The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) and the Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL) are joining forces to present the Western All-Star Challenge. This pivotal event serves as a pre-selection camp for the prestigious World Junior A Challenge and Team Canada West, offering a platform for young talents to showcase their skills and potentially launch their careers.
The Western All-Star Challenge, set to take place from November 4th to 6th in Warman, SK, will be a highly competitive pre-selection camp. It will determine at least 20 Team Canada West training camp spots. This challenge will host the top 19U players from western Canada vying for the opportunity to represent Canada at the World Junior A Challenge (WJAC) in December.
The Team Canada West coaching staff will put players through their paces in the training camp format, including four practices and two full-length games where players will showcase their talents. The staff of both leagues will cover the event thoroughly to promote every young man selected to attend. Additionally, we expect interest from scouts of all levels from the National Hockey League.
IKS Media, the SJHL’s Media and Communications partner, is expected to broadcast all the games at the event live on FloHockey.
The top twenty prospects from this camp will attend Team Canada West’s main camp in Calgary in late November.
The World Junior A Challenge is an annual event held by Hockey Canada that features some of the top national teams and players from around the world who maintain eligibility for NCAA scholarships.
Forty of the top prospects from the MJHL and SJHL will compete for training camp roster spots for the World Junior A Challenge and Team Canada West, which are being held in Camrose, Alberta. Canada West is the defending World Junior A Challenge champion.
“I am excited to continue our work with the Manitoba Junior Hockey League and Hockey Canada on the Stay Here Play Here campaign,” said SJHL Commissioner Kyle McIntyre.
“We aim to attract more Saskatchewan kids to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, promising another year of fast-paced, skilled, and entertaining hockey.”
Last season, the SJHL and MJHL saw some of their highest numbers of players successfully transition to post-secondary hockey opportunities. We hope that the SJHL and MJHL provide an opportunity to assist both of our league’s players in making successful transitions to post-secondary hockey opportunities, including at the Usport, ACAC, and NCAA levels and more successful transitions from hockey to the world of work and life.
“We are always looking for ways to grow, change, and develop,” McIntyre added.
“Over the last couple of years, by getting to know many scouts, we wanted to talk about the best opportunity to promote our players. We found they wanted to see the younger guys, so (Manitoba Junior Hockey League Commissioner) Kevin Saurette and I collaborated and discussed having a physical training camp for Team Canada West this year. We wanted to have the best players from Saskatchewan and Manitoba compete for positions at Camp, and that was our goal. I am hopeful we’ll have SJHL staff on the tournament as well, and I know we’ll be able to showcase the top and brightest players from our prairie leagues.”
We hope you will continue to support our players and the SJHL. If you have any questions, please email me at commissioner@sjhl.ca or call me at (306)-741-5991. I look forward to continuing to work with you to support Western Canada’s premier Junior “A” hockey league. Stay Here, Play Here.
We look forward to Showcasing our SJHL talent and our exciting brand of hockey.
