Recruit Report: Some of Merrimack's AJHL recruits join BCHL
Some of Merrimack's recruits in the AJHL officially joined the BCHL this week. It's the culmination of a contentious few weeks between five teams and the AJHL, who announced they were leaving for the BCHL next season.
After a back-and-forth, the teams joined the BCHL immediately last week.
From The Hockey News:
What had already been a contentious situation boiled over Thursday with the announcement that five teams from the Alberta Junior Hockey League joined the BC Hockey League effective immediately.
The five Alberta-based Jr. A teams – the Blackfald Bulldogs, Brooks Bandits, Okotoks Oilers, Sherwood Park Crusaders and Spruce Grove Saints – are now members of the BCHL, departing the AJHL right away and playing only each other for the remainder of the regular season and crowning an Alberta champion. After the BCHL playoffs, the best Alberta team will square off against the BCHL post-season champion.
This move follows the BCHL's announcement on Jan. 20 that the five teams would be relocating to the independent league beginning next season. The BCHL voted to leave Hockey Canada as of June 1, 2023, for reasons including being able to recruit players whose province of residence is outside British Columbia. And BCHL executives couldn’t be happier that more teams are buying into the league’s new business model.
This move affected Merrimack's recruits in Brooks (Hunter Wallace, Jordan Hughesman, and Parker LaLonde) and Sherwood Park (Ethan Merner).
Jack Good is already committed to Brooks for the 2024-25 season.
Here is the rest of this week's recruit report, which includes current statistics for all committed players.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Mack Report to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.