The BCHL has been operating as an independent entity outside of Hockey Canada since June 1.
On Tuesday, BC Hockey announced a restructuring of junior hockey in the 
province and Yukon, all of this obviously in response to the BCHL’s departure having left the jurisdiction without a junior A league.
BC Hockey’s board of directors voted unanimously to do away with junior B. The 45 teams that had been playing in the province’s three junior B leagues all will be classified Junior A Tier 2 for the 2023-24 season.
The Kootenay International Junior Hockey League features 20 teams, with 14 in the Pacific Junior Hockey League and 11 in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League.
In time, some of those teams will be promoted to Junior A Tier 1.
One of the teams that hopes to make the jump is the Kamloops Storm.
“I think we more than meet pretty much any requirement they’re going to put 
in front of us, whether it be with our health and safety, our education, our facilities or our level of coaching,” Storm general manager Matt Kolle told Kamloops This Week.“In the last two seasons, we’ve carried 97 per cent B.C. players. In my mind, we’re meeting the criteria by a landslide.
“It’s a void that needed to be filled and I’m excited we get the opportunity to fill it. We want to embrace it. We want to run with it and make hockey a better place in Kamloops, whether it be for the players or the fans. We’re now junior A. When we see what these new enhanced standards required for Tier 1 are, we then need to start working toward those.”
According to BC Hockey, there will be “a rigorous process and analysis, conducted over the next three seasons, allowing individual teams and communities to find the level of Junior hockey most suited to them.”
Also according to BC Hockey, the newly classified teams “will take their place in Hockey Canada’s Canadian Development Model, which strengthens the game at elite levels, in partnership with the Western Hockey League (WHL) and the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL).”
In a news release, Jeff Dubois, the KIJHL commissioner, offered: “During this 
process, we looked at the number of players who have left B.C. over the past number of years to play junior A hockey elsewhere in Canada and the United States. Our goal is to provide the type of athlete experience that incentivizes those athletes to grow and develop their game without having to look outside their home province.”
Once the Tier 1 and Tier 2 situation has sorted itself out, the Tier 1 teams will “seek membership with the CJHL. Such membership would open the door to competition for the Centennial Cup . . . and eligibility for players and bench staff” for events such as the World Junior A Challenge.
“BC Hockey is committed to this new Junior A landscape,” Cameron Hope, BC Hockey’s CEO, said in a news release. “These already strong teams and leagues have earned their opportunity to fill this layer of the pathway. It is important that junior-aged players in B.C. and Yukon have opportunities to compete at a high level, and eventually at the national level as part of the CJHL.”
For now, the KIJHL, PJHL and VIJHL will carry on as usual, all the while being evaluated for a potential move up in the ranks.
The KIJHL’s Revelstoke Grizzlies are another team interesting in getting to the Junior A Tier 1 level.
““I think it’s an ideal level for Revelstoke,” Ryan Parent, the Grizzlies’ general manager and head coach, told Josh Piercey of the Revelstoke Review. “The support that we’ve garnered locally in the past 10 years here, I think hockey is really on the map in Revelstoke.”
The BC Hockey news release is right here.
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Some thoughts on BC Hockey’s announcement: Keep in mind that the BCHL has said that it doesn’t want to be referred to as junior A or by any other kind of designation. It just wants to be the BCHL. . . . BC Hockey certainly has delivered a strong message to the BCHL this week. On Monday, CEO Cam Hope told folks in no uncertain terms that on-ice officials who work BCHL games after Sept. 30 won’t be allowed to handle Hockey Canada- or BC Hockey-sanctioned events during the 2023-24 season. And then came Tuesday’s announcement. . . . It would seem that the BCHL now is a non-entity as far as BC Hockey is concerned. . . . It will be interesting to see how many B.C.-born players opt for one of the three Junior A Tier 2 leagues for 2023-24, keeping in mind that players dropped by BCHL teams after Sept. 30 won’t be eligible. . . . There is chatter that the City of Revelstoke might build a new arena that would be home to the Grizzlies. You have to wonder if any other communities might take a look at doing that with a possible move to Junior A Tier 1 on the horizon for its team. . . . It strikes me that the operating costs for BCHL teams will rise, if only because of recruiting costs and the league now having its own officiating staff. And operating costs will go up for any of the Junior A Tier 2 teams that are serious about moving up. So from where will all this money come?
JUNIOR JOTTINGS:
Jake Heisinger is joining the WHL’s Victoria Royals as associate general manager. He had been with the Kootenay/Winnipeg Ice since 2017, joining the organization as hockey operations co-ordinator while it was located in Cranbrook. Most recently, he was Winnipeg’s vice-president of hockey operations and assistant GM. . . . The Winnipeg franchise has been sold and now operates out of Wenatchee, Wash., as the Wild. . . . In Victoria, Heisinger will work alongside Joey Poljanowski, the Royals’ new vice-president of hockey operations.
THINKING OUT LOUD: If you’re a hockey fan, you will be familiar with Cap Friendly (@CapFriendly). On Tuesday, Cap Friendly tweeted: “Patrice Bergeron, who announced his retirement today, has an estimated $96,324,048 in career earnings over his illustrious 20-year career. As part of his new five-year extension, Justin Herbert will earn $100,000,000 next season alone.” One more example of why NHL owners are so in love with their commissioner. . . . Saw a photo today of Ryan Craig, who was an assistant coach with the Vegas Golden Knights, eating pierogies out of the bowl of the Stanley Cup. That got me to wondering: Does anyone sterilize the bowl considering everything that goes into it — from a baby’s butt to beer and champagne — while it’s on tour? . . . The temperature on our gizmo showed in the low- to mid-30s for most of last week. On Tuesday at 6 a.m., it showed 10 C. After being so warm for a week, 10 C felt like it might snow.
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