On Wednesday, in advance of Game 4 between the Spokane Chiefs and Portland Winterhawks, WHL Commissioner Ron Robison met with the Portland media for a press conference.
Robison opened his press conference answering about the playoffs saying, “this is the time of the year we obviously all look forward to with the WHL playoffs. Especially the first round where everybody has so much at stake; the lower seeds still feel they have a real good opportunity to advance in the playoffs. That is reflected in the level of competition and the battles we see very night on the ice. It is a great time of year for us in the Western Hockey League.”
Confirmation of Matthew Savoie being denied exceptional status
On March 8th, DUBNetwork broke the news that 15-year-old forward Matthew Savoie had been denied exceptional status by Hockey Canada.
Wednesday night Robison confirmed our report saying, “We were not involved at all in that process, so we learned of the decision at the same time that the player and the family did. It is a process that is conducted entirely by Hockey Canada. This is a special player who is going to have a great career ahead of him. We certainly hope that we have the opportunity to have him play in our league at some point in time. It is just a process that for the first time our territory this has occurred.
We asked the commissioner how the decision on Savoie may impact future players who seek exceptional status from Hockey Canada, “Should a player in the future have the opportunity to obtain exceptional status, we would welcome that player immediately in the Western Hockey League. I think that this is a decision the family makes. I’m sure they get lots of advice as to whether they are in position to make that application. I’m certain there will be more applications in the future. Right now I think we offer development for young players that is exceptional. We are the leaders at producing talent and giving them an exceptional opportunity to develop as young players. We hope those players choose the Western Hockey League, and we are doing our best to convince them of that.”
Ron commented about how the draft process and eligibility process is different across the different CHL leagues, “One area that we are unique to the Canadian Hockey League, different than the OHL and the Quebec League, is that we can have the 15-year-old players play in our league. In fact, many players this year did get the opportunity to experience our league as 15-year-olds in a limited number of games. They have five games during the regular season, then once their season is completed, they can play an unlimited number of games. That is the unique feature that we have in part due to the fact that the age of our draft is one year earlier than the OHL and the Quebec League.”
Board of Governors Meeting and Technology
Robison did not comment much on the most recent Board of Governors meeting; however, he did confirm the next meeting is scheduled for June. One area of focus for the league is a focus on technology. The June agenda has “nothing significant other than we are working extremely hard on how we deliver our game to our fans in the future” Robison said. “Both certainly, most importantly, the in-venue entertainment levels that we can offer. We think the U.S. Division in particular are leaders in this particular area. We can learn a lot from what is accomplished here in Portland as well as other U.S. centers. We are also working on technology and looking at platforms such as our streaming in the future and what that is going to look like.”
One area of emphasis has been on the reported news of the WHL being in their final year of the contract with neulion.com.
Many fans took notice when the American Hockey League announced in September 2018 the launch of AHLTV. The 2018-2019 subscription rates featured an all-access, all-team, all-games pass for approximately $107 CAD ($79.99 USD). Compared to the regular season pricing for WHL Live where the same pass costs $299.99 CAD ($223 USD)
“There is no question this is one of the areas we are focused on and will be focused on in the offseason in particular” Robison said when asked about the future of the streaming options. “Moving forward as to how we can change up our current streaming program both from a standpoint looking at new ways we can deliver it terms of HD production and so forth.”
Robison was complimentary of how the 22 teams overall have improved their video feeds, “For the most part, our teams have done an exceptional job at delivering high quality, but we want to improve the standard. We want to look at different ways we can deliver that.”
One area is providing discounts and free game offers like the WHL did for the tiebreaker between the Kelowna Rockets and Kamloops Blazers. “We do special offers over the Christmas period and we’ve done special offers on games such as those those tiebreaker games. We are looking at those types of offers in the future and making it more available for our fans overall.”
