How the CHL given rights to play in the NCAA could change the game

I was looking into this given I think more teams from the CJHL could look to join the CHL considering some cities may be the size of Swift Current or Baie-Comeau. I think this would be a great way of expanding the game, but it's going to be so many teams that I could see the WHL splitting into two. 

The reason I focus solely on the WHL in this article is because they're a big league and growing, so much that they almost may need to split the league in half. 

Steinbach, Manitoba, just built a brand new arena which is sustainable for WHL. They also are growing rapidly and have a population of nearly twenty-thousand. I think it'd make sense given Winnipeg just lost their WHL team, and I think they'll get one again, but in the meantime Steinbach getting one would make more sense than Winnipeg getting WHL right now considering they don't have an arena suited for junior hockey. Other places in Manitoba that I could also see joining are Selkirk, Winkler, and Portage la Prairie. 

In Saskatchewan I could see North Battleford and Yorkton each getting a team. That brings it up to six. 

In Alberta I see Brooks, Fort McMurray and Grande Prairie each getting teams. That brings it up to nine.

In British Columbia I could see Cranbrook, Vernon, Trail, and Nanaimo each getting teams. That brings it up to thirteen. But also, Chilliwack is set to join the WHL again in 2026-27. That makes it fourteen. 

Add that fourteen to the current twenty-four WHL teams and you have thirty-eight. Divide that by two you get nineteen which is enough to sustain a single league. I personally believe this should happen is because the kids who go onto play far away as going to Portland from Manitoba or British Columbia to Manitoba this is where it needs to be looked at a lot more. 

But I think the USHL and NAHL should also join the CHL for more entertaining Memorial Cup matches, but not just that have a limit for which players play in which league. As I think now it's set in stone all these teams are going to have players who want to be noticed by the NCAA while also being not too far away from home. But it raises another question if the teams in all US for the CHL join the USHL instead. But say the US teams join or make their own league that remains in the CHL, I think maybe that Alberta and BC would be their own league and Saskatchewan and Manitoba be their own. But I think doing this improves the game of hockey a lot more and helps the players education considering they're not going be handing in overdue assignments. 







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