1980 Off-season part 2: News

New CIHA President Randy Howard had been checking out all three league drafts this year, and he saw some numbers of players from Europe being drafted. He may consider putting together an import draft, but the numbers are not big enough. But if more Europe players are being drafted next year, then Randy and the trio presidents would be in a meeting about creating the import draft.

With new uniforms made by the KI-LO, all three Presidents announced that teams will have to wear white jerseys in their home games and dark uniforms for road games. The only teams that did not sit well with them were the Lethbridge Cougars, who wore their green jerseys at 90% of all their home and road games, and the Saskatoon Cats were at 90% of both home and road games in white. 

After rumours turned into real news, James Name announced that two new teams would be added to the WCLH. The two teams are from B.C., one from Chilliwack and the other from Surrey. Both got arenas to play in, and the owners successfully put together a staff. The only thing left for them is the expansion draft which will happen after the 1980-81 season; after that, both teams will be ready for the 1981-82 season.

The 1980-81 season marks the Lethbridge Cougars' 75th anniversary. Once started as an amateur pro club in the early 1900s until 1939, the team lost half of the roster to WW2. To keep the team afloat, they brought in some young players younger than 18. In 1946 WW2 ended, but the amateur pro league they were part of the ceased operation. They decided to change their status as a junior club with nowhere else to go and a roster full of under 18-year-old players. They played different junior leagues until, in 1950, they found a league to stay put known as the WCLH. One year into the WCLH, the Cougars won their first Jade Trophy by beating the league's first champions, the Edmonton Bulldogs; after that, they won four more titles before the league joined with 2 other leagues to form the CIHA. In 1975 the Cougars won their first Valor Cup championship. They will wear unique uniforms just for the 1980-81 season. After that, they will go back to their regular set.

It's official, Gerald Herbco is no longer the owner of the Kitchener Generals; the ownership belongs to Todd Holmes, it took 4 years for Todd to finish the purchase of the team, and with Todd now the team owner, the OMJHA rules go if became the owner of a club that person cannot be GM nor coach of the team with that Todd announced that Tyler Shaw will be the new G.M. of the Kitchener Generals, Tyler used to be assistant G.M. with the Barrie Admirals. The Generals will move forward into the Todd Holmes era without Patrick Herbco as he chose to commit to a pro hockey career as he got drafted by the Ottawa pro hockey club 5th overall.

The Kitchener Generals are not the only team that the ownership changed hands; it was announced that Patrick Tobin has sold the Oshawa Diamonds to Prime Motors, and the President of Prime Motors said in an interview that they are going to rename the team after the 1980-81 season, many fans felt that they should keep the name. Still, at the same time, they understand because Hornet Co. got a vehicle named Diamond.

The day after the OMJHA draft, Franklin Name felt ill after meeting with doctors; he was diagnosed with heart disease. Two days after that, Franklin announced that he was stepping down from his job and named Tom Van Ryan the new President of the OMJHA. Tom is a big-shot lawyer from Toronto who got a good knowledge of the league, but many other owners felt that he is being too distracted over his vision of adding more teams which shows that within two weeks in his job, he said two teams for the 1982-83 season the locations are Brantford and Orillia. Many owners questioned his focus on growing the league than helping teams that had financial problems.

One team that is having financial issues is the Burlington Metros; despite sell-outs, games to even making a profit but for some odd reason, they are losing money which angered the team's owner John Lewis who demands answers on what is going on with the bank company, but Tom Van Ryan told John that everything will be okay and will find answers soon. There are signs that John Lewis could be jumping off the OMJHA wagon and joining the SWOHL; if that happens, it would be a big blow to the league in a bad way.

Paul Name got some good news; he found some businessmen putting some good money into building new arenas for Val-d'Or and Rouyn-Noranda. If things go well, both could start in time for the 1982-83 season. Many questions "what about other cities outside of Quebec?" so far, only one and that one is from Charlottetown P.E.I. the town still got a minor pro hockey team there, but after the 1981-82 season ends, that team will relocate elsewhere, and the town will join the AQHL for the 1983-84 season.

The Sherbrooke Loups office just moved into their brand-new arena named the Arena Commemorative de Sherbrooke (Sherbrooke Memorial Arena), with a capacity of 4000. It could add more seats to the arena if they want to. Allen Poulette Jr is happy with the new arena. "Today is a great day; ever since I took over the team from my father, my goal was for this team to get a new arena to be built, and I did just that now with the team is being rebuilt to be the top team in the league we will have a good run in our new arena." Allen Jr. said in an interview with the Sherbrooke Post. The team will also enter their new arena with a new look as the KI-LO jersey deal is required league-wide. The Loups took advantage of it along with other teams across the leagues, as their set will be showcased during the 1980 CIHA Valor Star Tournament.