Western States Hockey League Representative Scouting Out Vegreville

Western States Hockey League Representative Scouting Out Vegreville

Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser

A representative from the Western States Hockey League, (WSHL) is scouting out Vegreville to see if there’s a chance they could start a team in the community.

Bryan Brown, Canadian Director of Operations for the WSHL, made an appearance before town council via YouTube on Jan. 19 to discuss the possibility with elected officials.

Brown stated during his presentation, “Basically we are just trying to establish another town to bring into our league. We want to have a minimum of six teams this coming fall, a maximum of eight teams, and doing that my job as the Canadian Director is to bring teams together for teams to play in our league. And when I heard the situation that Vegreville was in, of course, I’m trying to approach you guys again to see if it’s feasible to have a team in your town and get the community support behind it.

I did have a meeting with the Jr. B Association and after our meeting what we had talked about Joe (Budinski) had said to go reach out to the town again. So that’s why I’m here. And basically, in a nutshell, we’re not asking much from you guys besides ice and you know we’d look at bringing an ownership group in to run the team here.

It would be a great benefit to the town itself because first off you’d have all kinds of billet parents that will be needed to billet kids and they get paid to do that. We would utilize a whole bunch of your “A” time ice that isn’t being utilized right now. Monday to Thurs any time of the day is a great time for us and Friday morning. Every second or third weekend we require Friday, Saturday, or Sunday nights or they can be staggered so we don’t take ice away from people that are needing it now.”

The only other ask Brown made would be to have exclusive use of one of the dressing rooms so players could keep their equipment there. “Other than that we’d be excited to bring a bunch of live Jr. A hockey action to Vegreville.”

Bryan Brown, Canadian Director of the WSHL.

(Bryan Brown/Submitted Photo)

In 2018 the WSHL expanded into Canada. Brown said Hinton, Edson, Barrhead, and Cold Lake have teams in the league. The WSHL announced its newest team, the Vancouver Devils, who will be playing out of the Fraser Valley in greater Vancouver.

WSHL Commissioner Ron White said there are a total of 21 teams in the league. The players range in age between 16 to 20 years of age with the majority between 19 and 20 years of age. White said they are looking to get into the higher ranks or move into college hockey. “A lot of them go to the minor league pro.” He added that 33 percent of players in the league are from Europe and other countries.

There are many benefits to having a hockey team in a community, added White, not just economically, but socially with a plethora of positive side effects from it. He said his son made friendships with players from all over the world and those relationships and connections continue on today.

Mayor Tim MacPhee told Brown that no one from the Jr. B Executive had approached the town to say they were not going ahead with the program. “I just want everyone to know that. Nothing has ever been said to the council or the town.”

MacPhee concluded by informing Brown, “We’ll get back to you once we know what’s going on with their program.”