle Cup at the end of the season. Now we’re going to get to see them in our rinks and they’re going to host our teams and I think the excitement around this is going to be great for the fans.”

Last year, the BCHL departed from Hockey Canada.

Hebb said that without Hockey Canada restricting expansion outside of the province, they believe they can continue to grow the league. For the time being, there is no plan to do that.

The AJHL did release this statement on Feb. 1 regarding the five teams’ decision to depart from the league:

Photo Courtesy AJHL
by Tanner Smith