MUSKOKA ANGLERS SUSPENDED; CONS RECRUITED TO PLAY FLYING FATHERS
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
GRAVENHURST — The Muskoka Anglers have played their last game in the Canadian Premier Junior Hockey League and their owner has been “banned for life” for “not being a team player.”
A league announcement Saturday night said the Gravenhurst-based team was suspended, along with the Scarborough Wexford Raiders.
So it’ll be the saints and sinners Family Day afternoon in Gravenhurst, when the Anglers were to play the resurrected Flying Fathers.
Gravenhurst Mayor Paul Kelly told MuskokaTODAY.com late Sunday afternoon at the winter carnival awards that town officials had to scramble today to find a successful replacement line-up from the Beaver Creek prison in town, for the 3 p.m. charity fundraiser at the Graeme Murray arena tomorrow afternoon, Feb. 17.
So, he said the game is a definitely a go to help the Stuff 4 Daily Needs.
In a release on its website Feb. 15, the CPJHL announced “the termination of the Muskoka Anglers and Scarborough Wexford Raiders franchises, effective immediately.”
“We have worked all season with Brian Fish, who owns both teams, on his expectations and unfortunately, Mr. Fish was unwilling to compromise with the league and fellow owners,” said CPJHL president Barry DeGray.
“This is a situation where we were perhaps too lenient on allowing an owner who is clearly not a team player to run league franchises and in the end, it’s the players that truly suffer.
“Therefore, it is our decision that Mr. Fish is hereby banned for life from the Canadian Premier Junior Hockey League.”
The CPJHL says it will work with all Anglers and Raiders players to find them a suitable team for the remainder of the 2019-20 season. They offered no other details about its reasons for the sudden mid-season suspensions.
The Anglers played at their final game Saturday night on the road, losing 13-4 to the Severn Stallions in Coldwater. The two teams also played Friday night, in Gravenhurst, another 7-4 win for the Stallions.
The Gravenhurst players were advised by the referee of the team’s suspension following Saturday night’s loss.
Attempts to reach Anglers owner Brian Fish Sunday night were unsuccessful.
The CPJHL is sanctioned by the United Hockey Union, the junior hockey branch of the Amateur Athletic Union.[1]
The independent hockey league, in which billeted players — some international — pay up to $7,000 per season to play, is not sanctioned by Hockey Canada, USA Hockey or the International Ice Hockey Federation.
Reports claim DeGray has received complaints from parents and sponsors. Other searches on the web allege Fish also previously misrepresented his contacts within hockey.
The CPJHL was was founded in 2016, according its Wikipedia page.
The two suspensions leave it with seven teams, including three in Quebec, and four in Ontario: Severn, Langton, Seaforth and Smith Falls.
