The Canadian Elite Hockey League (CEHL) was a
semi-professional
Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a consid ...
hockey league that played one season in 2005–2006. The CEHL was founded by Harold MacKay, a prominent member of the local hockey community. He previously brought the expansion
Halifax Mooseheads of the
QMJHL to Nova Scotia in 1994 and was later responsible for moving the Granby Predateurs franchise to Cape Breton where they became the
Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.
MacKay hoped to recruit players from major junior and university by giving them an opportunity to play locally and not re-locate to
professional leagues in
Europe or the
United States. The league's champion won the
Alexander Cup. Team budgets were set at $450,000
CAD and rosters were limited to a maximum of six import players.
The first league champion was the Saint John Scorpions, coached by
Yvon Vautour, who won the Alexander Cup by defeating the Dartmouth Destroyers in four games. In June 2006 the Cape Breton Crush folded leaving the league with just three teams. Soon after that the league itself shut down.
Teams
The charter franchises of the league were:
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*Cape Breton Crush
*Dartmouth Destroyers
*Saint John Scorpions
*Summerside IceFox
References
{{reflist
External links
CEHL website
Defunct ice hockey leagues in Canada
2005–06 in Canadian ice hockey by league