February 5, 2019, Mississauga, ON – At this year’s January 10th Hockey Canada cut down (where team rosters must be officially reduced to 23 players for the balance of the season), an issue occurred in the communications with teams within both the OJHL and the OHA with the result being that a small number of trades (6 in fact) were technically submitted after the deadline time.  Hockey Canada moved to an exact time (7 pm ET) while the CJHL moved to a 6 pm ET trade deadline across Canada in an effort to produce more competitive fairness nationally. 

Due to no fault of their own, a small number of teams within the OJHL and a much larger number of teams under the OHA footprint submitted trades after the cut down timelines, which were erroneously approved based on the old timing standards. 

The OHF and CJHL have each applied stringent sanctions against the OJHL impacting its teams and players. While the OJHL does not agree with the sanctions imposed, the league has exhausted all avenues of appeals available to it on this matter and is taking steps to mitigate against an issue of this nature arising in the future. 
The OJHL has begun an internal review of all five (5) levels of governance, constitutions, by-laws, rules and regulations that the league must abide by and follow to ensure the proper processes are in place moving forward. While the OJHL is one of the few Junior hockey leagues in Canada that has provisions requiring the sign off from players on trades, this review will encompass all processes for player movement both within the OJHL and outside of the OJHL.
While the league will have no further comment on this matter, the OJHL will continue to be the developmental engine of junior hockey in Canada and will continue to develop better and more innovative ways to improve the experience of all players - both on and off of the ice.

About the OJHL – “League of Choice”

The Ontario Junior Hockey League is the largest Junior ‘A’ league operating under the auspices of the

Canadian Junior Hockey League with 22 member clubs. A proud member of the CJHL and Ontario

Hockey Association, the OJHL was originally named the Ontario Provincial Junior ‘A’ Hockey League and it was formed out of the Central Junior ‘B’ Hockey League in 1993-94. With a long and storied history of developing players for the next level, including U Sports, the NCAA, CHL, minor pro ranks and the NHL, the OJHL had more than 135 commitments in 2017-18, including 65 NCAA Division I scholarships.