I write this today because my phone has been ringing off the hook from players and parents wanting to know whats going on with the NOJHL, the Espanola Rivermen and the proposed CIJHL.
There has been a lot of “talk” recently concerning a proposed start up league potentially named the CIJHL. The talk centers around The NOJHL’s Espanola Rivermen notifying the NOJHL that they would be leaving the league at the end of the season and starting this new CIJHL.
So lets look at the facts and not the rhetoric being bandied about through other news sources and those who may have a paid sponsor bias toward the Espanola Rivermen’s cause to develop the CIJHL.
This is not to say people are not entitled to their opinions, but opinions should not be used to influence the direction of a league, a team, players or fans.
The Rivermen and CIJHL facts are easy to see;
Clayden has been suspended by the NOJHL. He doesn’t like the NOJHL commissioner, or the way he feels he has been treated. Fair enough. Clayden wants to take his team and start a new league called the CIJHL. Again, fair enough. Its his team, he can do what he wants with it.
The Rivermen may be playing some type of interlocking schedule with the MWJHL sanctioned under AAU. Great, good for the Rivermen good for the MWJHL.
The CIJHL has yet to name any team membership other than the possibility of the Rivermen being a part of it. Right now membership in the CIJHL would total one team if the Rivermen are committed.
The myth that the Rivermen moving to this league will destroy the NOJHL is just that, a myth.
The NOJHL facts are also easy to see;
The NOJHL is an eight team league with the Rivermen, and a seven team league without them. That doesn’t look like a make or break proposition to anyone with a rational thinking mind.
The NOJHL is moving players on to NCAA and CIS programs every year. That hasn’t stopped this year and wont stop next year. The NOJHL is looking to add more teams to replace the Rivermen and increase the league membership for next year.
The myth that the NOJHL is not strong without the Rivermen is just another myth.
The independent truth to the level of play in the NOJHL compared to the Tier III level of play offered in a league such as the MWJHL is that the NOJHL is superior in every way. Not a knock on the MWJHL, but it is what it is. Tier III is not Junior A or Tier II, period.
The thought that playing some games in the United States will increase scouting by the NCAA and CIS programs is not founded in any fact. Scouting will always gravitate to the highest caliber of play and then work its way down, period. Junior A will always come before Tier III.
Are players from the United States going to be forced out of Canadian Junior A hockey or the NOJHL specifically? NO. Have the number of import players been reduced by Hockey Canada? Yes. Hockey Canada is not about to take the drastic step of eliminating United States born players from Junior A hockey in Canada because they are not so stupid to think that eliminating those players will help programs grow.
The truth is that more United States Citizen junior hockey players played in Canada this year than ever before. That fact comes from USA Hockey who tracks the number of players entering Canada through transfer agreements.
Whether its a team in the United States or Canada shouldn’t the majority of players be from the home country anyway? If you cant recruit at home, what makes you think you can recruit across borders and maintain the highest level of play possible? Does anyone really believe the best European players will come to the United States or Canada to pay to play? If you do, then you probably don’t understand that the best players play for free in Europe.
People talk about “The European Player Market”. Read the phrase again.
It is called “The European Player Market” because it is a “Market”, a place to do business in the pay to play hockey model. That’s all it is. Its not some mythical, magical place where top level players fall from the sky to come to North America to pay to play hockey. It is a place where fringe players come looking for exposure to something better than they were offered in Europe and nothing more. The next Ovechkin is not coming to pay to play hockey.
So, lets just say what all of this is, the NOJHL and Espanola Rivermen are getting a divorce. Divorces are ugly and there is always two sides to every story while the truth lies somewhere in the middle. In the end people move on.
Joseph Kolodziej – Publisher
