Southern Senior Hockey League Proposal Attracts Four Franchises

A proposed senior A hockey league for 2020-21 is gaining momentum in Southern New Brunswick with four prospective franchises forwarding player protected lists.

The league would have to receive permission to operate for 2020-21 through Hockey New Brunswick. Spokesperson Stephen Evans of Grand Bay-Westfield said the Southern Senior Hockey League is working on a constitution and will take a different approach to its structure, concentrating on local players and not bringing in imports. A revenue-sharing system would also be used to build community teams.

‘Many of us have watched the cycles of senior hockey fall by the wayside with imported players driving up the cost to operate, but we wanted to be innovative and produce a brand of hockey that is a higher-level, but still community-based,’ said Evans, former general manager of the River Valley Rock Southern Senior A Hockey League. ‘We will keep a minimum schedule and try and become viable in the first year of operations. A lot of young players who haven’t been around the senior level are pretty excited.’

The four interested franchises would operate out of St. Stephen, Grand Bay-Westfield and two teams from the Greater Saint John area. There is potential interest in Fredericton Junction. The SSHL would play a 12-game schedule, almost all games exclusively on Saturday nights. Players are still allowed to play in their local recreational leagues but can suit up at the senior A level.

‘The last thing we want to do is take players from many of our successful and regional recreational leagues which have been around for decades and have outlasted numerous senior leagues,’ said Evans. ‘We want to work with those leagues that provide so much opportunity for players. We’ve even discussed the SSHL hosting a year-end recreational tournament with revenue sharing ideas and formulas. The bottom line is to take this slow, but bring a bit of a higher level of play for the person who is out of junior or university options.’

There are three other senior leagues operating in New Brunswick. The Acadie-Chaleur Senior Hockey League has teams in Caraquet, Chaleur, Dalhousie, Neguac, Shippagan and Tracadie. The Beausejour Senior Hockey League has Elsipogtog, Cap-Pele and Bouctouche. The Circuit Regional Hockey League features Haut-Madawaska, Kedgwick, Perth-Andover, Bas-Madawaska, St. Basile and Temiscouta, QU.

The SSHL continues to work on its constitution and will be asking all four initial franchises to commit its roster. A league draft will also be used for interested players living in the communities, but information on that will proceed will be released next month.