As a Canadian that grew up in a devout hockey family, I’ve always had a closely familiar understanding of the Canadian Hockey League and it’s three better-known regional leagues: the Ontario Hockey League, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and the Western Hockey League.
My uncle played in the WHL (on the same Prince Albert Raiders teams as Mike Modano, as a fun little fact), and every Christmas holiday TSN would showcase the World Juniors, which exposed a large and passionate contingent of annual fans to the country’s best junior-aged players, the majority of whom played within the country, from Victoria to Cape Breton and a large number of hardscrabble small cities in between.