The Central Plains Capitals will not compete in the 2021-22 Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League season.

The news broke last Monday night via Twitter with both the league and team's accounts making it official.

Central Plains Capitals regional director Ferdi Nelissen says this was one of the hardest decisions he’s ever had to make.

“Everybody on the council was devastated. We’ve never failed to ice a team in the past,” says Nelissen. “We knew numbers were low in this age group and we’ve been asking Hockey Manitoba for help and nothing has come. So, it was just in the best interest of the players that could move on to play with other programs to give them the opportunity to do so.”

Nelissen says he feels terrible that it had to come to this but says it was ultimately the best decision for all parties involved. He notes the main reason was due to lack of numbers but adds it was also important they put a team on the ice that was of AAA calibre.

“People can say ‘if you had 17 or 18 players, why wouldn’t you ice a team?’ Well, you wouldn’t throw a junior level player into the NHL,” Nelissen explains. “You don’t want to put anyone in a situation where they could be in over their head or are in jeopardy of getting injured. We want to make sure we’re putting a competitive team on the ice but also we’re putting players in an environment where they can compete safely.”

The Capitals were to open the season this weekend with a pair of games against the Pembina Valley Hawks in Pilot Mound and Morden. 

Nelissen says a few years ago the Capitals U15 team didn’t win a single game and couldn’t compete in most contests. He notes they didn’t want to have that happen again.

The most important thing for the organization and team’s staff now has been moving as many players as possible to other organizations in the province according to Nelissen.

“In the past, we’ve always been able to fill our roster spots with players from Winnipeg but for some reason, they weren’t coming this year and they were heading to Interlake,” says Nelissen. “So, as soon as we could, we released four or five players to the Interlake Lightning and one to the Yellowhead Chiefs. We’re still trying to help a couple of others find spots.”

Nelissen says he doesn’t think will become a trend as the U15 team this year had 44 players attend tryouts this year. He notes the entire organization tried to avoid this outcome but adds they just couldn’t get the assistance they needed from Hockey Manitoba to make it happen.


photo courtesy Merlin Heppner