BCHL Today: League unveils regular season details, Bucks announce captains, DiPaolo commits to Colgate, and more

 

BCHL announces regular season will be 32 games

The BC Hockey League released its latest COVID-19 update on Thursday and the biggest news to come from it is the unveiling of a 32-game regular season running from early December through to the end of March.

The league stats that each team will play the full 32 games within a regional cohort and a detailed scheduled is still to come.

The status of the Wenatchee Wild was also addressed in the announcement. The Wild are not included in the BCHL’s draft schedule because of the continued closure of the US-Canada border.

According to the BCHL, the Wild will “continue training camp south of the border and play intra-squad exhibition games until they are able to travel north to play against BCHL competition.”

The league states that “if the border opens early in 2021, or before the regular season commences, the league has plans in place to add the Wild into the schedule to participate in the 2020-21 regular season and playoffs.”

Bucks name first-ever leadership core

The Cranbrook Bucks unveiled the first captains in franchise history on Thursday.

Wearing the ‘C’ for the Bucks in their inaugural season is 2001-forward Briggs Gammill while 2000-born forward Michael Hagen and 2002-born defenseman Rhys Bentham will each don an ‘A’ as alternate captains.

Grizzlies forward DiPaolo commits to Colgate University

Victoria Grizzlies forward Alex DiPaolo is off to Colgate University starting in September 2021.

The 2000-born left winger from Oakville, Ontario was previously committed to UMass (Amherst) but decommitted sometime during the last three years.

DiPaolo had 38 points in 56 games split between the Grizzlies and the Penticton Vees last season.

Warriors add Lightning draft pick Finley

The West Kelowna Warriors have signed 2002-born forward Jack Finley on loan from the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League.

Finley is from Kelowna. He had 57 points in 61 WHL games for the Chiefs last season and was selected by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round of last month’s NHL Draft.

He’s played two BCHL games in his career, appearing with the Penticton Vees as an affiliate player in 2017-18. Finley scored his lone career BCHL goal in a game against Vernon on Nov. 10, 2017.

Lapointe leaves Express for St. Lawrence University

The Coquitlam Express will be without forward Greg Lapointe this season as he leaves the team to join St. Lawrence University of the NCAA.

Although not playing games, St. Lawrence announced in September that the school’s athletes would resume practicing under COVID-19 guidelines.

Lapointe is third in extended training camp scoring this season with 17 points in seven games. He was ninth in BCHL scoring and first among all rookie scorers in 2019-20 with 60 points in 56 games.

Warriors name leadership group for 2020-21

The West Kelowna Warriors announced their captains late Thursday afternoon.

2000-born Harvard University veteran forward Wyllum Deveaux will wear the ‘C’ for West-K while 2002-born defenseman Nick Ardanaz, 2001-born forward Elan Bar-Lev-Wise, 2000-born forward Carter Wilkie, and 2002-born forward John Evans will each have an ‘A’ stitched on each of their jerseys as alternate captains.

Rivermen add Guardiero as Communications and Digital Media Coordinator

The Langley Rivermen have hired McKenzie Guardiero as the team’s new communications and digital media coordinator.

Guardiero joined the BCHLNetwork in June 2019 as the Rivermen beat writer and left the website just last month. The entire BCHLNetwork team is proud of Mac and wish him best of luck working with the Rivermen!