It appears as though the NOJHL’s Espanola Rivermen will be getting their wish in leaving the NOJHL for their newly minted Canadian International Junior Hockey League.
Multiple sources throughout Ontario are reporting that Espanola Rivermen Owner Tim Clayden has indeed rounded up enough potential ownership groups to get his league off the ground for the 2014-2015 season. Those same sources are also reporting that not all of these potential owners have secured leases within their prospective arenas.
The proposed league would hope to feature Clayden’s Espanola Rivermen as well as entries from Ontario communities of Barrie, Bracebridge, Colborne, Collingwood, Markham, Milton, Sudbury, Timmins and Wexford.
While the CIJHL would represent a change for Espanola, the concept is certainly not new. The MWJHL and WSHL operate under the AAU umbrella in the United States and have opened their rosters to Europeans underneath this umbrella while increasing the number of import players allowed to be on a within those leagues.
The GMHL is an independent league in Canada that operates under a similar model without coming under the AAU umbrella.
While the concept of playing outside of USA Hockey or Hockey Canada is not new, it is certainly also not one that is readily accepted in the hockey community. Although the MWJHL has recently placed a few players into NCAA D-3 programs it is not a NCAA D-1 player development league.
The question that the new league will be asked most, and will not be easy to answer is what level of play will the league fall into?
You can not call it Junior A or Tier II hockey, because consumers will then compare it to what they already recognize as Junior A or Tier II. Can you call it Junior B or Tier III? Canadian families are familiar with Junior B and some are getting more familiar with Tier III, but would these teams under this new structure be able to compete with those Junior B or Tier III teams that are well established? Its not likely.
Another matter of concern is upon leaving the Hockey Canada family, all Espanola Rivermen players will become free agents and have the ability to sign with any other Hockey Canada or NOJHL team. It is highly unlikely that many of these players will see the CIJHL as being on par with the NOJHL in level of play.
While AAU offers a fantastic insurance package for players, it does not offer the structure that Hockey Canada provides in the form of a governing body.
Right now the Rivermen are a Junior A or Tier II franchise. The MWJHL is a Tier III league. What if, the talent level drops, and some inter league play finds the Rivermen on the wrong end of the score board? What will that say about the value of the franchise and level of play?
Where are 200 or so players going to come from to fill these rosters? With the GMHL expanding in Ontario as well, and being more established than the upstart CIJHL, players are more likely to gravitate toward the GMHL simply based upon their track record of survival.
With WSHL expansion in the United States, a league that has proven to be very good at developing players under AAU, the idea of having more American players available to move to Canada is not supported by the numbers.
There are many questions to be answered in a short period of time. All of this while the NOJHL Rivermen are fighting to stay alive in the playoffs.
While hockey without borders and playing cross border games is a great idea, right now it is only an idea that has yet to be proven.
Does anyone remember how the GMHL Elliot Lake Bobcats faired when they tried to take those players to the NOJHL? Not a very good result. A start up league such as this will not even approach the GMHL level of play. For those expecting a higher caliber of play than the NOJHL offers, you have your example to look back on.
