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Spruce Kings Move to Coastal Conference

By
Friday, January 20, 2012 @ 12:43 PM
Prince George, B.C.-   When the new  BCHL season starts next year, the Spruce Kings will find themselves in a new division.
 
The Governors for the BCHL have realigned the conferences to allow for 10 teams in the “Coastal Conference” which will be split into two Divisions. The two divisions will be the Mainland Division,  which  will be made up of the Spruce Kings,  Coquitlam, Surrey, Langley and Chilliwack and Prince George. The Island division will be made up of Victoria, Cowichan Valley, Nanaimo,  Alberni Valley and Powell River.
 
Prince George will be given the option to return to the Interior Conference after the conclusion of the 2013 playoffs.
 
With Prince George and Chilliwack set to join the Coastal Conference, the new Interior Conference will include the remaining teams: Merritt, Trail, Penticton, Vernon, Salmon Arm and Westside.
 
“These decisions were not made in haste and came only after lengthy debate by our governors,” said BCHL commissioner John Grisdale. “The BCHL considers itself an innovator and model for Junior A hockey in Canada and these decisions, not all of them unanimous, have been made with the intention of ensuring the long-term viability of our league.”

The Governors have also agreed to reduce the number of regular season games from 60 to 56. This will decrease the number of mid-week games.

 

There will be a  showcase event held Sept. 7 to 9 at a site yet to be determined. The showcase is similar to events held in the Alberta and Saskatchewan Junior Hockey leagues where college and professional scouts are invited. Showcase results will count in the regular season standings. Each BCHL team will play two games at the event meaning all teams, except the host of the showcase, will then have 27 home dates in the 2012-13 season. Any revenues from the showcase will be split up amongst the league’s 16 clubs. Teams are being asked to submit by Feb. 1 their bids to host the event.
 
Another motion that passed was the decision to move the start of the regular season to Sept. 14, 2012. This will mark the date that the standard BCHL regular-season format shall commence though by that point, two regular season games will have been played at the showcase event by each team.
 
The season will end March 10, 2013 which means the coming season is two weeks longer than normal. This also will allow more games to be scheduled on prime nights rather than mid week.

Posted on Friday, January 20, 2012 @ 12:43 PM in Sports by

Comments

Posted on Friday, January 20, 2012 @ 12:50 PM by darkken with a score of 0

Sounds like the BCHL wants to get rid of Prince George. How stupid is it to increase their travel schedule even more than it is now….I can sure see the natural rivalry with Langley and Surrey (sarcasm). What it looks like they are doing is trying to kill the Prince George franchise so they can move it into a coastal city and dont have to rejig the Conferences.

This is beyond moronic.

Posted on Friday, January 20, 2012 @ 3:18 PM by Mitch2 with a score of 0

I think you are right on the button darkken. The BCHL looks like they are driving up costs to put the kings out of business. I wonder how the kings are able to survive now. This travel schedule makes it even tougher.

I bet the kings will want a break in the rent they pay to the city just like the cougs across town. The up side is that when the Kings go bankrupt and the cougs move outta town there will be lots of prime time ice for us rec hockey players.

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