Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League

An Ice Hockey Wiki article.

The Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League is an independent Tier II Junior "A" ice hockey league. They were founded in 2006.

[edit] History

Early rumblings of the GMJHL happened in early 2006. Rumours of a team near Bracebridge, Deseronto, and the attempt at promoting the Bradford Bulls of the Georgian Mid-Ontario Junior C Hockey League to Tier II Junior "A" began to surface. The league was posted soon after and a news article came about of the sale of the Bulls and the announcement that they would join this new league. The teams were announced progressively over the summer: the Bradford Rattlers, Deseronto Thunder, King Wild, Nipissing Alouettes of Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, Richmond Hill Rams, South Muskoka Shield of Gravenhurst, Ontario, and Toronto Canada Moose of Thornhill, Ontario.

The first season served as a highly competitive one. Bradford put up an impressive 37-1-4 record, while King and Richmond Hill battled season long over second place. Possibly the most impressive battle was between Deseronto, Toronto, and Nipissing over the fourth place seed. South Muskoka rounded out the group with a 4-34-4 record. The highlight of the playoffs was the semi-final series between the battle hardened Deseronto Thunder and the well rested Bradford Rattlers who enjoyed a quarter-final bye. The Thunder, already in playoff shape, took both game one and two from the Rattlers. Game three was a long hard battle that was resolved with an overtime victory for the Rattlers. The Rattlers, finally warmed up, took the next three games and the series. In the final they defeated the King Wild 4-games-to-1 to win the first ever Russell Cup as GMJHL champions.

In the early part of the season, the GMJHL forged an agreement with the WHA Junior Hockey League to be known as the National Junior Hockey Alliance. The result was a national championship in Ontario in 2007 and in the future another in 2008 in British Columbia. The WHA's 2006-07 season was a tumultuous one to say the least, and the Rattlers found them selves in a three game series with a hodge-podge of WHA players from no particular team. The Rattlers easily swept the series.

Expansion was the hot topic of the GMJHL in the 2007 off-season. Many junior hockey enthusiasts predicted the GMJHL would never finish its first season, let alone successfully enter a second season fully intact. But after everything seemed to have finished well, the Deseronto Thunder were announced to not be capable of going on for 2007-08. A couple weeks later, the financial interests of the team were transfered to the town of Deseronto and the team changed its name to the Storm. The summer brought the expansion of the Elliot Lake Bobcats, Espanola Kings, Douro Dukes, Innisfil Lakers, Tamworth Cyclones, and Temiscaming Royals. The Royals are the league's first non-Ontario based team as they are located barely on the east side of the Quebec border.