The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) will be implementing a number of on- and off-ice changes next season in an effort to enhance the league among this province’s players and fans.
Bill Chow, president of the SJHL, said one of the major on-ice changes for the 2016-17 season will be the introduction of three-on-three overtime. Chow said they talked about bringing in three-on-three overtime throughout the course of the 2015-16 season and the most curious question that seemed to come up was why they hadn’t implemented it already.
“We’ve seen enough of the three-on-three with the NHL and it has become a fan favourite,” said Chow, noting the motion to bring the format to the SJHL passed easily at the league’s annual general meeting from June 2 to 4 at Nipawin’s Evergreen Convention Centre. “Other leagues have used it or are using it and it appears to have gained a lot of interest (among fans) into that overtime period.”
Chow said a second on-ice change that will be coming to SJHL rinks in 2016-17 will be the introduction of one-minute league timeouts around the middle of each period. He said these timeouts are used at the Western Canada Cup, the Royal Bank Cup and in other leagues, so the decision was to follow suit as a way to allow organizations more promotion or fan interest time.
Chris Lewgood, head coach and general manager of the Estevan Bruins, said the timeouts also allow the teams a bit of a break and it gives the ice-maintenance squad a chance to do a few touchups. He said there isn’t a concern that the breaks may stop a team’s momentum because a coach welcomes any time to talk to their troops about refocusing or discussing their game plan.
A third change that came out of the SJHL AGM was the increase in suspensions from two to four games for blow-to-the-head infractions, three to five games for match penalties and the implementation of an automatic two-game suspension for players who incur three goalie interference penalties during a season with an additional two-game suspension for each infraction after that.
“We have to try and educate the players that these types of hits will not be accepted in the league,” said Chow, noting there was an increase to 149 goaltender interference infractions last season. “If we make the suspension high enough then maybe they’ll pay attention and avoid those hits.”
Chow said the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL), Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL), Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL) and SJHL all agreed that blow-to-the-head suspensions needed to go up and be implemented for the 2016-17 season. He said this was done in the best interest of the game and player safety.
Lewgood said it was also decided at the AGM that a greater focus needs to be placed on the promotion of the league and its talent to higher levels of play including the NCAA. He said there is a problem among all 12 SJHL teams with Saskatchewan based players deciding to leave the province to play in other leagues and that has to change.
“Players playing in the AJHL, BCHL and other provinces tend to get a little better opportunity at the next level and although as teams we do our best to offset that and make sure our guys get noticed we know as a league we need to take the next step,” said Lewgood, noting keeping players in their own province is not something that he believes can be done through a national body like Hockey Canada. “I think it’s promotion of our talent and just like I said getting the word out about how good the players in Saskatchewan are. Once that happens then they’ll get their opportunities and the local players will be more eager to stick around.”
The SJHL has decided to expand their educational 50/50 lottery from its introductory period in the last few months of the 2015-16 season to a full 12-month effort going forward to give aspiring players a reason to ply their trade in Saskatchewan. Chow said there isn’t a set goal they want to raise with the lottery and instead just hope it creates interest in the province among people who have ties to the SJHL that they are trying to create a scholarship fund that will allow players to further their education upon finishing their junior A career.
