If you scan the list of players named to Canada West for this year’s World Junior A Challenge, you won’t find Penticton Vees forward Bradly Nadeau, who’s a projected second or third-round pick in the 2023 National Hockey League Draft.
Nor will you see NHL Central Scouting draft-rated prospects like Salmon Arm forward Owen Beckner, Cranbrook forward Donovan Frias, Chilliwack forward AJ Lacroix, Vees forward Aydar Suniev, Vernon defender Dylan Compton, Trail defender Brady Smith, Victoria blueliner Hoyt Stanley, and Silverbacks goaltender Carter Richardson.
And the reason those players won’t be at the World Junior A Challenge is because they play in the BC Hockey League.
In its news release unveiling the team, Hockey Canada stated that the roster for Canada West was selected from the Canadian Junior Hockey League’s four western leagues – the Alberta Junior Hockey League, Manitoba Junior Hockey League, Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, and Superior International Junior Hockey League.
When the BCHL left the CJHL in April 2021, then-CJHL Commissioner Brent Ladds said he couldn’t see a situation where Hockey Canada allows the BCHL to negotiate its own agreement to have players eligible to play in the Centennial Cup national junior A championship or World Junior A Challenge.
A year and a half later, it’s obvious that the BCHL hasn’t negotiated its own agreement with Hockey Canada to allow its players to participate in these events. Why won’t Hockey Canada look at having the best junior A, nationally-sanctioned players included in an international tournament like the World Junior A Challenge? Is it simply to spite the BCHL for leaving the CJHL?
The World Junior A Challenge’s individual record book is still dotted with BCHL alumni. Coquitlam alum Kyle Turris is tied for second in points in one tournament after he posted 11 for Canada West in 2006. The New Westminster product also holds the tournament record for most goals in one tournament game when he posted four against Russia in 2006.
CJHL ≠ Hockey Canada
The fact is Hockey Canada and the CJHL are different entities. That said, the partnership between the two as it relates to the World Junior A Challenge runs all the way back to the first iteration of the tournament.
I get it, Hockey Canada itself bills the World Junior A Challenge as being “created in 2006 to showcase the talent in the Canadian Junior Hockey League”. At the time, every junior A league in Canada was part of the CJHL, but now, 16 years later, there’s a league that isn’t.
Despite leaving the CJHL last year, the BCHL is still classified as junior A hockey and is still a Hockey Canada-sanctioned league.
Ultimately, it appears that Hockey Canada decides whether BCHL players are eligible to be selected for the World Junior A Challenge. Things change over time and if hockey’s governing body truly has players’ development in mind and wants the best junior A players to be showcased in the tournament, it could work on an agreement with the BCHL.
It’s not like it would be a precedent-setting decision. There were a number of leagues, including the BCHL, that had agreements with Hockey Canada before the CJHL was formed in 1993.
