SJHL Commissioner Bill Chow is optimistic the league will begin on time on Sept. 11, even amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (file photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

SJHL AGM

SJHL AGM set for June 6, will be different than usual

May 26, 2020 | 9:00 AM

The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) is preparing for what is expected to be a much different season than normal.

The first step in planning for the 2020/2021 season is the Annual General Meeting (AGM) set for Saturday, June 6. Most years, the AGM takes place at the Evergreen Centre in Nipawin. However, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the AGM will be done virtually this year either by Zoom, or by a conference call.

SJHL Commissioner Bill Chow said they’ll talk about the typical yearly things like scheduling, rule changes, and finances, but this year, they’ll have to talk about changing with the times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chow said they are somewhat at the mercy of health authorities, and hockey’s governing bodies like Hockey Canada and the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL).

“Obviously we have to adapt to what they’re going to be instructing us to do when it comes to personal hygiene, and safety for our players, our staff,” he said. “And our fans as well.”

Chow said when it comes to the challenges of having a meeting virtually like this, he’s not too worried about checking things off their ‘to-do list’, but more the technological side and making sure everyone is on board and can have their voices heard.

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“When it comes to whatever type of meeting we have, it’ll just be making sure that everybody has the ability to have their say and make sure that we take our time and get things done that we need to get accomplished,” Chow told northeastNOW. “And of course there’s a lot of unknowns, so we’ll probably have a lot of unanswered questions by the time we’re done.”

On March 12, Hockey Canada announced the cancellation of all of their sanctioned events, including their national championships like the Centennial Cup. There hasn’t been an official date announced as to when Hockey Canada has halted events until, but in an open letter to Canadians, they said they’re working with provincial health authorities, and governments to determine a plan to return to hockey when it is safe to do so.

Chow said for the SJHL right now, they are still hoping to begin their regular season on time, on Sept. 11.

“Right now, we’re going with the assumption that it will be business as usual,” he said. “And that’s somewhat a little bit hopeful but I think that’s the only way we can plan things right now, is that business will be as usual.”

That would mean training camps begin at the end of August into early September.

However, he added they’ll have to be ready to adapt to changing circumstances.

“If things don’t transpire that way, then of course obviously we will make adjustments accordingly and move things backwards,” Chow said. “And we’ll just kind of see how long of a delay there is and adjust everything that we have to do to make things work and to make sure that we have a full season played this year.”

As always, teams will roughly plan out their schedules at the AGM as they discuss with other teams and plan out when they’ll play. However, unknowns still remain on when leagues will be able to hit the ice again. Arenas are part of Phase Four of the Re-Open Saskatchewan Plan, and that phase doesn’t even have a set date yet.

“Right now I think the easiest way to do it is to look at what a full season would look like starting Sept. 11,” Chow said. “And then of course we’d have to look at when in fact we do get to start, what do we do with that part of the season?”

Chow said an option would be to tack on the first part of the season onto the end of the regular season and have the playoffs extend a little bit later.

Public gatherings also remain a bit of a challenge for the SJHL with it being a gate driven league. Phase Four would only see gatherings upped to 30 people.

Meanwhile, June 5 will be the SJHL’s Bantam Draft, northeastNOW will have a story later this week on what that will look like.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6