INNISFAIL - The hockey Birds of Innisfail are hoping to know in early June whether they will have a league to play in the coming season following the sudden and shocking folding of the Allan Cup champion Lacombe Generals.
Ryan Dodd, the general manager of the Innisfail Eagles, said he was assured by Hockey Alberta officials during a two-hour meeting on May 28 they would talk to the eight-team Alberta-based AA North Central Hockey League (NCHL) if an accommodation can be made to include AAA teams, notably the Innisfail Eagles and the Stony Plain Eagles.
With the Generals folding, along with the Fort Saskatchewan Chiefs ending operations last season and the Rosetown Red Wings also leaving the league, only the Innisfail Eagles and the Stony Plain Eagles are left in the Allan Cup Hockey West league (ACHW).
"I am quite optimistic. I have actually talked to the president of the AA association and he is going to help convince some of these teams to play AAA, even is they are exhibition, and they can get a taste of what our hockey is like," said Dodd. "Some of these teams are going to beat us. It's not like playing Lacombe where they paid their guys. That is what killed the league. They completely blew it up."
As for becoming an official NCHL member for next season, Dodd said those chances now are about "fifty fifty."
"I think some of the teams don't want us, don't want the AAA teams to come in because they just think we pay everybody and all the top players are on our team and we are just going to beat them twenty to nothing. That is the furthest thing from the truth," he said. "Other teams know they can be competitive and play against us, and I think they want that. I've talked to some and they are all on board so I would say it's 50/50."
He said the next step that will decide the Eagles' future is possibly next week when representatives from the Innisfail team, NCHL and the league's current eight teams could get together to make a decision on whether AAA teams are allowed to play in the AA league.
"That is what I am hoping for but nothing has been scheduled yet," he said, adding the Eagles will definitely play in some capacity in the upcoming hockey season with its eye squarely on another trip to the Allan Cup tournament.
"Absolutely. I can send you a picture of my declaration for a AAA application. I just filled it out and sending it to Hockey Alberta right now. We are declaring senior AAA next year," said Dodd. "If that means the AA league won't take us because we are declaring AAA I will find exhibition teams to play against. We are not disappearing. Our quest right now is still to try to capture an Allan Cup for our community. Our community deserves that."
He said a qualifying Allan Cup team does not have to be an official member of any league to be invited to play in the national tournament.
"The Atlantic teams for years and years threw together a team at the last minute and said, 'hey by the way we are coming to the Allan Cup''' noted Dodd.
In the meantime, he was not surprised by the folding of the Lacombe Generals hockey team, a squad that claimed the Allan Cup championship in April by defeating the Eagles in the final game.
In a letter sent to the ACHW on May 24, Jeff McInnis, the general manager of the Lacombe squad, said the team can no longer go on.
“With the current situation we find ourselves in whereas there are only three Senior AAA hockey clubs remaining in Alberta/B.C., we find today to be the right time to hang up our skates and withdraw from the ACHW,” said McInnis in his letter to the league. “The list of issues and contributing factors is as long as my inseam perhaps, but so is the list of things to be grateful for.”
Dodd said he has been trying to get the attention of other team owners, Hockey Alberta and "everybody who would listen" for years about not paying their players but his protests were ignored.
"Everybody said, 'well if (Innisfail) can't afford to pay your players you need to go to another league or figure out a way to pay them','' said Dodd, adding his team will only pay players expenses for fuel, sticks, and equipment but not salaries. "We said no, it is going to kill the league. Everybody said 'no it won't, no it won't.'"
"Well, look at where we sit today," he added. "We are sitting here financially stable. Why? Because we don't pay our players," said Dodd.
