The sport of women’s hockey has officially come to a crossroads.
Given the state of the economy and the lack of support from the community as well as local business owners it’s no real surprise that we are hearing of two teams having concerns entering the 2019-20 season.
We recently heard about the concerns that a group of 200 professional players in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League that recently mentioned they were folding with no intention of playing in the upcoming season.
Not only was this a blow to the Women’s program, it actually filtered down to the minor levels of the game.
Players such as Marie-Philip Poulin, Hilary Knight and Brianne Jenner indicated they would plan a boycott for the 2019-20 season all in an attempt to establish a single and viable professional women’s league.
Now we are hearing that the owners of the Buffalo Sabres, Pegula Sports & Entertainment indicated they are severing their working relationship with the NWHL, meaning that they will no longer operate the Buffalo Beauts.
The Beauts, ironically the league’s (NWHL) model franchise that has goaltender Shannon Szabados describing their franchise as “probably the best run professional women’s hockey team in the entire world.”
We are hearing that the team (Beauts) had full access to ice skills that no other NWHL teams have, which include better equipment, assistance with local housing as well as fully catered meals.
The loss of not only the league, but also this franchise it a huge loss to a league that has been in full disaster mode for the past while.
Alberta Junior Hockey League News!!
The Alberta Junior Hockey League Board of Governors has approved a request from the Calgary Mustangs Hockey Club to take a one-year leave of absence for the 2019-2020 Season.
The Mustangs will use the year to secure a sustainable future for the franchise either in Calgary, AB or through a relocation.
A decision regarding the current team roster will be finalized at the 2019 AJHL Annual General Meeting on Saturday, May 25th.
Under Hockey Canada regulations, all player movement is restricted from January 10th to June 3rd annually.
The Board of Governors also approved a new league schedule format, which will be temporarily implemented for the 2019-2020 AJHL season.
The league will reduce its regular season schedule from 60 games to 58 games as follows:
8 team North Division
• 2 games vs each team in the South Division (14)
• 2 games at AJHL Showcase (2)
• 6 games vs each team within the North Division (42)
7 team South Division
• 2 games vs each team in the North Division (16)
• 2 games at AJHL Showcase (2)
• 6 games vs each team within the South Division (36)
• 4 additional games within the South Division versus four different opponents (4)
A revised format for the 2020 Inter Pipeline AJHL Playoffs will also be determined at the 2019 AJHL Annual General Meeting to accommodate a 15 team league with two unbalanced divisions.
The Calgary Mustangs Hockey Club will remain a member of the Alberta Junior Hockey League throughout the 2019-2020 season and retain a vote in all matters of the AJHL Board of Governors.
