There is no question that junior hockey is taking a hard hit from the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Loss of fans.
Loss of championships.
Loss of finishing up a junior career the way the player wanted to.
However, like everything else in this pandemic, there is an opportunity to look at something that can bring some help and excitement to the CHL Brand as a whole.
Let’s start with what we know.
For the second straight year, we will not have a Memorial Cup.
Sadly, even though we knew it, there will not be a WHL Championship for the second straight year.
Specifically in the WHL, we have hub cities with no fans and entire divisions being played with little or no fans. And at least a year and a half without fans are hurting many franchises. Not only in the WHL, but across junior hockey.
In spite of the national networks’ lack of focus towards it, junior hockey is in the fabric of this country.
It’s still popular. Look how fans are getting excited about stars like Conor Bedard, Dustin Wolf, and Logan Stankoven. And there is a chance that the popularity will rise.
On Monday, Rich Sutter said on The Rod Pedersen Show that we are about to see some of the most exciting stars to come through the WHL in years. And once this pandemic is over, people are going to want to travel. As well for sure, they’ll want to go and see games. Especially after going a year and a half without.
And perhaps this is more opinion than fact, but there is a perception that the format of the Memorial Cup has become stale.
Except for the opening and closing weekend, there isn’t a lot of drama in the series. The home team
automatically in doesn’t really work. Especially when they are out of their playoffs early. A long playoff run combined with another long tournament may not produce the best hockey. It was also getting buried in coverage of both the Toronto Blue Jays and the NHL Playoffs on the same channel.
So all these combinations lead to what I believe can be an exciting format change that not only revives the Memorial Cup but helps with the economic recovery for junior hockey as well.
I’m describing this as the “March Madness to Memorial Cup”… Except maybe not in March. And not 64 teams. But we go for a 32 team single-game elimination tournament across Canada.
The March Madness NCAA tournament is an exciting tournament that creates attention. In part because basketball is popular. But also because the tournament has a high excitement rate. So why can’t the CHL do the same thing?
How would this work? I’m glad you asked.
You would take the three regular-season champions from the WHL, QMJHL, and OHL and put them in as 1-seed in each bracket. Then you take the CHL rankings and give the 4th ranked team the other number one seed. You then take the remaining 28 and draw them into a bracket to make your 32 teams. You then split the eight brackets into four junior hockey cities across Canada. Then when you get to 16 teams, you can move them into four other cities across Canada. Then you would have your “Final Four” for the Memorial Cup at the host city. Two games on Friday or Saturday. Final on a Sunday or Monday. You could even have two games on Thursday and the final on Saturday.
Now, I’m open to the debate on how this works. But the reason I’m open to the debate is it would lead to a debate around which team is ranked higher. And that debate would lead to an actual discussion across the leagues on who is better.
And maybe, just maybe, some cross-league games in the regular season? Or, is the intern going too far here?
What I do know is this. The format has the ability to be covered and covered well. If the recent reports are true and TSN is taking over the coverage of the CHL, they already use a multiview on other tournaments like Match Madness and Wimbledon. This would be no different. You can have a few games going on at the same time.
It can also create some excitement with fresh cross-league matchups. An OHL Team against a WHL Team. A WHL Team against a QMJHL Team. An OHL Team against a QMJHL Team. It also creates the possibility of upsets. A ‘Cinderella Story’ neutral fans can get behind. Perhaps a #1 seed that teams hate. But every game would have drama to it and can be appointment viewing. You can also get some interesting individual matchups as well.
There is also a specific win for the WHL as well, who in my opinion often gets the short end of the stick here. Not only in coverage. But in actual travel. This creates an opportunity to fix this.
In addition to this, you would have the added bonus of stronger profiles on draft prospects. While that is already there, it adds more. Not just from four teams. But 32. We already debate who our teams should be drafting. Why not raise the profile?
The cities would benefit from these too. Not only do you get out-of-town travelers, but you would also have scouts coming to these tournaments. And while I know you have scouts already, you would have scouts coming to these tournaments and not having to travel to a number of different places. It’s a great economic opportunity.
And for the tournament, it raises the stakes. It does eliminate the automatic bye for the host city. Which, in my opinion, should be removed anyway. But you would have the four best teams in the tournament battling it out.
But Junior Hockey wins too. It puts some real good kids and really good stories on the map for a longer period of time. It puts the CHL on the national stage by a major network. As opposed to having people do an illegal stream to watch Game 7 of a WHL final. Imagine a draft ranking from Craig Button and Bob MacKenzie before the draft. You can do player profiles. Coach profiles. Even billet and parent profiles. You can tell some awesome stories about the towns the games are in. You could, and I repeat COULD, do bracket challenges to raise money for organizations trying to recover from the pandemic.
Based on what we know, this is what you would get with this.
A fresh new concept that creates a discussion.
A win-win for junior hockey and the cities that support it.
Longer, deeper coverage of junior hockey. Not only the OHL. QMJHL, but for the WHL as well.
Possible economic help for several cities.
Fan excitement.
If you say there are flaws in the actual format, I’m open to hearing them. If you think this would only work for one year, then we need to get back to “normal”, I’m open to hearing that as well. But this has a chance to bring something really fun to the country and generate excitement around junior hockey.
If there is ever a time to make a change, now is the time.
