The BCHL continues to carve out its own identity in the Canadian junior hockey landscape, and its latest announcement for the 2025-26 season underscores that direction. On Thursday, the league unveiled its 54-game regular season schedule, a new divisional alignment, and a playoff format designed to stoke rivalries and reduce travel.
The regular season starts on Friday, Sept. 19, and wraps on Sunday, Mar. 29. All 20 teams play an equal number of games, including two at the annual BCHL Showcase, which is locked in for October 12 – 16.
One of the highlights of the early season? A Fred Page Cup Final rematch on Saturday, Oct. 18, between the Chilliwack Chiefs and Brooks Bandits at Chilliwack Coliseum. It’s the kind of marquee matchup the league is banking on to create buzz in the absence of a Canadian Junior Hockey League national championship tie-in.
But the real intrigue lies in how the BCHL is reshaping its competitive structure.
A shift to four divisions
For 2025–26, the league moves back to a four-division format. They are Coastal West, Coastal East, Interior West, and Interior East, with each division consisting of five teams. The alignment balances traditional BC-based franchises with the five Alberta teams brought in during 2024’s high-profile exodus from the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
Coastal West: Alberni Valley, Cowichan Valley, Nanaimo, Powell River, Victoria
Coastal East: Chilliwack, Coquitlam, Langley, Prince George, Surrey
Interior West: Cranbrook, Salmon Arm, Trail, Vernon, West Kelowna
Interior East: Blackfalds, Brooks, Okotoks, Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove
From a geographic and logistical standpoint, the format makes sense. Coastal teams stay coastal. Alberta teams stay clustered. Interior clubs like Trail and Salmon Arm are grouped with natural rivals. It’s a solid fix for a league that had to reimagine its footprint on the fly just a year ago.
The return of division-based playoffs
The Fred Page Cup playoffs also get a facelift for the 2025-26 season. The top four teams in each division advance, with the fifth-place team in each group left out. From there, teams battle through two rounds of divisional playoffs, followed by a conference final (Coastal vs. Coastal, Interior vs. Interior), and finally, the Fred Page Cup Final.
In essence, it’s a return to the kind of postseason format many fans grew up with, where divisional bloodbaths lead to more regional bragging rights and less unpredictability in travel.
But this isn’t just nostalgia. For fans, shorter travel means stronger home support, and more frequent meetings between rivals will only add fuel to the fire.
There are still a few open questions about the 2025-26 BCHL schedule. Notably, how the Showcase schedule is structured and where the Road Show is hosted and which teams are participating. But the foundation is set.
Photo credit: Garrett James Photography
