It was an a little more than a year ago that Estevan was hosting the Western Canada Cup (WCC) junior A hockey championship.
The tournament was a junior hockey fan’s paradise. Estevan hadn’t seen hockey of that calibre since the Western Hockey League Bruins left Estevan for New Westminster in 1971.
The WCC was a success on the ice, but it was also a hit off the ice. It made money, which is something it hadn’t done in its previous three editions.
Due to those off-ice issues, there were questions about the future of the tournament, beyond 2017, even before the puck was dropped in Estevan 13 months ago.
Those concerns have come to fruition. This year’s tournament in Penticton, B.C., will be the last.
And I’m sad to see the WCC go.
It was great junior hockey. There were a lot of players in that tournament who will play professional hockey. One of the players we were treated to watching was Cale Makar, the pint-sized defenceman from the Alberta league’s Brooks Bandits. He’ll likely be a top-10 pick in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft.
The Estevan WCC champions, the West Kelowna Warriors, went on to win the RBC Cup national championship. They beat the Bandits in the WCC final and in the RBC Cup semifinal.
I’ll argue the hockey at the WCC was better than the hockey at the RBC Cup. The junior A loops in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan are the best in the country; these leagues were represented at the WCC. The Western Canada Cup wasn’t diluted by having an entry from Atlantic Canada or Quebec.
The tournament also provided another opportunity for young players to showcase their talent for scouts in attendance. Many of these players, particularly from Saskatchewan and Manitoba, wouldn’t have that opportunity to play before those scouts, and you can be sure performances at the WCC created opportunities that wouldn’t have existed otherwise.
Despite the higher calibre of hockey, the WCC wasn’t as popular with scouts as the RBC Cup, and it didn’t create the drawing card for talent like the RBC Cup.
And one of the telling moments of the WCC in Estevan came when the Warriors didn’t lift the tournament trophy after beating Brooks 6-0 in the final. It was like a team winning the Western Conference or the Eastern Conference in the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs, and not lifting the trophy.
Estevan can take pride that we put on one heck of a tournament. There was a tremendous sponsors’ dinner with guest speaker Brian Burke that kicked off the tournament. The tournament was a tremendous showcase of Affinity Place, and it was great to see the Bruin history wall that added just before the tournament began.
And the WCC allowed people to see Estevan’s great volunteers base and wonderful people.
How big of a deal was the Western Canada Cup in Estevan? My dad timed his annual trip to Saskatchewan to ensure he would be out here to catch a few of the games.
These are the highlights, in addition to the hockey, that I will remember from the Western Canada Cup.
Estevan showed in that nine-day span that we could host a top hockey tournament. It won’t be the last.
Regardless of whether it’s the World Junior A Hockey Challenge or the RBC Cup, we’ll get another marquee competition here one day. It will require a lot of great volunteers and a lot of planning, but the day is coming.
And you can be sure that when Estevan gets the chance to host one of these tournaments, we’ll do a great job. It will be done right. Just like the Western Canada Cup.
