There are a couple of interesting changes coming to the AJHL next season following their Annual General Meeting last week.
The AJHL AGM was on May 25 and 26. The 2012-2013 season will open on September 7, and conclude on March 2. The schedule will be revealed later this month.
One change that caught the attention of Drumheller Dragons coach and general manager Brian Curran involves 17-year-old players. If a team has a 17-year-old player on their roster after the Showcase Weekend, if the team decides not to keep him, other teams can pick that player up.
“I don’t think it is a change that will effect us drastically because most of us, when we pick our younger player, he is going to be someone who is good enough to be playing in the league. It is not going to be a significant change, but it could play into something down the road,” said Curran.
Another change coming next season is that teams will only be allowed to carry six 20-year-olds on their roster, down from nine last season. Curran says most other leagues have already made these types of changes.
“It was a tough decision because some teams wanted to keep nine. I think it was just an identity thing the league wanted to change to get younger players more involved,” said Curran.
He believes most coaches were in favour of the change, although it does have some downsides for older players.
“It is going to be unfortunate for some of the 20 year olds who’ll be looking for places to play so they will build the strength of other teams,” said Curran.
“It doesn’t affect our team this year, but it very well could the following year.”
Last week the Drumheller Dragons announced the signing of two offensive players, Curran says they will be making more changes as the season rolls closer.
“We are going to be completely different, it’s not going to be anything even close to last year,” said Curran. “We won 17 games, so that lineup for whatever reason was not successful…Some of the kids, there is no question are good enough to play in the AJHL, but you also need to bring in new energy and blood and bring in kids who have not been affected by previous seasons.”
“You hear coaches talk about building and rebuilding, I don think rebuilding is a good word, because rebuilding means a term of time, for me, as competitive as every game is, you have to do whatever you can to win that year… on the same token when you are not a winning team and you haven’t been for several years, it takes a lot of time and good people to help you build your squad.”