Junior hockey coming to NOTL

Nationals expansion franchise will play home games in Virgil

A hockey league that regards its level of play “somewhere between junior C and junior B” is expanding into Niagara Region.

The Niagara-on-the-Lake Nationals are scheduled to play home games out of Meridian Credit Union in Virgil when the Canadian Premier Junior Hockey League’s third season gets underway in September.

Since it is sanctioned by the Amateur Athletic Union in the United States and not by Hockey Canada, it is considered an “outlaw league” in Canada where all but one of the CPJHL’s franchises operate.

The league has eight teams in Ontario, one in Quebec and one playing out of Erie, Pa.

“Initially, we wanted to be part of Hockey Canada, but Hockey Canada wasn’t going to bend on us having important players in our league, so we had to go in a different direction,” said CPJHL commissioner Bryan Elliott, who is based in Port Colborne.

Teams in the 20 and younger league can have a maximum of 10 imports, not including American or Canadian players, on their 25-man rosters. Unlike the Great-

er Ontario Junior Hockey League or the Ontario Hockey League, there presently is no cap on the number of 20-year-olds per team.

Each player in the CPJHL pays an average of $6,000 annually, not including room and board, but Elliott said his league isn’t the only junior hockey organization following a pay-for-play business model.

“Basically, all junior leagues are going to that (pay-for-play),” the commissioner wrote in an email, pointing out players on junior B teams pay upwards of $1,000 in league and Ontario Hockey League fees annually exclusive of any costs assessed by individual teams.

In the GOJHL, each player pays a $750 assessment fee to the league and $395, including HST, to the OHA. On top of that, teams can charge team fees, up to a maximum of $2,355.

The maximum team fee in the Superior International Junior Hockey League last season was $4,500.

Elliott’s hockey experience locally includes coaching junior B with the then Port Colborne Pirates and most recently in the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League with the Niagara Whalers, also based in Port Colborne.

He said after the Niagara-onthe-Lake franchise was introduced that the new kid on the block, the CPJHL, won’t be in competition with the long-established junior B loop.

“The GOJHL is a well-established league that provides a great place for local players to play.”

Elliott said during the fledgling league’s Niagara Showcase, which was held in Port Colborne in February, we invited every GOJHL team to scout our players as they are ‘free’ to them since we have no affiliation with Hockey Canada.”

“If our players feel the GOJHL is a step up for them, then so be it,” he said.

“I would like to say that we are somewhere between junior C and junior B with a few import players that might be even higher than that.”

Spencer DeWolfe is president and head coach of the Niagaraon-the-Lake Nationals.

The 25-year-old St. Catharines native played four seasons in the GOJHL with the St. Catharines Falcons and two seasons with the Niagara Whalers as general manager.

Bernd.Franke@niagaradailies.com 905-225-1624 | @TribSportsDesk