Wee) Junior Hockey Travis Paterson, OP Features Editor Returns to New Westminst WHA Junior West Hockey League In 1971, twelve inspired hockey entrepreneurs gathered enough resources to create the World Hockey Association, a professional hockey league, that would rival the NHL. And, in one of professional hockey’s greatest turning points, the WHA secured credibility when prior to their inaugural season of 1972-73 the Winnipeg Jets lured NHL superstar Bobby Hull from the Chicago Blackhawks for an unheard of $1,000,000 signing. Turn the clock forward to 2006, and Bobby Hull is now the WHA’s commissioner, and holds a seat in their board of directors. Today’s WHA however, is vastly different than the “outlaw” league of the 70’s. There are six teams in the startup Junior West Hockey League, and each jersey is an authentic replicate of an original WHA team uniform: New Westminster Whalers (New England), Osoyoos Spurs (Denver), Squamish Cougars (Chicago), Lumby Fighting Saints (Minnesota), Bellingham Bulls (Birmingham), and Armstrong Sharks (Los Angeles). Hockey in the Royal City The city of New Westminster is rich in hockey history, dating back to the first professional hockey league on the west coast. Playing out of the same rink as the Vancouver Millionaires, the New Westminster Royals competed in the short lived Pacific Coast Hockey Association of 1910-12. The PCHA was started by the legendary Patrick brothers, who invested too heavily into a west coast market that wasn’t ready for the game. The league collapsed before the Royals had a chance to play in their own rink. The first team to officially play out of New West were the 1940 Royals in the newly organ- ized Pacific Coast Hockey League. At the time, the recently constructed Queens Park Arena was expanded to accommodate spectators, where the semi-pro Royals played until 1959, their last seven seasons of which were in the WHL. The third Royals team was established in 1967, lasting until 1971 in the amateur British Columbia Junior Hockey League. The very next season, a powerful Estevan Bruins franchise was relocated into Queens Park, leading to one of the greatest success stories in Major Junior history. Under the iron fisted leadership of Ernie “Punch” McLean, the Bruins were the first club from the WHL to win the Memorial Cup in back-to-back years and won the WHL champi- onship four years running from 1975-78. In 1981, Peter Pocklington, then owner of the Edmonton Oilers, moved the storied New Westminster Bruins of the Western Hockey League franchise to Kamloops where they exist today as the Kamloops Blazers. Many Bruins’ alumni went on to successful careers in the NHL including Canucks, Cliff Ronning and Stan Smyl, Giants head coach Don Hay, and players like Mark Recchi and Craig Berube. Later, a reincarnated Bruins club appeared briefly, but failed to recreate their past-success and folded after the 1987-88 season. Without a proper venue to replace the aged Queens Park Arena, the WHL never returned to New Westminster. The last junior team to skate in Queens Park were the 1991 Royals of the BCJHL, fifteen years ago. The WHA Returns After seven years the WHA proved they wouldn’t go away, forcing a monumental agreement with the NHL. In 1979 the NHL expanded to include the Quebec Nordiques, Hartford Whalers, Winnipeg Jets, and Edmonton Oilers from the WHA, while in return the remaining WHA teams were dissolved. Spring forward to 2006, and the WHA is back, this time as a junior hockey league for play- ers up to 20 years old. The brains behind the new WHA is current President Ricky Smith, who’s father was one of twelve investors to launch the original WHA in 1972. As for the quality of play, Smith believes they will offer a product that equals the local Pacific International Junior Hockey League, if not better. “Maybe it’s a 60-40 split of Junior A and Junior B, but I could care less of what other people think, I care what the fans think,” said Smith at the Whalers Sept. 24th home opener versus the Osoyoos Spurs. In the spring of 2004 the WHA, led by Smith and a set of different investors, made a big splash in the media when they released a list of current NHLers who had committed to play in a six-team tournament scheduled during the NHL lockout. Keith Primeau and other NHLers went on record saying they believed it would be a competitive league, but it never materialized. Speaking about the failed attempt to resurrect the WHA as a professional league, Smith said, “that [group] had no money, no capital, no hockey experience, no desire.” Though Smith was involved in the previous WHA comeback, he is much happier with the current status of the WHA, and believes in the need for an alternative junior program in Canada and the United States. A lot of attention fell on the WHA when they announced their plans to operate as an organization that’s unaffiliated with Hockey Canada and Hockey USA. Smith said “I don’t lose sleep over it, you don’t see me writing letters back and forth like Hockey Canada does,” citing a mix of politics and bureaucracy that Smith believes the league can do without. “If we’re so insignificant, they’re spending a whole lot of time thinking about 14.1 OTHER PRESS OCTOBER 5 2006 ‘a 8 us and writing about us. We don’t need them and they don’t need us.” Smith and the WHA felt that being labeled an “outlaw league” was an unfair ju before the season had started, and the WHA believe in their passion for the game. Speaking on the players, league CFO Rieghardt van Enter said, “At the end of [players] don’t care about this and that, they just want to play hockey, they’re giving working hard everyday.” Van Enter said, “Its not just about hockey. I don’t know h kids are going to make it to the NHL, and if so, great, we got a great scouting dep its also about developing kids for life, getting them in the right path and saying, ‘th to life than hockey and you need to be a well balanced individual.”’ The WHA plans to expand into BC, as well as start a second league in Ontario 2007-08 season. New Westminster Whalers Whalers home games are at 2:15pm every Sunday, a testament to the WHA’s fa commitment. Leading the Whalers in their first season is Head Coach Garry Unger, an NHL fifteen years, and a professional coach since 1989. Along with Unger, fellow NHL« Hull was on hand to drop the puck for the ceremonial face-off, and to monitor th grandson Jonathan Hull who started in net for the Whalers. The Whalers jerseys are a slight variation of the 1972 kit worn by the New En; Whalers, with a third jersey using a black chest and sleeve behind the green “‘W? A feature for the league, van Enter told the Other Press the jerseys are currently bein tured and would soon be on sale during home games. THURSDAY ed IS STUDENT NIGHT!