This is the 2021-22 Superior International Junior Hockey League season. This is the league's 21st season.
As part of the release of its schedule the league announced that each team will play a 48 game schedule with 8 games against each opponent beginning on September 17 and ending March 26th. The league playoffs begin April 1st. The league showcase is planned for the Spooner Civic Center in Spooner, Wisconsin February 8-10, 2022.[1]
Membership Changes[]
- On November 2, 2020 the Superior International Junior Hockey League announced that the two US-based teams, the Thief River Falls Norskies and the Wisconsin Lumberjacks will not participate in the 2020-21 season due to the border closure.[2] The teams rejoin the league for the 2021-22 season. However, travel restrictions getting in to the United States has made it difficult for the teams to play any of the Canadian teams as land traffic is still unable to cross the US border going south but is allowed going north. As of early October the league has already had to shuffle its schedule due to this restriction and made any team going into the US play two games against the US based teams to cut down on expenses. The two US teams also were scheduled heavily against one another early in the season with the hope restrictions will be lifted early to make the border crossing issue be less of a factor. The US government announced an date of November 8th. Shortly after the announcement the league revised its schedule to account for the reopening.
- On April 22, 2021 the SIJHL announced the addition of a new franchise in Sioux Lookout, Ontario for the 2022-23 season. The application is conditional as the ownership group obtains membership in Hockey Northwestern Ontario, which should be taken care of within a few weeks of the league's announcement of the team.[3] The team will be named the Sioux Lookout Bombers and be based out of the Sioux Lookout Memorial Arena.[4]
On January 31, 2022, the Thief River Falls Norskies announce that they will be sitting out the remainder of the 2021-22 season citing a lack of players and other issues caused as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic but exasperated by the closure of much of the province of Ontario for the month of January.[5] The team would announce on July 12, 2022 that the team was no longer affiliated with the Superior International Junior Hockey League and would be sitting out the 2022-23 playing season with the hopes of returning to play in 2023-24 in a new league.[6] On July 13th the league indicating that the league had removed the team from the league due to roster issues and that the team had other deficiencies that the team had not improved upon.[7]