[EHM 2004]WHL Guide - by Jeff Riddolls

[archibalduk]

The National Hockey League is by far the best hockey league in the world. But it has to get its players from somewhere, and the Western Hockey League is one of the top providers of young talent to the NHL. Dozens of WHL players are selected each year in the big league’s entry draft, and many of the game’s elite players passed through the arenas of Western Canada in their late teens. The league’s 20 teams, made up of players between the ages of 14 and 20, compete over a 72-game schedule, as well as a playoff that determines which team will move on to Canada’s national junior hockey championship tournament, the Memorial Cup. The top four teams in each of the four divisions make the playoffs.



Geographically, the league is based in the four western Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, and the American states of Oregon and Washington. Most of the young players in this area with dreams of playing in the NHL aim to make it to the WHL first (although some instead opt to play college hockey in the United States).



WHL teams select the best talent in an annual draft of 15-year-olds, done in reverse order of the previous season’s standings. Most of those players aren’t playing in the league regularly until they’re at least 16, and after that are allowed to play through the year of their 19th birthday. Each team is also allowed to carry three “overageâ€