Junior B hockey sees some hierarchical changes
Junior B hockey in Ontario will have a new commissioner when it returns to the ice.
Sunday, Feb. 21, had been set as the deadline for applications to fill the vacancy created by Mark Tuck’s decision to step down after more than three years overseeing the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League.
As chief executive of the 26team league, the successful candidate, who will earn between $75,000 to $100,000 annually, depending on experience, will be responsible for general supervision and direction of all league business.
He or she will report directly to the league’s board of directors and, when available, preside at board meetings, according to a job description posted on the GOJHL website.
Until Tuck’s successor is hired, Caledonia Corvairs vicepresident Scott Miller will serve as interim commissioner.
Directors appointed Miller to fill the void in a board meeting Tuesday. In the virtual meeting, Tim Simmons, a board member and director of hockey operations for the London Nationals, was named interim chair, following the departure of Joe Daniels, and Niagara Falls Canucks owner-head coach Frank Pietrangelo was added to the board.
Tuck, who first joined the league in 2009, will continue handling some duties, including serving as a league’s liaison with Hockey Canada.
“I’m sure we will have a commissioner in place soon but, in the meantime, nothing really has changed as we have the ability to continue as we were for the short term — especially, this year without a season starting yet,” Pietrangelo said in an interview.
How soon a league that hasn’t played since the 2019-20 playoffs were cancelled in midmarch due to COVID -19 can return is out of its control. It all depends, Pietrangelo said, on where various regions fall within the Ontario government’s colour-coded reopening from a second lockdown.
“For example, if we are in orange, or lower, we can get back into some types of games, etc., as we were going before the lockdown,” he said. “However, if we are in red or grey, then we would be limited in what we can do — numbers on the ice, etc.
“We can’t make any concrete decisions until we know what we can — and cannot — do.”
Before a provincewide lockdown was imposed on Boxing Day and, following that, a state of emergency, the Canucks were among the junior B clubs partnering with a team from the same public health unit and playing controlled scrimmages without spectators. A maximum of 50 people, including coaches and team staff, were permitted in the arenas and contact was prohibited.
The Fort Erie Meteors, Pelham Panthers, St. Catharines and Thorold Blackhawks also formed cohorts for controlled scrimmages, while the Welland Jr. Canadians, the other junior B team in Niagara Region, opted not to play this year.
Also receiving a one-year leave of absence from the league were the Buffalo Regals, the only franchise based in the United States.