The WHL is doing their research though as they look to roll out changes either next season or the following. Robison said, “The good thing about the hockey world is that we all work together very closely… We also have the Ontario and Quebec leagues that have been working on different models in terms of presentations of the games and the standards that we have for video within our own facilities… We are going to try to learn from as many other partners that we have out there and make sure that we can deliver a good product moving forward.”
The other aspect of technology the Western Hockey League is focused on is their video replay system. “We have an excellent system; we have the Hawk-Eye system which is NHL quality. Major League Baseball started with it, so we feel very confident with it and our systems and technology” Robsion described. “I think the broadcast platform, which feeds into the overall video replay system, and our capabilities for our in-venue broadcasting becomes really important in the future. We have made significant improvements, but we want to make further improvements to deliver that in-game, higher level of standard for the broadcast. It is a great service for our fans, but is also really important from a hockey standpoint as well.”
As much as the WHL wants to improve their technology, Robison also pointed out a potential pitfall, “It also lends itself to people staying home and not attending the games live. There really is no substitute of attending games live and that is a challenge every sport, league faces.”
NHL coming to Seattle and the impact to the U.S. Division
Seattle will have an NHL franchise starting with the 2021-2022 season and many have questioned the impacts the 32nd NHL team will have on the U.S. Division, specifically on the Everett Silvertips and Seattle Thunderbirds.
However, the WHL commissioner feels they “are very well positioned. We think again that the NHL Seattle team will just do nothing more than increase interest in the game, knowledge of the game, and so forth. We have Everett positioned to the north, and then the Seattle Thunderbirds to the south. As a result, that will result in more support for those franchises. The overall position is we have is that we are really looking forward to partnering with them to help grow the game throughout the Pacific Northwest, not just the Seattle area where we have been well entrenched in the Everett market and the Seattle Thunderbirds brand as well.”
Robison also spoke on how he feels it will generate “interest and help grow the game at the grass roots level. I’ve talked a lot about obviously the fan base how excited the city of Seattle is, but I think it is going to have a tremendous impact on hockey participation for both young boys and girls because there will be more interest in the game, there will be more facilities built, and consequently the game will grow.”
Winnipeg relocation to shake up 2019-2020 schedule
With the Kootenay ICE relocating to Winnipeg starting next season, the WHL schedule will see multiple adjustments.
With 12 teams in the Eastern Conference and only ten in the Western Conference there is always going to be an unbalanced schedule. The U.S. Division was no exception to the schedule as the Spokane Chiefs played the ICE five times this season while the other four U.S. Division teams each only played Kootenay once at home. (The Chiefs went 5-0 against the ICE)
“There were some unique features to our schedule largely due in part to geographics,” Robison explained. “There was a natural obviously between Spokane and Kootenay in the past. Now that will adjust itself and will alter the Eastern Conference in particular to a great extent.
One of the teams most impacted by the move will be the Brandon Wheat Kings. Ron said, “Certainly Brandon for the first time will have a natural rival, which in this (U.S.) Division you know very well how important that is.”
Swift Current will also see the biggest adjustment to their schedule as they move to the Central Division as the ICE move to the East Division. “Certainly our objective is to always balance the two conferences if we could, but we will have that in-balance. I think Winnipeg will be a great addition. That will give [Swift Current] a little bit more variety of teams that will come into their building. It will be an adjustment, but I think our teams are looking forward to what it is going to look like next season.”
WHL continues to focus on community involvement
Robison was asked how the WHL can increase their focus and emphasis on supporting positive movements including organizations like Hockey Gives Blood.
“First of all, we are really engaged in a number of different, very worthwhile causes and community involvement” the commissioner said. “Those are areas which we are actually exploring right now. We are hopefully putting together programs that can expand those areas and engage them more directly with our teams through corporate partners we’ve had.”
A couple of examples Ron gave were, “working with Don Cherry and his family, with ReMax, one of our partners in Western Canada. We are one of the largest contributions that is made to the Kidney Foundation and promotion of Oregon donation overall. So whether it is Hockey Gives Blood, or other promotional programs, we hope to build those in the future.”
