Greater Metro Hockey League Executive Director Derek Prue was in town to preside over a game between the Mackenzie Mountaineers and the Northern Alberta Tomahawks on Saturday, February 12.
He was also in town to sign a contract with the district, officially creating a new GMHL team to play in Tumbler Ridge for the next few seasons.
The league started 18 years ago with teams around the Greater Metro Toronto area, which is where the name comes from. “Over the last 18 years, the league grew throughout Ontario into Quebec,” says Prue. “Three years ago, we took the opportunity to expand into Western Canada. Our footprint is the three western provinces, but we’ve spent our first couple years building the Alberta footprint.”
For the 2020-21 season, the first BC team was recruited to the league, the Mackenzie Mountaineers. For next season, Tumbler Ridge and a newly-signed team in Kitimat will join Mackenzie as the BC Division. “Tumbler Ridge fits in perfectly there,” says Prue. “We’re looking at the northwest. That’s been our niche, you know. When you look at supply and demand for our level of hockey, Western Canada is really underrepresented. There’s five leagues like ours in Ontario, and over 100 teams in the states. There’s about three to 400 players that leave Western Canada to go play in leagues like ours. So we’re supplying them with that opportunity. And at the same time, we’re able to come into communities, like Tumbler Ridge that can support Junior Hockey. And, you know, at the same time, give the players that chance to move to the next level.”
BC has one Junior Hockey league—the BC Hockey League, which is officially designated under Hockey Canada. Of the 16 teams in the league, the only team in the north of the Okanagan is the Prince George Spruce Kings.
The GMHL is an independent Hockey League, with the goal of providing more opportunities for hockey players to play. But in order to do that, the team needs fans. Prue described the league as having an “academy based model”, which means that there is a strong emphasis on education, but players have to pay a fee to access that education, too. “Our players have [to pay] a tuition, but that’s really becoming the norm. The BC Hockey League does it as of last year.That’s kind of what has allowed us to get into smaller markets that might not have teams; places that have been overlooked at BCHL. We are only scratching the surface. This is our third year in Western Canada, and all three years that we’ve operated have been affected by Covid. So we haven’t even operated yet in a, in a normal year. The fact that we’re expanding year on year, in a very limited market speaks to our business model.”
To qualify as a Junior Hockey team, says Prue, you need full-time players that live in the community, typically billeted out to local host families. “Our players come from around the world. We average four or five Europeans per team. These are players who are going, somewhere. Last year, we sent over 20 players to collegiate or pro. So players are getting scholarships for playing pro hockey. And that allows us to recruit the next group of higher level players. Over the last 18 years, we’ve sent 900 players on. Putting 900 players to every level of hockey? That’s really what people get excited about, what communities get excited about. They’ve got jerseys hanging from players that graduated and are playing college somewhere or have gone pro somewhere.”
While they draw players from around the world, the emphasis is on local players. “We try and recruit as many local players as possible. If they’re good enough to play, I would say on average Junior A teams, you’re usually lucky to have three to four players from your local community that are good enough. Mackenzie’s actually has four players from Chetwynd, I think, and they’ve got two from Mackenzie. That’s just a testament to this area being a hockey hotbed for the province. Whoever ends up as the coach here will make every effort to identify local players. And over time, you’re going to see players who stay in hockey. Bantam and Midget teams will be getting high level training from the junior coach and from the players who are out on the ice with minor hockey. And that’s just going to strengthen everybody. When Midget players graduate they’re just staying and going right into the Junior A team. So that’s the ultimate goal.”
In the next little while, says Prue, expect to see a Facebook page and a website for the as-yet-unnamed team.
What will the team be called? That’s the next order of business: a Name The Team contest. “That’ll be open to anybody in the public. There’ll be a bunch of entries, which will get whittled down to the top three, and then another vote on that.”
After that the team will get a logo and a Jersey and a head coach. Prue expects the head coach to be named in the next six months. “Again, we pull from a pool of talent around the world,” he says. “So we get some very high caliber people coaching our teams. They’ll move to town and they’ll start working on finding players, start looking for billet families, and we typically form a community board of directors. We don’t like coming into a community thinking that we know everything, and there’s only one way to do business. So we want to see what’s important to the community. That flow of information is important and the best way to do that is usually from a community board.”
Altogether, there are usually 15 or so people involved in having a successful GMHL, from the head coach/general manager to the people who take tickets on game days.
Players typically start playing junior hockey at age 18 and either move on or age out around age 21. “Most teams will have five to six school age players; guys that are still in high school,” says Prue. “This means we try develop good relationships with the high school, because the players are only going to school half days, because they’re on the ice.”
And as part of their learning, the players are out in the community, interacting. “They’ll be in the schools reading to kids, they’ll be on the ice with minor hockey, they’ll be volunteering…Most of the teams this year have a snow angels program, where they will go clear driveways and walkways for seniors with mobility issues. It’s good for the players too, because a lot of these guys come from smaller communities or have led a pretty sheltered existence. They haven’t had a chance to mentor, to public speak, to do a lot of volunteering or to be in leadership roles. So we want to get them out of their comfort zone and doing these things, so that when they leave our program to go off to, say, college somewhere in the states, they are not shell shocked once they get there.
“And a lot of players who come to places where there are good employment opportunities will settle down there. Even if they do leave, it’s a place for them to come back too. They know the community.”
There are currently nine teams in the GMHL West division. The Edson Eagles, the Fox Creek Ice Kings, the Gibbons Pioneers, The High Prairie Red Wings, the Slave Lake Icedogs and the Northern Alberta Tomahawks (who play out of Enoch) represent Alberta, while the Mackenzie Mountaineers and two as-of-yet unnamed teams, one in Tumbler Ridge and one in Kitimat. Prue says he’s also in discussions with a number of other locations to expand the BC division, but those teams haven’t been announced.
Expect a number of announcements around coaching staff, team name and more over the next few months.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
