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BCHL Showcase provides one-stop shopping for NHL and college scouts

The Junior A league’s 18 teams all play two league games in Chilliwack over a four-day stretch starting Monday, giving talent evaluators a chance to see all players in one spot.

Penticton Vees center Dovar Tinling, 19. Tinling, who's from Pointe-Claire, Que., is in his first year with the Vees, looking to land an NCAA scholarship after leaving the University of Vermont in his sophomore season last year.
Penticton Vees center Dovar Tinling, 19. Tinling, who’s from Pointe-Claire, Que., is in his first year with the Vees, looking to land an NCAA scholarship after leaving the University of Vermont in his sophomore season last year. Photo by Jack Murray / Penticton Vees /jpg

One-hundred NHL and collegiate scouts are slated to participate in the annual BCHL Showcase this week at the Chilliwack Coliseum, according to league CEO Chris Hebb.

The Showcase is a one-stop shopping for talent evaluators, as the BCHL has all of its 18 teams play two league games out of the Coliseum over a four-day stretch that began Monday. There are 18 games in total, with each day starting with a 10 am game and wrapping up with one at 7 pm.

Chilliwack has hosted the event every year since its inception in 2012-13. It was called off in 2020-21 due to COVID-19.

“Giving scouts access to all of our teams in one building makes a lot of sense. It winds up being a great opportunity for our players,” Hebb added.

Powell River Kings forward Parker Lalonde, 18, committed last season to the Minnesota State Mavericks and explained in a story on the BCHL website that the coaching staff there told him that they first noticed him at the Showcase. He also talked about how the Showcase was a stepping stone. The Aberdeen, Sask., native is in his second season with Powell River and is expected to join Minnesota State next fall.

“Getting to talk to some colleges and getting noticed early on in the season as a young guy coming in was huge,” he’s quoted as saying.

The BCHL website lists 132 players in the league currently with university commitments. Three of the top 10 scorers in the league and seven of the leading 15 going into Monday were still looking for scholarships, though.

That was highlighted by Penticton Vees forward Dovar Tinling, 19, who was fourth in the loop with 12 points, including five goals, in eight games as of Monday morning. Tinling, who’s from Pointe-Claire, Que., left the University of Vermont Catamounts midway through his sophomore NCAA season last December. He finished up with the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL, and Penticton landed his rights in a June trade.

Vees general manager and coach Fred Harbinson says that Tinling is speaking with various schools and hopes in the coming weeks to finalize a scholarship for next season.

Five BCHL players were picked in the NHL Draft last summer, along with two players coming into the league this fall.

The Showcase also gives Lower Mainland fans an extra chance to see teams they don’t routinely get to watch, like the reigning league-champion Vees, who are a league-best 8-0-0-0 and have outscored their opponents by a 52-13 margin so far.

The Surrey Eagles, who carried a 6-0-0-0 record into a Monday meeting with the Merritt Centennials, had the league’s next-best scoring differential as of Monday morning, with their plus 16 (27-11) following the Vees’. plus 39. No other club on the plus side was in double digits.

Penticton Vees center Dovar Tinling, 19.
Penticton Vees center Dovar Tinling, 19. Photo by Jack Murray / Penticton Vees /jpg

Penticton squares off with the Chilliwack Chiefs on Wednesday (7 pm) and then faces the Alberni Valley Bulldogs on Thursday (1 pm). Their only other visits to the Coastal Conference came with a Nov. 25 game at Alberni Valley and a Nov. 26 one at Powell River, and then a Feb. 3 games at Surrey and a Feb. 4 game at the Victoria Grizzlies.

The Vees went 16-1 in the playoffs last year en route to the league title. The BCHL had pulled out of the CJHL in April 2021, so they weren’t eligible to compete for the Centennial Cup national championship. The BCHL had long been frustrated with the various CJHL restrictions including those involving player recruitment.

Hockey Canada oversees the CJHL. The BCHL announced in September that it had sent Hockey Canada, BC Hockey and the governance review committee examining Hockey Canada’s structure and leadership a 35 page document with suggestions on how to improve Junior A hockey in this country.

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