From the Point: CHL President Dan MacKenzie
Canadian Hockey League President Dan MacKenzie joined Junior Hockey Magazine to discuss the upcoming Memorial Cup presented by Kia, the opportunity to join a national broadcast partner in TSN, and the league’s response to the pandemic:
Junior Hockey Magazine: Is it nice to finally exhale and say we are handing out the Memorial Cup this year?
Dan MacKenzie: It is. There have been some ups and downs this year, given where Omicron took us, but the one thing that has been consistent has been the unbelievable resilience of our players in terms of what they are doing in being ready to play at the highest level as well as from our clubs. Some of our clubs had to deal with attendance limitations or multiple weeks of playing with no fans, but there was a ton of commitment and resilience shown. We are hopeful with all of that in the rearview mirror and looking forward to finishing off the season strong and getting back to a more normalized season next year.
JHM: What is it like to be back on a platform like TSN?
DM: We are really excited about being back on TSN. We knew that it was going to take a bit of time. Broadcast schedules like everything else this past season had disruptions with Omicron. TSN and RDS have been great to work with. We were able to start off the season strong. What we are really looking forward to with TSN is their decision where they will pick up our league’s Championship Series in progress from Game 3 onward. We think that is going to be a really great opportunity for TSN to help us build the storylines going into the Memorial Cup. With the way things are lining up, there are going to be some really outstanding matchups in those series. We are really excited about the commitment TSN has made to promoting the CHL.
JHM: How have your owners and communities been able to make it through the past two-and-a-half years?
DM: The word ‘resilience’ comes up when you talk about that, both players and owners. For our clubs, probably the biggest thing that has really come through loud and clear is how professional and committed our clubs are to the development of the players, whether it was working individually with players in how they were staying in shape in a COVID world and not having access to ice or day-to-day training staff like they would normally, or their commitment to our scholarship program. This year, we are going to see 1,000 former players taking advantage of the scholarship program, which represents a commitment from our owners of about $10 million. That sort of messaging and positioning of the CHL really is the best of both worlds where not only can you play in the best development league in the world and the No. 1 pipeline to the NHL and professional hockey, but also if that doesn’t work out, then we will be there to help these players with their academic pursuits whether it be college, university, or trade school after their hockey career is over. That commitment from our clubs has really shown through for us and it is something we are pretty proud of.
JHM: How important was it to maintain that commitment to the scholarship program during the pandemic?
DM: It is what the CHL is all about. It shows the commitment of our leagues and our commissioners who work with the owners on a more day-to-day basis. That was a commitment we made to our players. A lot of it comes down to, both on and off the ice, making sure we honour our commitments. That was really important for everybody and it is something we are pretty proud of.
JHM: What were your big takeaways from the past two-and-a-half years?
DM: The pandemic definitely slowed down some of the momentum toward some of the changes we were looking at making. The thing about the pandemic that was interesting was it wasn’t just provincial – it was regional, so the way that our clubs dealt with it in certain cities and towns was different than it was in other parts of the country. When I got hired as the first full-time CHL president, the vision was to try to begin to work more nationally, and then we got hit with the pandemic that made people think not just more provincially or league-wide but local. The shift in mindset was probably one of the biggest things I had to adjust to. Hopefully we are now in a situation where we are coming out of it and the mindset shifts back to some long-term strategic planning in terms of where we want to go and where we want the CHL to be going forward. Those were all discussions that we weren’t having 18 months ago when we were just trying to survive, but we are going to start getting those back on the table. I am pretty fortunate to work with some pretty seasoned veterans on the commissioners side and a really good board. We are going to begin to have those discussions in the coming months.