By Jesse McGowan

BCHL EXPANSION

Cranbrook scores BCHL team, divisions to be reformatted

Oct 8, 2019 | 7:14 PM

The big news from the BC sporting world today is that the Spruce Kings will have a new opponent come next season. A little more than eight months ago, the WHL’s Kootenay ICE were lifted out of Cranbrook and relocated to Winnipeg. Now, the community will have a BCHL team to get behind, in the Cranbrook Bucks. The team will be led by Majority Owner and President Nathan Lieuwen, who played four seasons with the Kootenay ICE before carrying on to play in the AHL. The interesting part is, the addition of Cranbrook will spark a realignment of the current BCHL divisions, meaning their could be some new divisional rivals should the Spruce Kings be moved around. When the two teams do meet, it will mean at least 10 hours of travel.