2016-17 CWSHL Season

This is the 2016-17 Central West Senior Hockey League season. This is the league's third season. The league was formed in June of 2014 when the founding members withdrew from the Newfoundland Senior Hockey League.

A dispersal draft will be held on September 13th for the protected players of the Corner Brook Royals. The league draft will take place on September 27th for any eligible registered players.

Each team will play a twenty game schedule with 5 home and 5 away games against the other two teams in the league. All games will be played on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons. The regular season schedule runs from October 29th to February 19th.

By virtue of winning the Herder Memorial Trophy for the 2015-16 season; the Grand Falls-Windsor Cataracts will be the province's representative at the Atlantic Regional qualifier for the 2017 Allan Cup. Due to Quebec not having an entry for the Allan Cup qualifying the Cataracts have qualified for the Allan Cup tournament in Bouctouche, New Brunswick as the Atlantic Region representative.

A report January 25, 2017 indicated that a strictly amateur (no imported players) league on the west coast of the island could be announced as soon as March with teams in Corner Brook, Deer Lake, Stephenville and Port aux Basques - See more at: http://www.thesportspage.ca/west-coast-sr-hockey-a-possibility/#sthash.ILubjjQh.dpuf

Published reports on Saturday, January 28, 2017 indicated that the Gander Flyers folded.Link to news report indicating that team folded. The league issued an update during the week following stating that the games scheduled for the weekend of February 4-5 were cancelled and the three teams were trying to work on a plan to keep the Flyers and the league going for at least the balance of the season.

On February 1, 2017 the league announced that the Flyers will continue to be a member of the league and that the last three weekends worth of games would be considered forfeit losses. This would not affect the current standings the forfeits would not change the order of teams in the standings. The league playoffs will start on February 24th with the best of three semifinals

Membership changes

 * The Corner Brook Royals are not participating this season after notifying the league that a new Executive for the team could not be put in place so as to have a team operate in Corner Brook for the up-coming season. Mr.Coates requested approval of the League to have a leave of absence from the League for one year, to pursue a secure restructuring. The three Executive members and three remaining teams of the League unanimously approved the requested leave.  The players on the team's protected list were placed in a dispersal draft to be selected by the remaining members of the league.  The agreement also states the team (or any organization representing Corner Brook or the West Coast of the province) that returns for the 2017-18 season shall have the players returned to the team.

Standings
Note: standings reflect Gander forfeiting last six games of the season, two to Grand Falls/Windsor and four to Clarenville.

Format
The first round of the playoffs will be a two out of three single weekend match-up. The opening game of a Friday/Saturday/Sunday affair will be Friday, February 24,2017, in the Home rink of the second place finisher from the regular season. The second game will move to the Home rink of the third place finisher, with the third game, if necessary, returning to the Home of the second place team. The team finishing in First place after the regular season will receive a Bye to the League Finals. 

Semifinals

 * Clarenville Caribous defeated Gander Flyers 2 games to none

Final

 * Clarenville Caribous defeated Grand Falls-Windsor Cataracts 4 games to 3

The winner of the league championship advance to the 2017 Herder Memorial Trophy against the champion of the Avalon East Senior Hockey League for the spot in the 2018 Atlantic Region Allan Cup Qualifier.