What could be better than being declared the Alberta Junior Hockey League champion?
How about being the Western Canadian Champion? Or even the National Junior A Champion?
The Canadian Junior Hockey League, an umbrella that includes junior hockey leagues from across Canada, announced on January 16 the creation of new playoffs that will include the top teams from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
The champions of each provincial league will join a selected host team and compete for the honour of being the Western Canadian Champions. The tournament will include a round-robin schedule followed by two semifinal games and a championship game.
The champion and the runner-up would then represent Western Canada at the RBC Cup National Junior A Championship.
“Congratulations to the four western leagues on this significant step in the growth of Junior A hockey in Western Canada and across the country,” said CJHL Chairman Kirk Lamb. “The new championship format will create a tremendous opportunity to showcase our players, teams and communities and is yet another example of the strengthening relationship among Junior A leagues in Canada. I commend the four western leagues on partnering together in the development of this initiative.”
The tournament will start in 2013 and will be hosted in Nanaimo, B.C. It won’t be until 2015 that the tournament will come to Alberta.
For example, should the Drumheller Dragons win the AJHL championship, they would go on to compete for the Western Canadian Championship and could go on be declared the National Junior A Champions.
Cheer the Dragons hard and Drumheller could reign over Canada as hockey champions.
