Wednesday notes

Not strictly WHL, but it certainly will have an effect on WHL players both past and future: the University of British Columbia is considering applying to have some of their sports teams - including the men's hockey Thunderbirds - compete in NCAA Div. 1. There are two immediate, obvious consequences of this for the WHL and its players: first, the UBC men's hockey program which currently plays in the CWUAA (CIS) and provides a place for WHL alumni to play and use their WHL scholarship money would undergo some major changes. Any players on that team who have previously played in the WHL would be ineligible to play for the NCAA Thunderbirds. Those players would have to transfer to other CIS schools if they wished to keep playing hockey. You can bet this situation will have an effect on the Thunderbirds' recruiting efforts starting right now, as this year's crop of graduating WHL players start exploring their university options. Do they want to go to UBC knowing that in a couple years you might not be able to play hockey for them anymore? Or would they rather go to U of A, U of C, U of S, etc, knowing they can play there for the full four or five years?

The second effect is that having an NCAA team in Vancouver would probably be an incentive for more local B.C. talent (and probably some from the other prairie provinces too) to spurn the WHL in favour of NCAA scholarships to UBC. So, we'll have to watch how this shakes out.

Looks like a slow news day, so I think that's it for now.

From the NHL: This guy is nuts, but the idea is very cool. He'll be in the WHL's neck of the woods on November 13, 14, and 15 as he takes in NHL games in Calgary, Vancouver, and Edmonton. Expect to see more written in the local papers about him then.

Hmmm....anyone up for a "22 games in 22 nights" tour of the WHL?