It wasn't only the SJHL that made the choice to cancel their remaining season over coronavirus fears. The entire Canadian Junior Hockey Leauge, a coalition of ten Junior-A leagues from British Columbia to the Maritimes, shut down at the same time on Friday, March 13.

It wasn't a fun decision to make, or an emotionally easy one. In particular, the thought of all the players born in 1999 seeing their junior careers come to an end this way was tough to swallow. But according to Brent Ladds, president of the CJHL, some input from Hockey Canada helped them see it was the only choice.

"At the point in time that we gathered to consider that, we had received some guidance from an earlier call we had with the Hockey Canada membership," Ladds said, "and some of their experts, including doctor Mark Aubry, who is the head medical specialist for the International Ice Hockey Federation, and also a physician with the Ottawa Senators. They had come in just off the decision they'd had to make with respect to the World Women's Championships that were going to be held in Nova Scotia. The evidence that was presented on that call supported a shutdown of the season for this year."

Ladds added that even now, there's no firm timetable set for when hockey, at any level, might return. The CJHL doesn't even know yet whether they'll be able to start next season on time. This is going to make things difficult for every team, but perhaps none will be waiting on tenterhooks more than the Penticton Vees and Estevan Bruins, who were set to host the next two Centennial Cups, and the Portage Terriers, who were tabbed as the host for this season's now-canceled event.

On that front, Ladds said the CJHL is still working out a few details. A conference call among some of the CJHL's top executives on Monday, March 16 provided some clarity on the issue as it did at least narrow their options down. They now think they have two possible ways forward and are still deciding on which.

"The options are currently to move the rotation a year and continue with the current rotation," said Ladds. "For Portage to step back at this point and allow the other two events to unfold as they were originally scheduled and maybe come in at the back end of that and host in 2023. There's no definitive answer and there may not be a right and wrong answer."

This means either Portage will host in 2021, pushing Penticton back to 2022 and Estevan to 2023, or the Terriers will defer hosting until 2023. Ladds said the final decision will have to go through Hockey Canada, but they're hoping to have an answer this week, after a conference call with the Bruins, Vees, and Terriers.

There had also been a rumor floating around, perhaps based more on wishful thinking than anything, that the current group of 20-year-olds (players born in 1999) might be granted an extra year of eligibility to make up for their final seasons being cut short. That doesn't appear to be in the cards, however.

"That's only a rumor," Ladds said. "There's been some suggestion in different quarters. But that has to be tempered by the other conversation, which is are we at a position in the CJHL within our time where we should be limiting 20-year-olds within our program."