Midget Cats not concerned about junior B expansion

Now that Quesnel has a new arena, the 1,300-seat West Fraser Centre, a group in Quesnel has renewed its push to apply for an expansion franchise in the Kootenay International Junior (B) Hockey League for next season.

Last January, KIJHL expansion bids from Quesnel headed by Matt Kolle, the assistant general manager of the Kamloops Storm, as well as Williams Lake bid championed by Rob Sandrock, were voted down by the 20-team league and both groups vowed to continue pursuing franchise opportunities. Sources told the Citizen that Kolle submitted a new bid last week but Williams Lake has not yet reapplied.

Having two new junior teams in the region competing for 16-and17-year-old talent could draw players away from the Prince George-based Cariboo Cougars major midget team but Cougars general manager Trevor Sprague does not foresee junior B expansion into north central B.C. as a threat.

Sprague is convinced KIJHL teams, if they ever do surface in Quesnel or Williams Lake, will instead focus on loading their rosters with older junior-aged players players (up to age 20) to be more competitive and draw more fans to the arenas.

Sprague says the emphasis in the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League is on developing 15-17-year-old players and moving them on to ju- nior A or Western Hockey League. That remains the top priority of the league and he says that philosophy will continue to attract the top midget-aged prospects to the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League.

Unlike junior B teams, he says midget teams don’t have to raise revenue through tickets sales to keep their teams operating. The WHL sponsors the major midget teams and parents pay the bulk of what it costs to play in the major midget league, which allows teams to devote more time and effort into developing young players to help them make the jump to the junior ranks

“We’re not in the business to make money,” said Sprague. “In our league you have guys who have been drafted in the first round into the Western Hockey League that play in our league and right off the bat the quality of players is better.”

Sprague says the exposure players in the BCHMML receive from scouts who represent higher leagues exceeds what they would find playing in the KIJHL or the three other junior B circuits in B.C. - the Pacific Junior Hockey League, Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League and North West Junior Hockey League.

“We play all over the province in the Kootenays, Vancouver, Vancouver Island, the Okanagan and in the North, so every team in the WHL gets to see us,” said Sprague. “We’re a team that goes to the Mac’s every year. You just get recruited and scouted way more playing in our league because we’re in the whole province.

“There’s a reason why the Western Hockey League sponsors our league. We only have one major midget league with 11 teams and the turnover on our team is huge. We’re pretty proud to say we move more players to the Western Hockey league and junior A than any team in this league.”

Major midget teams in Vancouver Island, the Kootenays and Kamloops have felt the pinch of junior B teams in those regions draining the 16-17-year old talent pool. They struggle to keep pace with the league frontrunners because more of the top-end midget-aged recruits in those regions choose to play for the junior B teams they grew up watching. That junior B tradition does not exist in the north central Interior region, where the major junior Prince George Cougars and junior A Prince George Spruce Kings are the most prominent hockey teams and have been for more than two decades.

Quesnel lost its B.C. Hockey League junior A team in 2011 when the Millionaires were moved to Chilliwack to become the Chiefs. That ended the Mills’ 17-year connection to the B.C. Hockey League.

The Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex was home to the Williams Lake Timberwolves for five seasons when they joined the BCHL as an expansion team in 2002. The team took a two-year leave of absence in 2007 and the franchise relocated to Wenatchee, Wash., from 2007-09, but the team did not play in those two seasons. The T-wolves returned to WIlliams Lake for the 2009-10 season, after which the franchise was suspended and subsequently folded for not being in good standing due to financial reasons. No junior hockey team has called Williams Lake home since then.

Cariboo Cougars head coach Tyler Brough is not worried about the negative impacts of having hockey neighbours in the KIJHL. Ever since the midget team then known as the Cariboo Canucks arrived as part of the B.C. Amateur Hockey Association’s original five-team major midget league in 2004, the team has grown in stature to become an integral part of the local hockey community. The Cougars brought national prominence to the city as winner of the Mac’s Invitational tournament in 2015 and the team hosted the Telus Cup midget national championship last spring. Brough says that long-established tradition of success will keep the best young players in the region coming to Prince George to play midget hockey.

“I think our program speaks for itself,” said Brough. “I think Trevor and the staffs that have been here years before me, and myself and the guys we have now, are working hard to create relationships with these younger players and I think a lot of people in our region still want to be Cariboo Cougars.

“We release a lot of players that move on to junior B from our summer camp so there’s still a lot of players who have a first choice of here and then go to junior B. The boys here get treated as good or better than any junior program I was part of growing up here.”

If the KIJHL does expand its northern borders that would give existing teams in Kamloops and 100 Mile House more competition within the same region. The Kamloops Storm have already played four home games in the new rink in Quesnel and two more games are scheduled there in February.

“If (expansion) does get put in here, I love the challenge for that,” said Sprague. “That’s something we would need to deal with and hopefully have a good relationship.

“100 Mile has a lot of alumni from our hockey club that play there and they end up in junior B. That’s perfect for them because it’s a spot for them to play close to home. At 18, 19 or 20 they have a spot to play and still be close to the north and that’s awesome.”