GMHL returning to Shelburne for 2015/16 season

May 7, 2015 · 0 Comments

The Greater Metro Hockey League will again be playing at the Centre Dufferin Recreation Complex for the 2015 / 16 season.
League president Bob Russell confirmed that a GMHL team will taking the ice in Shelburne at the start of the next season.
The new team will be called the Shelburne Sharks.
A Shelburne team was supposed to return as the HTI Stars for 2014, however problems with player recruitment shelved the team before the season even started. The owners of the Stars franchise decided not to continue for this year and the team was bought by the same owners of the Orangeville Americans team. The Orangeville team has also made a change, renaming the team the Ice Crushers for the start of the new season.
“The two teams have the same owners, CJ Schneider and Ryan Zeng,” Russell said. “The Shelburne team is a completely different team (than that previous version). They don’t have rights to the previous players. It’s a brand new team and players. The new owners wanted a new team and have their own way of running it.”
The GMHL is expanding again this season. Last season the League had 22 teams in two divisions.
“This year we’re having at least 30 teams and possibly more,” Russell said.
Because of the expansion the League will have four divisions this season.
With the League spread out over a large area – into the east as far as Temiscaming, and down to the Windsor area – Russell said they League had to take into consideration the costs associated with travel around the province.
All 22 teams from the 14 / 15 season will be returning this year.
Expansion teams for the new season include London, Norfolk (Simcoe), Kingsville, Oshawa, Bobcaygeon, Komoka, Port Colborne, and Haliburton.
The new GMHL season will get underway in September.

By Brian Lockhart