By  Mike Stackhouse /

The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League is bringing its holy grail to your town.

League president Laury Ryan announced in early January, the inaugural President’s Tour, which will see Ryan and various other members of the league’s front office visit each and every SJHL centre.

They’ll bring with them, the newly renamed Credit Union Cup as well as the SJHL Showcase Of Awards, and a ballot box to give fans an opportunity to win a number of prizes.

“The SJHL believes in upholding tradition, so we have not changed the trophy that the teams play for, but we are proud to announce a new multi-year agreement with the Credit Union for the naming rights to our league’s top prize,” said Ryan.

“At the same time, we really want to make each visit a real event for all of our centres. We’ll hold press conferences at the local Credit Union in the morning and then have a lunch with various board members before returning to the arena at five o’clock to unveil the trophies and interact with fans.

“The fans are also encouraged to stop by and enter our draws, where the grand prize is an SJHL President’s Pass. That pass will get one lucky fan into all games next season free of charge and the fan is free to use that in any arena. So, it is basically a league-wide season ticket,” said Ryan.

As far as the Showcase Of Awards is concerned, the SJHL has, in recent years, moved away from holding a league banquet to award individual trophy winners — instead, coming directly to the arena of the player who wins each trophy.

The presentation is made prior to the opening faceoff of a game and the intent is for all fans to get an opportunity to see their home player accept a prestigious honor.

This is now what is called the Showcase Of Awards, so Ryan says each individual award will be part of this President’s Tour.

“What we have is a display of all of our awards in plaque form from the origins of the league. For some, this will be quite a walk down memory lane. You will easily be able to see who was the SJHL’s top defenceman in 1980 or the rookie of the year in 1976. This is a great opportunity for people, and one of our tag lines is ‘Rich Tradition, Strong Future,’ so we want to pay homage to our strong tradition, and this is one way to do it.

The tour started in Yorkton on Jan. 14 and moved to Weyburn on Jan. 16, and Estevan on the 17th.  Other dates on the tour are Nipawin (20th), Humboldt (21st), Notre Dame (Feb. 2), Kindersley (3rd), Melfort (4th), Battlefords (5th), Melville (7th), La Ronge (11th), and Flin Flon (17th).

In the end, the SJHL also hopes to rinkindle the playoff fire in some centres as there are as many as eight teams that have legitimate shots at winning the Credit Union Cup.  

The Humboldt Broncos have laid claim to the cup for each of the last two years and Yorkton won it for each of the two years prior to that. The Broncos would be odds-on favorites to win again, but Yorkton is in the mix of contenders looking to unseat them.