The Western States Hockey League, this off-season, has made an announcement that they are making a return for the 2021-22 Junior Hockey season. At first, we were skeptical at how they could pull this off. Now, it seems that what we discussed on TJHP as of late may be more accurate than originally thought.
Given that we compiled these roster numbers from WSHL Team social media accounts and their personal announcements for their player signings for this season, it cannot be 100% verified. With that being said, they seem to be announcing each player signing, so we believe it is a pretty accurate portrayal of the current roster numbers each team has.
WSHL Northwest Division Roster Numbers
- Bellingham Blazers – 3 Goalies, 3 Skaters
- Utah Altitude – 2 Goalies, 4 Skaters
- Seattle Totems – 5 Goalies, 12 Skaters
- Vernal Oilers – 3 Goalies, 3 Skaters
- Rogue Valley Royals – 0 Players
- Vancouver Devils – 0 Players
Disclaimer – Both Rogue Valley and the Vancouver Devils did not have any social media posts for players signed, so there is a chance that they have some players signed, just not publicly known.
The WSHL season is supposed to start on the last weekend in October, 2021. Given the current roster numbers we are seeing, I just don’t see it being possible for the WSHL to fill rosters in order to have a season. We are sitting at just over a month and a half until the puck is suppose to drop and teams are still in need of a lot of players, just to be able to play a game.
Filling rosters and getting players signed is hard enough during a normal off season, now they need to do all that work in much shortened time frame. It is an impossible job and quite frankly not something that I see being attainable.
I think it is time to start asking questions and pressuring the league to make announcements so players can start searching for other opportunities at the Junior Hockey level. We will continue to follow this and report what we are hearing and seeing and as always, we hope that the WSHL can fill rosters and give Junior Hockey players a great opportunity, but we will have to wait and see.
