June 13, 2024
The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey league recently held its Annual General Meeting June 6-8 in Nipawin, SK. The event was attended by league governors, sponsors, coaches and SJHL staff. It was a great opportunity to build relationships among our partners, celebrate last years’ success and to continue to build plans for improvement for the future.
In addition to reviewing strategic plans, discussing changes to league rules and league discipline, the AGM featured updates from the SJHL Department of Player Safety Brad Howard, an update from the SJHL Director of Marketing Jacob Faith, and a ‘State of the Union’ update from Commissioner Kyle McIntyre.
As a league, we believe we need to continue to evolve to continue to remain relevant in the 21st Century junior hockey landscape. We are actively searching for ways to improve the experience of our players.
To that end, we are exploring avenues such as video review to aid our officials in making prompt and accurate calls, finding new and creative ways to show off our league’s talent at inter and intra-league Showcases, and are committed to a continued large investment in the media and marketing of our players, staff, and organizations through innovative social media content, and the broadcast quality of games.
SJHL Training Camps will open September 5th and the regular season schedule will kick off September 20th. Our schedule will feature a 56-game season, and a return to a balanced schedule wherein each club will play division rivals eight times, and every other team four times.
The playoffs will begin March 21st with the Canterra Seeds Cup Champion Melfort Mustangs hoping to repeat as champions.
“It is an exciting time for the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. We are coming off a highly successful season with the Melfort Mustangs beings awarded the second ever Canterra Seeds Cup and finishing second in the nation. Last season over 260, 000 fans attend an SJHL game.
Our board of governors developed strategic plans in Hockey Operations, Business Operations and in Marketing and social media. I am very pleased to say that we continue to be on track and our league made significant gains on the provincial and national level, but recognize that there is always work to be done to continue to remain competitive and to continue to make our league premier, “ said Chairman Kyle Adamson.
“This past year we wanted to further engage our fans in our communities and throughout our province with our SJHL social media and league programming. I believe we were highly successful with each seeing significant gains in the areas of attendance, social media followership and SaskTel and FloHockey viewership. The average age in the SJHL was 18.8; and over 30% of all players were from Saskatchewan. With strong a commitment to our league sponsors and to our partners at Hockey Saskatchewan, we are committed to putting the “Saskatchewan” back into the SJHL,” Commissioner McIntyre said.
The league is 100 days away from puck drop. The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League and its twelve teams are known for its exceptional player development and its commitment to its players, its people, and the communities it serves.
Stay Here .Play Here. For more information please contact Commissioner Kyle McIntyre commissioner@sjhl.ca
