British Columbia Hockey League - 2020's
League Years 2020's
The British Columbia Hockey League began the 2020s in the midst of the global Covid-19 Pandemic. The league stuggled to ice a season for 2020-21. After many attempts to configure a schedule, to please all parties, it was eventually scaled down to an abbreviated one. It involved extending the 'Training Season' and shortening the regular season to 20 games of 'Pod Play' with 3 to 4 teams per pod.
2020-21
The Cranbrook Bucks become the league's 18th team.
An extended exhibition season took place from September to November. Cohorts of 4 teams played in 4 different regions which were the Island, Mainland, Kootenay and Okanagan. A 20 game Pod Season(Regular Season) was established where pods consist of 3-4 teams. Pod citys were Port Alberni, Coquitlam, Chilliwack, Penticton & Vernon.
Langley Rivermen & Wenatchee Wild opt out of Pod Season due to covid-9 pandemic related issues.
The Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL) announced, April 9 2021, that the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) has submitted a notice to withdraw their membership from the CJHL, effective March 24th.
Reasons why the BCHL left the CJHL Modernizing-Junior-Hockey-in-Canada.pdf.
2021-22 (60th ANNIVERSARY)
Visiting teams will fly into Washington State and return back across the land border. Players and staff traveling across the border will follow all COVID-19 guidelines, including providing a negative test before crossing into the U.S. and before returning to Canada.
Alberni Valley, Cowichan Valley, Nanaimo and Surrey were originally scheduled to play one-off away games in Wenatchee and will now make those games up amongst each other. Those four home games will not be made up for the Wild, which means they will play 50 games this year instead of 54.
Due to the unbalanced schedule caused by these changes, the BCHL regular-season standings will be determined by point percentage rather than total points.
Due to ongoing floods, road closures and the approaching winter weather, the BCHL will remove all out-of-conference games for the remainder of the 2021-22 season.
2022-23
The BCHL's Board of Governors has voted to not renew the league's agreement with Hockey Canada, meaning its 18 franchises will operate outside Hockey Canada's system (non-sanctioned league) as of June 1, 2023. Read all about it HERE
2023-24
The British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) acknowledged today that the ownership group of the Wenatchee Wild has successfully acquired the Winnipeg Ice of the Western Hockey League (WHL) and will be moving the team to Wenatchee for next season. This will mean the BCHL's Wild franchise will no longer play in Wenatchee.
2020's Season by Season Overview
- 2020-21 Trainin Season, Covid-19 Adjusted
- Cranbrook Bucks enter
- 20 game Pod
Season(Apr2-May9)
5 City Pods, 3-4 teams per Pod - Wenatchee Wild - opted out for Season
Powell River Kings - opted out for Training Season -
No Playoffs
(Cancelled-Covic-19)
Pod Winners
Port Alberni Pod - Victoria Grizzlies
Chilliwack Pod - Prince George Spruce Kinga
Coquitlam Pod - Surrey Eagles
Penticton Pod - Penticton Vees
Vernon Pod - Vernon Vipers
Langley Rivermen - opted out for Pod Season
- 2021-22
- 54 game schedule
Coastal & Interior Conferences - Playoffs:
Top 8 in each Conference: 1v8, 2v7, 3v4, 4v5
4 Round Playoff. - Champion - Penticton Vees
- 2022-23
- 54 game schedule
Coastal & Interior Conferences - Playoffs:
Top 8 in each Conference: 1v8, 2v7, 3v4, 4v5, Re-Seeded each round
4 Round Playoff - Champion - Penticton Vees