INNISFAIL - Ryan Dodd is as giddy as can be.
The Innisfail Eagles 2024-25 hockey season is about to start.
And Dodd, the team’s general manager who has been Mr. Everything for the franchise since joining the team as a player in the 1998-99 season, is filled with optimism.
There is finally solid proof the long-term survival of the 77-year-old senior men's hockey team is now a fact, not just a hope and a prayer.
The Eagles are beginning their new season with the 10-team North Central Hockey League (NCHL).
The Birds begin their season with an exhibition road game on Sept. 21 against the Wetaskiwin Longhorns. The team will then open its 18-game regular season at home on Sept. 28 against the Red Deer Rustlers.
The NCHL is not AAA, long considered emblematic of senior men’s hockey supremacy.
The NCHL is an AA circuit.
More importantly, the league, which was born in 1994, is healthy unlike the AAA Chinook Hockey League (CHL) that limped along with just two teams last season, the Eagles of Innisfail and the squad’s long-time rival namesake Stony Plain Eagles.
The Eagles will have two natural geographical rivals; the Red Deer Rustlers and the Lacombe Generals; the team, when it was AAA, that defeated Innisfail in 2019 in the Allan Cup final.
And once again there is Stony Plain. The northern birds pulled the trigger first to leave the CHL for the NCHL at the end of last year’s season, and that forced Innisfail’s hand to look seriously at AA hockey.
This gives Innisfail three potential rivalries right off the hop, an exciting prospect for the new season.
“People are like, ‘oh, we're going to be able to go watch all these different teams?’ They're going to be able to see some local product. People are really excited. All nine home games will have a different team,” said Dodd, adding he expects his team will have 15 players from last year ready to suit up this season.
And that includes a roster stacked with homegrown and returning talent, like Josh Gette, Riley Simpson, Dan Vandermeer, Chad Robinson, Ty Clay, Joe Vandermeer, and newcomer Payton Wright.
“The list keeps going on and on,” said Dodd, who is this season’s co-head coach with Kent Wing. “That's one of the things we heard from the local community is that they wanted to really get a feel for the names out on the ice and the people who are there.
“We've got some real good local kids.”
However optimistic Dodd may be for the new season there is one major disappointment.
The dream of finally bringing home a cherished first-ever Allan Cup will have to wait.
Prior to this season the Eagles played in three consecutive Allan Cup challenges and were not able to claim a national senior mens hockey championship.
“I was told to stop chasing the Allan Cup. The league does not want triple A hockey involved,” said Dodd, adding the Eagles, as with all first year NCHL teams, are on probation for their inaugural season in the league. “And then at the end of the season if the team has had no issues they will release the probation, and you'll become a full standing team within the league.
“I got to look at the longevity of the oldest standing senior hockey team in Canada. There's nobody older than the Innisfail Eagles,” Dodd emphasized.
“I sat and I thought about this, and I talked to a lot of people, and you know what? We need to make sure this team is viable and has a league to play in,” said Dodd. “If things change maybe there'll be an opportunity to go back to the Allan Cup.”
But for now, the Eagles will gladly chase a pair of different cups.
In the NCHL the Eagles will set their eyes on the President’s Cup that is awarded to the regular season’s best team, and the Vanberg Cup that is earned by the league’s playoff champion.
“I think we'll be very competitive in the league. These players have had it hard over the last few years with playing one team (Stony Plain) over and over,” said Dodd. “There's a great group of teams in this league. I look at Lacombe and they are the cream of the crop in the league, and Camrose is another great hockey club.
“All these top teams have players that used to be some of our top guys,” added Dodd. “They are not coming to Innisfail to lose.
“Everybody's going to want to come and beat the big bad Eagles, right?”
