The Ranchland Senior Hockey League is is a men's senior AA hockey league that is based in Southern Alberta. The league started play in 1974.
Ranchland Hockey League championship trophy
2020-22 changes
The Ranchland Hockey League announced on July 26th, 2020 that they would be admitting the Innisfail Eagles into the league for the 2020-21 season. Innisfail has said their intent is to declare as Senior AAA thus being eligible to compete for the Allan Cup, so they will not be eligible to partake in any of the RHL playoffs. In other league news, the Kainai Braves have changed their name to the Chiefs, and the Piikani Broncs will not return this season. The League announced on August 19th that it would delay the start of the 20/21 season until December 4th due to regulations surrounding the Covid-19 outbreak. On October 15th, the league announced that they were cancelling the 2020-21 season in it's entirety due to the restrictions imposed from the Corona virus. The league will resume operations for the 2021-22 season. In January 2022, Hockey Alberta announced that there would be no Allan Cup, and the Innisfail Eagles would be classified as a "AA" team. That action resulted in the member teams fraudulently removing their President and Vice President (who were brought in by Hockey Alberta in an attempt to "clean up" the Ranchland. The Ranchland then decided to remove Innisfail from their league saying they were lied to by the Eagles and were not honest about their reasons for wanting to join the Ranchland. Innisfail appealed this decision and Hockey Alberta announced on March 28 that the Ranchland did not follow HA's direction about reinstating the Innisfail Eagles for the league playoffs. HA informed the league that the Nanton Palominos were required to play the Innisfail Eagles to determine who would attend the Provincial Senior AA Playoffs as the Ranchland Rep. Nanton subsequently refused to play Innisfail so on April 1, HA announced that the Ranchland Hockey League chose not to include the Innisfail Eagles in the league playoff process which was a violation of the Appeals Committee decision and a violation of Hockey Alberta Bylaws. As a result, the RHL is hereby suspended from all operations as a sanctioned senior hockey league of Hockey Alberta. All RHL teams are now ineligible to play any further games this season, including participation at the Hockey Alberta Provincial Championships. The RHL has the summer to sort out their problems - there were a list of interested teams looking to join the RHL but it's not known at this time if the league can repair the damage caused by a select few.
Member Teams 2021-2022
Playoff Champions
- 1975 - Stavely Spurs
- 1976 - unknown
- 1977 - Fort Macleod Broncos
- 1978 - unknown
- 1979 - Nanton Palominos
- 1980 - Nanton Palominos
- 1981 - Okotoks Sr. Oilers
- 1982 - Nanton Palominos
- 1983 - Okotoks Sr. Oilers
- 1984 - Nanton Palominos
- 1985 - Nanton Palominos
- 1986 - Nanton Palominos (Brooks Blackhawks win Alberta Senior A Provincials)
- 1987 - Nanton Palominos
- 1988 - Nanton Palominos
- 1989 - Taber Buccaneers
- 1990 - Okotoks Sr. Oilers
- 1991 - High River Flyers
- 1992 - High River Flyers
- 1993 - Claresholm Thunder
- 1994 - High River Flyers
- 1995 - Lomond Lakers
- 1996 - n/a (league may not have played this season)
- 1997 - Kainai Braves (Nanton Palominos win Alberta Senior B Provincials)
- 1998 - Fort Macleod Mustangs
- 1999 - Fort Macleod Mustangs
- 2000 - Fort Macleod Mustangs
- 2001 - Fort Macleod Mustangs
- 2002 - Fort Macleod Mustangs (also win Alberta Senior B Provincials)
- 2003 - Fort Macleod Mustangs (also win Alberta Senior A Provincials)
- 2004 - Fort Macleod Mustangs
- 2005 - Fort Macleod Mustangs
- 2006 - Fort Macleod Mustangs (also win Alberta Senior B Provincials)
- 2007 - Fort Macleod Mustangs
- 2008 - Lomond Lakers
- 2009 - Brooks Blackhawks
- 2010 - Brooks Blackhawks
- 2011 - Brooks Blackhawks
- 2012 - Blackfoot Miners
- 2013 - Nanton Palominos (also win Alberta Senior A Provincials)
- 2014 - Nanton Palominos
- 2015 - Nanton Palominos (also win Alberta Senior AA Provincials)
- 2016 - Nanton Palominos
- 2017 - Nanton Palominos (also win Alberta Senior AA Provincials)
- 2018 - Nanton Palominos
- 2019 - Nanton Palominos
- 2020 - No winner as the finals between Nanton Palominos and Lethbridge Lightning were suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
- 2021 - Season cancelled
- 2022 - Nanton Palominos
Seasons
- 2009-10 Ranchland Hockey League Season
- 2010-11 Ranchland Hockey League Season
- 2011-12 Ranchland Hockey League Season
- 2012-13 Ranchland Hockey League Season
- 2013-14 Ranchland Hockey League Season
- 2014-15 Ranchland Hockey League Season
- 2015-16 Ranchland Hockey League Season
- 2016-17 Ranchland Hockey League Season
- 2017-18 Ranchland Hockey League Season
- 2018-19 Ranchland Hockey League Season
- 2019-20 Ranchland Hockey League Season
- 2020-21 Ranchland Hockey League season
- 2021-22 Ranchland Hockey League season
External links
