New fighting rule sucker punches AJHL

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A rule change to Junior A hockey for the upcoming season has left owners in the Alberta Junior Hockey League feeling like they've been fed so many rights they're begging for a left. Hockey Canada has imposed a new one fight rule for Junior A hockey across the country, meaning if you drop the gloves, you get the gate.  

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Lamb Elevated to President of CJHL

The Canadian Junior Hockey League has hired Kirk Lamb to be its first ever President. Lamb is no stranger to the 10-league CJHL as he's been the Volunteer Chairman for the past 20 months.

The CJHL's official release can be found here.

Lamb, a former member of the AJHL's Bonnyville Pontiacs, is a Calgary-based lawyer who played NCAA hockey for the Princeton Tigers before a short pro career in the ECHL. 

He was a guest on The Pipeline Show just a couple of days ago and talked about some of the challenges facing the CJHL as he tries to bring more symmetry across the multiple leagues in Canada. We also spoke about the need for CJHL clubs to share in the lucrative development money that Major Junior teams enjoy for producing NHL drafted talent.

You can hear that interview HERE.  

Leagues Enjoy Draft Success

211 players were selected at the 2012 NHL Draft and they come from all over North America and Europe. Some have been playing professionally in place like Sweden or the Czech Republic, others are headed to or already are collegians. Nearly half played in the Canadian Hockey League while a good number were found in American high schools or in the USHL. 

This is not a post meant to compare the numbers by league in order to pronounce one superior to others. What follows is simply a celebration of the diverse paths players can take on their way to achieving their dream of perhaps one day playing in the NHL. 

A Few Match Ups We'd Like to See

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Tuesday night we had a fun discussion spurred on by this tweet from a listener.

rckaplan rob
"@ThePipelineShow How bout let the ushl play for the memorial cup?"
23 Aug

Guy and I chatted about the question and both agreed that while the USHL is a very good league it is not equal to the CHL. The USHL is more comparable to the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL) which includes Tier 1 junior leagues from B.C. to the Maritimes.

I was surprised to hear so many people disagree with us through Twitter, but enjoyed their reasoning. So we wondered about other league vs league games we might want to see or that are fair match ups.

The NCAA Comes North

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Remember last month how Paul Kelly and College Hockey Inc. were mysteriously absent from the World Hockey Summit in Toronto? We had Mr. Kelly on the The Pipeline Show that week to discuss the matter. Well, the NCAA will get its time in the Ontario limelight after all as College Hockey Inc. has created the “NCAA Collegiate Hockey Summit” for this weekend.

Vernon Wins RBC Cup Again

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The Vernon Vipers have captured their second consecutive RBC Cup title after defeating the host Dauphin Kings in a 8-1 drubbing today in Manitoba. It is the 6th national title for the club since it first won the national Jr. A championship in 1990. The team is now a perfect 6-0 when in the final game.

Vernon went 3-1 through the round robin portion of the tournament, the loss coming at the hands of the Kings in the opening game back on May 1st. The Vipers rattled off 5 straight victories including 4-2 over La Ronge, 5-3 against Oakville, 4-2 over Brockville. Vernon shutout Brockville 2-0 in the semi-finals before trouncing Dauphin in their own rink.

Paul Kelly:CHL teams are paying players under the table

Paul Kelly was briefly in charge of directing NHL players as head of the NHLPA. He's now working for a league, and hoping to keep college hockey players in college instead of the growing trend that has mostly American players bolting their NCAA commitments for the CHL. Kelly is now the Executive Director with College Hockey Inc.

Canada is the World Junior capital

At the conclusion of the senior World Hockey Championship today it was announced that the IIHF has awarded Canada even more World Junior Championships than the 2010 and 2012 tournaments our country is already hosting in Regina/Saskatoon and Edmonton/Calgary respectively.

You can add the 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021 events to the list as well. Expect Toronto to get one tournament after they lost out recently to the Alberta bid. Winnipeg and Halifax will also get consideration after successful shows in the past. How about Montreal or Quebec? Why not go north? Alaska held it once. Let's have it in Tuktoyaktuk...okay that's silly as the whole idea for going to Canada so much is the events sell out and there is a ticket sharing program between Hockey Canada, IIHF and the member countries.

One other Hockey Canada note. A new partnership was announced today that is being described as "Ground Breaking" and will see the NHL try and give Junior A hockey a boost.

Hockey Canada, the CJHL and the NHL will team up to expose the 10 leagues and 143 Junior A teams even more. Events like the World Junior A Challenge that was held in Camrose last year will get more hype as will the CJHL top prospect game and the RBC Cup - who's final is tonight by the way between Vernon and Humboldt - in hopes of growing the game and players at the Tier II level. The program will see more NHL central scouting bird dogs take in more Junior A games.