By Sam Laskaris /
CENTRAL JUNIOR A HOCKEY LEAGUE
Former NHL player Garry Galley will be coaching in the league this season.
Galley, a former defenceman who played in 1,238 NHL games for six different teams from 1985 to 2001, is the new bench boss for the Nepean Raiders.
Galley is one of three new head coaches in the CJHL this season.
The Gloucester Rangers, formerly the Orleans Blues, have brought in Vince Mallette as their coach.
Mallette spent the past two years as the coach of the OHL’s Peterborough Petes. He previously coached in the CJHL with the Ottawa Junior Senators.
And Marc Leduc, who previously served as an assistant coach with the Hawkesbury Hawks, is now the club’s head coach.
All of the new coaches, as well as the old ones, will also have a new league rule to get used to.
There will be no more ties in the CJHL this season as the league is introducing shootouts to end contests that are still tied following a five-minute overtime session.
The Kemptville 73s will be the only squad in the 11-team league to kick off its season with a true home game.
The Kemptville franchise will play host to the league’s September Showcase at the North Grenville Municipal Centre from Sept. 12 to 14.
All league clubs will play two games in the league’s season-opening series.
NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR A HOCKEY LEAGUE
A new league moniker is unlikely forthcoming even though the name Northern Ontario Junior A Hockey League is no longer entirely accurate.
Thanks to a pair of out-of-province additions, one-quarter of the league’s teams are now not based in northern Ontario.
The two newcomers to the NOJHL are the Quebec-based Temiscaming Royals and the Michigan-based Soo Eagles.
Having a league entrant from Quebec or the state of Michigan, however, is nothing new for the NOJHL.
Michigan’s Soo Indians captured the NOJHL championship in 2007 but then folded that off-season.
The Eagles will try and ice a winning product under long-time coach Paul Theriault. His extensive coaching resume includes a stint in the NHL with the Buffalo Sabres.
The NOJHL also previously included a Quebec team, the Rouyn-Noranda Capitales, who competed in the league from 1989 to 1996. The Capitales left the league once their city was granted a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League franchise.
As for the Royals, they are not a new franchise. They previously participated in Ontario’s independent Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League.
With two new teams, the NOJHL has been split into two divisions.
The Eagles are joined in the West by the Blind River Beavers, Manitoulin Islanders and Soo Thunderbirds.
Temiscaming is in the East Division with the Abitibi Eskimos, North Bay Skyhawks and Sudbury Jr. Wolves.
SUPERIOR INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
The off-season dust has settled and the Superior International loop still has six teams – the same number it concluded last season with.
The league had started the 2007/08 campaign with seven clubs. But it only finished off with six teams as the Marathon Renegades pulled out of the loop with 13 games remaining in their regular season.
The Renegades have not returned to the league for the 2008/09 campaign.
The SIJHL does have a new addition though—the expansion Sioux Lookout Flyers.
But the league will remain at six teams. That’s because two of the Thunder Bay squads that participated in the circuit, the Bearcats and the Bulldogs, have teamed up to have one team.
That club will be known as the Thunder Bay Bearcats.
The SIJHL still also includes the Fort William North Stars. Fort William is also part of Thunder Bay.
As for the new Sioux Lookout franchise, it will play its first two regular season matches on the road, Sept. 18 and Sept. 19 against the Schreiber Diesels.
The Flyers’ home opener is scheduled for Sept. 26 at the Sioux Lookout Memorial Arena versus the defending league champion Dryden Ice Dogs.
That historic match begins a seven-game homestand for the Flyers.
PROVINCIAL JUNIOR A HOCKEY LEAGUE
Following a one-year absence, the Bramalea Blues have returned to the league. And they’ve also got a new home rink.
But the Blues will in all likelihood have to play second fiddle at the Powerade Centre, which is also the home facility for the Ontario Hockey League’s Brampton Battalion.
The Bramalea side will have plenty of work to do to entice some fans out to their home contests.
During their last season in the league (2006/07), the Blues suffered through a dismal campaign, accumulating just five points (one win, one tie, two overtime losses) in their 49-game regular season.
A pair of familiar league faces are in charge of the Blues.
The team is owned by Mario Forgione, who owned the Milton IceHawks’ organization from 2001 to 2006. Forgione also previously owned the OHL’s Mississauga IceDogs and the Pensacola Ice Pilots of the minor pro East Coast Hockey League.
Also, Randy Novak, who coached the IceHawks last season, has been named the Blues’ head coach.
Meanwhile, two franchises have changed their names. Trenton’s team, formerly the Sting, is now called Hercs. And the Oshawa-based Durham Fury moved one town west and is now called the Whitby Fury.
The Fury’s ownership group includes Calgary Flames’ forward Wayne Primeau and his older brother Wayne, a former NHLer. |