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It was a big day for the Western Hockey League’s (WHL) Kootenay Ice, but the announcement that the team was relocating to Winnipeg has implications in Saskatchewan.
Kootenay is currently a part of the league’s six-team central division. The move east means they will join the eastern division for the 2019-2020 season and bump the Swift Current Broncos to the central division.
Swift Current, which has enjoyed storied rivalries with Highway 1 neighbours Regina and Moose Jaw, will play those teams less and spend more time playing in the central division against its Alberta counterparts.
Broncos head coach and director hockey operations Dean Brockman said, “I think our fans will probably be more affected by the rivalry and a rivalry is made within the playoffs. Obviously our rivalry with Regina and Moose Jaw were affected by our last few seasons because of the playoffs.
“Once you go through the playoff run and create that rivalry, it’ll be great. It doesn’t really matter what division you’re in, I think it’ll be the team you play in the playoffs and have that heated series with,” he said.
During the 2017 and 2018 WHL playoffs, Swift Current battled Moose Jaw and Regina in gritty, back-to-back, seven-game playoff series. The Broncos beat the Warriors, then fell to the Pats in 2017; they advanced past both clubs during the 2018 postseason, eventually winning the league championship.
The team’s travel schedule will also be affected as the club has two opponents within 245 kilometres in Saskatchewan, whereas in the central division, the Broncos closest neighbour is Medicine Hat, 224 kilometres away.
Brockman said the team really has to go through an entire travel schedule to see how it’ll be affected by the move to the central division.
“We’re located in a good spot where you could be a part of the central or the division that they put us in, so I think if anything there may be some travel things but our location is in a pretty good spot,” he said. “Certainly everyone was aware of it, and you kind of have to prepare for it. Whether you say if you want to or not isn’t the discussion it’s a matter of how it affects you … you certainly have to oblige what makes sense.”
The Broncos bench boss said he and the team were aware of the potential change going back to the fall. “I think it started in the fall a little bit, and when things got closer there was more and more talk of it.”
Both teams will finish out the 2018-2019 seasons in their current divisions.
— With files from 980 CJME’s Arielle Zerr
