Newfoundland Hockey Talk

Season shut down early. Basically for those still working. Off to work and then social distancing at home. Now wouldn’t it be a good time for the senior hockey crowd to figure out next season. A few conference calls and we should easily be prepared by July or August to know what to expect for when the season starts in late October or early November.

Sadly all will wait until September or October to try to get it sorted. Be plenty of under the table deals attempted to be made. We will hear of some sort of HNL meetings (if Covid19 allows) where we won’t get a bit of news.

Onward thru the fog...

I would expect that a lot, if not most, players will be very leery about playing any hockey for the next year or so. I think it will be difficult to get any kind of league off the ground next winter.

Word going around in last week that there will be a new provincial league next year. 2 teams from wcshl , 2 teams from cwshl , and 2 teams from ecshl. I wonder if there is any truth to this, or is it just a bad rumor?

this would be a good setup I would think if it happens for next season

The suggested 6 team provincial set up would be very exciting... But, I fear, that , if there was any willingness to assemble such an arrangement, it would probably be more likely to consist of only 5 teams not 6.
I see both the CeeBees and Southern Shore playing, Gander and GFW , but only one team from 'west'...
Corner Brook has been pretty blunt in past efforts just this past season to have them join a west 'group', that they were absolutely not interested. They would rather fold than get into any such arrangement . (They still have a bad taste from the last days of the CWSHL Royals just a few years ago, when Ross Coates operated the team. There were big(?) financial losses and friction within the community - as I remember the demise of the Royals in the last version of the CWSHL.
What I do like about the suggestion of an 'east' - 'central' - 'west' set up is that with only 2 teams from the east coast being part of it, that would leave 4 teams still in the 'east only' set up. My guess is that such a go-it-alone quartet of teams would suit Clarenville, Caps, and Torbay just fine. And maybe the other remaining team, the Blues also?). I am not sure about the new Blues operation in CBS, but there is no doubt that the other 3 teams have been crystal clear , 'ad nauseam' , that they never want to travel beyond the "overpass".
(I still marvel that they begrudgingly , I suspect, agreed this season to travel out to Harbour Grace for games)... It was probably only because Harbour Grace always fills their, ( new 2000 person), stadium to the brim whenever they play , and the ECSHL allegedly share all gate revenues among all teams equally: Harbour Grace has always been their 'cash cow '!

You're 100% correct aseyeseesit. The Royals have categorically stated that they want nothing to do with a provincial league again... they'd sooner fold first. The only ones that might be stupid enough to venture down this path... AGAIN.. is the Red Wings. But the town of DL has tight reins on the operation as they were burned bad the last time. So I'd expect the town might put the breaks to that. It seems people have learnt their $100,000 lesson... cause that's about what teams owed after folding from the CWSHL last time around. And lets be honest, there's been NO changes to how the Flyers/Cateracts operate... so why would anyone be foolish enough to VOLUNTEER to put themselves on the $100K hook for senior hockey? It's the same reason ECSHL team are adamant they won't go to central for interlocking... its financial suicide for those small market teams (buses that cost a fortune, hotels, meals, etc.). The only possible way a provincial league could work if was completely controlled by a governing body... certainly not HNL... hahaha. They'd need complete control over gate revenues, sponsorship, expenses such as refs, ice, busing and hotels. How likely is that to happen? Because if there's one thing we should have learnt multiple times over the past 30 years... teams aren't capable of policing themselves. And you only need to look at the current leagues to know that... how many teams are paying players throughout the province that aren't supposed to? EXACTLY! They couldn't make it work years ago when teams were flush with cash, players aplenty and the economy booming... good luck now.