The Kenai River Brown Bears are scheduled to return to Midwest Division play in the North American Hockey League, with players returning from an imposed Forced Pause in Minnesota and a return to the ice for a January 2nd league-game against the Chippewa Steel in Wisconsin.
The return to play for Kenai River comes amidst continuing questions related to the Brown Bears near future in Alaska and the teams ability to return to Soldotna for the 2021 Junior A hockey season.
The NAHL announced on December 22nd an extension to the regular season which will allow play into mid-May and the playoffs beginning May 20th. The NAHL schedule revision allows for the Kenai River Brown Bears to continue play in Wisconsin and Minnesota until the climate is right to re-locate in Soldotna.
The proposed return of the Brown Bears to Alaska in January and the January 15th start of the regular season for the Brown Bears in Alaska is off the books.
Kenai River Brown Bears General Manager Chris Hedlund confirmed the return to Alaska may not develop until mid-February.
” No, we (Brown Bears) won’t be back in January. With the restrictions on, we are looking at a February chunk (in schedule) right now with our next group, but we’re not coming back in January, we won’t be able to co that. We had to make a decision in early December because of how tickets are purchased; we have to buy them and we would waste them if we didn’t plan out.” “With still the travel challenge that we don’t have any clarity on; as well as, the Soldotna Sports Center’s minimal fans, it just doesn’t make sense to come back yet.”
Hedlund further explained some of the protocols and changes which need to happen for the Kenai River Brown Bears to return to Alaska for Junior A hockey.
“I think you are going to have to see, from the State side, we have to see some consistency and to loosen it up a little bit and see where the numbers go and see how they (state) react. We’re reacting to the government side of it right now; that’s really where we’re at. If the government can’t make it a good process for us then we’re just going to keep still until things line-up and they (state and city of Soldotna) say hey we’re going to have this many fans and and we can fly in–whatever the travel protocols are and the arena protocols–until we know what those are that are acceptable to have Junior hockey or sports in general we can’t make any decisions. And that’s why we don’t know exactly when we are coming back because we are hung-up on when we can get enough good data to make a good decision.”
For now, the Kenai River Brown Bears will stay based in Minnesota, playing games in Wisconsin until Minnesota opens up their protocols. The NAHL is revising the regular season schedule; if you have an old Brown Bears schedule–throw it out!
“We’ve been working on it (schedule). We’ve got at least 90% of it re-built, we’re just waiting a little bit on the clarification on the couple of Minnesota teams that we play out of division and the one in division to see what the fan mandate is starting on the 14th (January) we can play games in Minnesota. We have two games left to re-schedule, we are just waiting on a few more peices of the puzzle from the Minnesota team as they need to re-evaluate and get clarity from the arenas on fans starting January 14th for games.
The key take-aways from Brown Bears General Manager Chris Hedlund…
- Brown Bears will not be in Alaska before mid-February.
- Brown Bears are playing their next series of games in Wisconsin.
- New schedule being produced with Brown Bears remaining in Lower 48 until mid-February.
- Minnesota rinks remain closed until, at least, January 14th.
Part two of Chris Hedlund’s report, including player protocol, restrictions, budget and expenses, will be available on Thursday, December 31st on the Peninsula Sports reports and at radiokenai.com .