Players sign to play for the team that either first approached them or the team that they feel will be the right fit for their young career, but given the signing changes are inevitable for both the player and the team.
January 10th is the day in the hockey world that management and coaches have a hard time dealing with as it means moving players that they have grown close with and became a member of the “team.”
All teams, well most teams make moves so as to make their team more productive but not just in the scoring department, but in both the offense and defense in hopes of advancing their team to the playoff run.
Locally in the lower mainland the Pacific Junior Hockey League consists of 13 teams and while not all teams made moves January 10th which is the provincial trading day for the BC Hockey.
Junior B Hockey Leagues in BC consists of three (3) Junior “B” Leagues that have each of the leagues making moves as all teams are making moves to advance to the Cyclone Taylor Cup Championship.
This year the Provincial Championship is being played in Delta at the Ladner Leisure Centre and is hosted by the Delta Ice Hawks taking place April 7-10th.
This year the PJHL will have two teams competing in the Cyclone Taylor Championship represented by the league winner as well as the Delta Ice Hawks who are the host team.
This would be the same if one of the other two Junior “B” Leagues were to host the Championship, but we should remember that Delta is hosting this years as they were to host it two years back, but were shut down by Covid-19.
Working with the City of Delta, BC Hockey as well as the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League as well as the Vancouver Island Hockey League were willing to allow the Delta Ice Hawks to host this year’s championship.
In conversation with one of the league coaches I asked him about the overall thought process and he mentioned “Player movement is one of the hardest things I have to deal with and the fact that they have been with the team since August, it often is emotional.”
The following is the list of trades in the January 10th within the PJHL:
- Langley acquired the Hockey Canada playing rights to Austin Moar from the Abbotsford Pilots in exchange for the Hockey Canada playing rights to Aidan Roy and future considerations.
- North Van Wolf Pack have acquired the Hockey Canada playing rights to Jake Loverock from the Grandview Steelers for future considerations.
- The Port Moody Panthers have transferred the Hockey Canada playing rights to Andrew Kim to the Kerry Park Islanders of the VIJHL for future considerations.
- The Abbotsford Pilots have transferred the Hockey Canada playing rights to Devon Wolfe to the Saanich Predators of the VIJHL for future considerations.
- The Chilliwack Jets have acquired the Hockey Canada playing rights to Keith Chester in exchange for future considerations.
