This season will be the last time the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame Hounds will play in Wilcox, Saskatchewan. At the end of the season, the team will be moving to Warman for the 2025-2026 SJHL season.
"It's bittersweet for us. Anytime you lose a historical franchise of over 38 years with such a rich history and a rich array of people that have gone through the program, it's certainly bittersweet," SJHL commissioner Kyle McIntyre told The SportsCage. "I don't want anyone thinking that SJHL forced this. It's a win for the College of Notre Dame, a win for the community of Warman [and] a win for the SJHL."
Over 215 players who played for the Notre Dame Hounds hockey team have either been signed or drafted by an NHL team. Some notable players were legends Wendel Clark and Vincent Lecavalier along with current players like Jordan Eberle, Jaden Schwartz, and Morgan Rielly.
The process started when the SJHL was approached with the idea Warman wanted an expansion team. One of the Warman ownership representatives, Cole Kachur, approached the board of governors with a plan one year ago.
"We weren't necessarily interested in expanding the league," McIntyre said. "We thought we had 12 viable communities. We're a little bit worried about expanding and diluting the talent pool. So, we really weren't interested in entertaining an expansion franchise."
The SJHL changed its mind about Warman getting a franchise because Notre Dame president, Dr. Charles Skipper did a report on the current programming at his school.
"They wanted to take the school in a new direction and they really wanted to make it a multi-sport academic residential school. When they started to assess current programming, there wasn't really a place or a space for junior hockey," McIntyre detailed.
"Lots of things have happened over the years in terms of who is eligible to play junior hockey in Saskatchewan and in Canada. Let's just say that the players who have been playing for the Notre Dame Hounds the last several years have had a very tenuous connection with the school."
Late last year, the NCAA approved Canadian Hockey League players being allowed to play hockey at United States post-secondary schools in the 2025-2026 season.
Eventually, Kachur along with his partner Jonathan Abrametz, who represented the Warman ownership group, met with Notre Dame College in early February about the transition.
"The governors had some conditions for that relocation to be approved," McIntyre said. "Some of those conditions are still going to have to be met, but probably one of the biggest ones is going to be approval from the city council and the city of Warman."
When pressed about the Notre Dame Hounds keeping the team's name when the franchise moves to Warman, McIntyre was unsure but had some ideas.
"I know that they've thrown about a couple monikers, but I don't think they've landed on any. We're going to really try to do a good job of identifying or recognizing the traditions of Notre Dame," McIntyre said. "I think that for the purposes of the rebranding, they're probably going to be either a Wildcat or a Wolverine or something to that extent."
