WSHL’s Vancouver Devils Appear To Have Gone Dormant For 2021-22

While there has been no official word from the Western States Hockey League or the Vancouver Devils themselves, it appears that the team has gone dormant for the 2021-22 WSHL season. Noted on the Western States Hockey Talk Facebook group, the team has been scrubbed from the WSHL’s website for the coming season.

Slated to play in the WSHL’s Northwest Division, the move isn’t entirely unexpected, as Vancouver would have been the lone Canadian team within the division that also includes teams in Washington, Oregon, and Utah. Other leagues featuring Canadian and American teams have already begun adjusting schedules or seeing other teams go dormant, due to the COVID-19 restrictions that are still taking place at the US/Canada border.

The lone American team in the OJHL, the Buffalo Jr. Sabres, had previously announced their dormancy for this season. While in the BCHL, the league has decided to have the Wenatchee Wild remain on the road to start the season, playing exclusively in Canada and hoping that the border situation allows for international travel later in the season.

While it could be suggested that the team could have been moved to the Provincial Division to play the other Canadian teams in the league, the Devils’ closest opponent would have gone from two hours away (Bellingham), to nine hours away (Hinton) in that situation. Not only would it have extremely raised the travel budget for Vancouver, it also would have then raised the budgets for the Alberta teams to travel to Vancouver as well.

With the loss of Vancouver, the WSHL now looks at having 10 teams in their comeback season with five teams in the US and five in Canada. Teams have advertised that the league is shooting for a start on the weekend of October 29th, and indications that a schedule would be coming soon.