Hebb heads out on his first BCHL tour
Chris Hebb needed no convincing to realize the BCHL is one of the best junior A leagues in the world.
Apparently a few NHL general managers agree with the newly-hired B.C. Hockey League commissioner. They selected seven BCHL players last month in the draft.
College hockey also has a love affair going with the BCHL. A record 155 players who suited up last season in the 17-team league – including 14 Prince George Spruce Kings – now have their names tied to scholarship agreements, most of them heading to the United States to play for NCAA teams.
The numbers speak for themselves. The pipeline to the college ranks helps teams recruit talented hockey players which raises the overall level of play throughout the league.
Hebb knows he has a quality product on his hands, he just thinks the league has to do a better job of telling the world about what’s going on in BCHL rinks and hype the entertainment value for fans who attend the games. The logical place for him to focus his efforts to raise the profile of the league is Greater Vancouver, where the Surrey, Coquitlam and Langley franchises have struggled to remain prominent in a city with so many sports and entertainment choices.
“This is the best junior A hockey you’re going to see anywhere,” said Hebb.
“We’re going to probably get a kid in the top five of the draft next year (Victoria Grizzlies forward Alex Newhook). This isn’t some fly-by-night league, but I think in Vancouver it’s kind of been treated like that. We’ve had a carousel of owners and a carousel of buildings and I think we’re starting to get some stability now. We’ve got to do a better job of getting people back into the stands in Vancouver.”
Hebb owns his own marketing company – Starting Five Media Consulting Ltd. – and has a background in television and radio as a broadcaster. He worked for 11 years (1993-2005) as an executive who oversaw the broadcast and digital media departments for Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment, the former owners of the Vancouver Canucks and Vancouver Grizzlies NBA team. From there he moved to Toronto and spent nine years with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment as an executive in charge of the broadcast and digital properties for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and Toronto FC.
“My background is marketing and communications and (the BCHL) obviously felt that this was what they needed more than anything,” said Hebb, who took over as commissioner in June to replace John Grisdale, who retired after 15 years at the helm.
“The product is fabulous but we’re just not very good at making people aware of it yet,” Hebb added.
“When I was recruited to come and take a look at the job, I really liked the whole value proposition of kids being able to get the NHL through NCAA without losing eligibility for college. I think it’s a less risky route to the NHL than major junior. Thirty-two per cent of NHL players (now in the league) came through the NCAA. The college route is a direct route to the NHL”
To address some of the concerns team governors expressed to him when he made contact with them the first week he was hired, Hebb vows to open up the channels of communication between the teams and promises league meetings will be better organized.
The fact three of the four league semifinalists last season – Prince George, Wenatchee and Trail had never gotten that far in the playoffs, was a refreshing change for a league accustomed to seeing the likes of Penticton, Vernon, Chiliwack, Nanaimo and Powell River hanging around for the spoils of Fred Page Cup victories.
“That’s good for the league and that’s what we want,” said the 61-year-old Hebb.
“I’d like to have 17 really healthy franchises, all of them able to go into any rink and have a chance of winning and, finally, put a bunch of kids into college or drafted into the NHL. That’s when we’ve all done our job, when a kid gets a chance to do something he otherwise would not be able to do without the B.C. Hockey League.”
The Spruce Kings benefitted financially from their four-round playoff run but that extra gate revenue is never guaranteed and Kings general manager Mike Hawes is looking forward to working with Hebbs to create new sponsorship connections that will help all the teams thrive.
“Teams think they have an expense problem and they’re always cutting expenses and to me teams don’t have an expense problem, they have a revenue problem,” said Hawes.
“We have to work harder at making money as opposed to always cutting, cutting, cutting.”
Hebb, a resident of White Rock who plans to visit all 17 franchises in the next couple months and he’s well aware of the travel involved for BCHL teams. They cover a territory that spans the Lower Mainland/ Sunshine Coast region, southern Vancouver Island, central Washington, the Okanagan and Prince George – the league’s northernmost outpost.
Hebb grew up in Prince Rupert and as a high school basketball star for the Charles Hays Rainmakers he went on to win a CIS title with the University of Victoria Vikes. During that time he spent a lot of time riding buses on icy winter highways and he gained an appreciation for how tough junior hockey schedules can be when he was the play-by-play voice of the WHL Victoria Cougars in 1981-82 while working for the radio station CJVU.
He was a sports anchor and television producer with CKVU (now City TV) and BCTV (now Global BC) early in his career and co-hosted the popular Sport Page half-hour show from 1983-88.
As hard as it was to accept the Humboldt Broncos’ bus tragedy, Hebb saw what the pre-game ceremonies in other hockey cities in honour of the victims did to try to help heal the wounds.
“It brought the country together around grassroots hockey, which is good for everybody,” he said.
“I wanted this trip (to Prince George) to be a driving trip, I wanted to see the geography of the trips these kids have to make in the middle of winter.
“One of the toughest parts of being a kid in this league is how far you have to travel. I’d love to see Mike (Hawes) not have to take his team so far for their first game, but it seems they perform pretty good when they get there.”