GMHL and Hockey Canada - face to face

Debate over 'outlaw league' could have national implications
by Robert Cribb - Toronto Star Staff Reporter

SHELBURNE, ONT.—On one side of the stage sat Canada’s hockey sheriffs.

On the other, their most wanted outlaws.

In an unprecedented minor hockey gathering Tuesday night, in a town that has become the headquarters for a heated national sporting policy debate, Hockey Canada officials and leaders of the Greater Metro Hockey League were separated by a deep philosophical divide over the importation of foreign hockey players to Canada.

And there’s evidence the debate here has inspired new interest at Canada’s Competition Bureau, which has received anti-competitive complaints about Hockey Canada.

More than half the young players in the GMHL, a 13-team junior “A” league dubbed “outlaw” by Hockey Canada, are from countries including Russia, Finland, Sweden, the U.K. and Australia.

That, according to Hockey Canada policy, is provocation.

Youth hockey rules in Canada preclude non-North American players from suiting up below the major junior level — a restriction designed to focus Canada’s development resources on Canadian talent.

Above that level, Hockey Canada places a strict limit of two “imports” per team.

The Shelburne Red Wings, featured in a major Star story last month, have emerged as the most prominent symbol of the GMHL’s middle-finger contempt for those anti-foreign restrictions. Read more...