INNISFAIL - The Birds of Innisfail are vowing to play on despite the sudden shocking folding of the Allan Cup champion Lacombe Generals.
"We are perfectly fine. We never paid our players," said Ryan Dodd, the general manager of the Innisfail Eagles. "These teams all ran out of money. You can't pay your players. We said that forever. It finally caught up to them. Brian Sutter and I have said this forever. You can't do that. They finally wrecked it."
With the Generals folding, along with the Fort Saskatchewan Chiefs folding 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).
But today Dodd's AAA senior men's hockey team from Innisfail may find a new league to play in - the North Central Hockey League (NCHL), an eight-team senior AA league, that includes eight Alberta-based teams, including ones from Red Deer, Sylvan Lake and Eckville.
"I have asked them to allow us to come play," said Dodd, who is in discussions today (May 28) with officials of Hockey Alberta. He said the meeting today with Hockey Alberta is focused around the issue of whether Innisfail can join the NCHL as the league's sole AAA team.
"But one thing we want to ensure we do is carry our AAA status. That way we will still be able to declare AAA and that we are going to the Allan Cup.
"That is one thing the AA (league) said is that they don't want to have AAA teams in their league but I attended their meeting and they said they would be interested in amending their bylaws to have us in their league but only us. They don't want anybody else," added Dodd.
In the meantime, he was not surprised by the folding of the Lacombe Generals hockey team that just won the Allan Cup in April.
In a letter sent to the Allan Cup Hockey West league (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. "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.
"We are going to find a place to play."
