Will the WHL champs ever reside in Saskatchewan?

Will a team from Saskatchewan ever again win a Western Hockey League championship?

It provided for an interesting topic on the bus ride up to Prince George the other day.

It got me thinking.

Is it only coincidence that since the Swift Current Broncos won the league championship in 1993, not one team, not even one franchise based in Saskatchewan has raised the league championship trophy over it's head?

That's a dry spell of 13 years.

Since 1980, or a span of 26 years only four Saskatchewan based teams have won the league crown.
Swift Current twice in 1989 and 1993, Prince Albert in 1985 and Regina in 1980.

Sure the Moose Jaw Warriors advanced all the way to the finals last year, but did they win it?

The Regina Pats were at the Memorial Cup in 2001, but that hardly counts, considering they were the host team.

I'm not trying to take a swipe at the province I was born and raised in, but it makes you wonder why teams based there have had little success over the last decade of even challenging for a W.H.L championship.

Is recruiting the issue?

The W.H.L front office in Calgary won't admitting it, but some G.M's I've talked too say teams outside of Saskatchewan have a distinct advantage in obtaining better players.

The reason?

a) Bigger arena's=greater revenue for scouting
b) A perception that these 5 centres are less attractive places for players from Europe, the U.S and Western Canada.

And to make matters worse, which province has produced the best young talent over the last five years?

British Columbia!

In fact in the last five bantam drafts, a B.C born kid has been selected first overall 3 times.

The exceptions are this years draft where Vancouver's Landen Ferraro was picked 2nd overall by Red Deer while Ben Maxwell of North Vancouver was selected 2nd overall by Kootenay in 2003.

Why is it so bad for Saskatchewan based teams that the province of B.C is developing some of the best junior talent in Western Canada?

Whether it's right or wrong, B.C born players or in most cases their parents, are not overly enthusiastic about having their son playing out on the prairies.

Is it only coincidence that only 21 players from B.C play in Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Regina, Swift Current and Saskatoon?

The 21 players born from B.C on Saskatchewan based teams amount to just 4.2 players per team, with Moose Jaw, Swift Current and Regina leading the way with just 5 each.

You can throw the Brandon Wheat Kings into the mix if you want, but it doesn't make the number look any better, in fact it makes it worse.

The Wheat Kings haven't had a B.C kid in their lineup in 5 straight seasons.
The last one to play for Kelly McCrimmon's crew was Ryan Craig from Abbotsford, who wore a Wheat Kings jersey in 2002-2003.

By contrast the Central division has 30 B.C born players, with Kootenay leading the way with 8 players followed closely by Calgary and Lethbridge with 7 each.

My guess is B.C born players want to stay closer to home and team's in Saskatchewan have come to the realization it's a crap shoot to get them should they draft them, so why bother?

Forty nine (49) players are on the five teams based in B.C, with the Kelowna Rockets leading the way with a whopping 14, followed closely by the Vancouver Giants with 11.

The U.S division also has problems attracting players from this province, with just 25 combined. Everett leads the way with 8 B.C born kids followed by Seattle with 6.

But the numbers are intriguing.

Here is the breakdown:

BC Division: 49 BC players
Central Division: 30 BC players
U.S Division: 25 BC players
Eastern Division: 21 BC players

While I don't have a definitive answer as to why Saskatchewan based teams have been unable to hoist the league championship trophy, a solution needs to be found and a level playing field must be established or the Western Hockey League will see small market teams like Swift Current, Moose Jaw and Prince Albert vanish once the fans clue in that their team just can't compete when it comes to recruiting.

It won't happen this year...but will it happen 10 years from now?.

I hope not.

But as concerned as I am, what matters is how league Governors view the apparent inequality that has Saskatchewan teams treated as second class citizens sitting on the sidelines when the league champion is declared.

It happens year after year after year!

While league officials talk about how important these teams are to the long term stability of the league, I still question if the W.H.L head office in Calgary really cares?

The lack of league championships won by Saskatchewan based teams over the last 3 decades tells me they don't.