The Niagara Falls Canucks play in the Ontario Junior Hockey League. It’s the largest Junior A league in Canada, it’s the only Junior A league in the oldest hockey association in the world, and every home game at the Gale Centre is played against a team from it.
The OJHL at a glance
- Twenty-four teams, from Leamington in the west to Trenton in the east, and from Niagara Falls to Collingwood
- Junior A hockey for players aged sixteen to twenty
- The largest of the nine leagues in the Canadian Junior Hockey League
- The only Junior A league governed by the Ontario Hockey Association
- Champions win the Frank L. Buckland Trophy and play on toward the Centennial Cup, Canada’s national Junior A championship
Governed by the oldest hockey association in the world
The Ontario Hockey Association was founded on November 27, 1890, and describes itself as the oldest hockey association in the world. It is the governing body for the majority of junior and senior hockey in Ontario, and a member partner of the Ontario Hockey Federation, one of thirteen provincial and regional branches of Hockey Canada.
The OHA runs five leagues across roughly 124 teams: three junior and two senior. There is one league at each junior level, and the Ontario Junior Hockey League is the Junior A one. Below it sit the Greater Ontario Hockey League at Junior B and the Provincial Junior Hockey League at Junior C.
That matters for a simple reason: within the OHA structure there’s no higher level of junior hockey a player can reach outside of major junior. When a young man pulls on a Canucks sweater, he is playing at the top of the OHA’s junior ladder.
The largest league in the CJHL
The Canadian Junior Hockey League governs Junior A hockey across the country. It is made up of nine member leagues: the OJHL, the Alberta Junior Hockey League, the Central Canada Hockey League, the Ligue de Hockey Junior AAA du Québec, the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, the Maritime Hockey League, the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League, the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League and the Superior International Junior Hockey League.
With twenty-four teams, the OJHL is comfortably the biggest of the nine. The next largest carries thirteen. More teams means a deeper league, a longer schedule, more rivalries within driving distance, and more eyes on the players who stand out.
Where the league leads
Junior A is a development league, and the OJHL measures itself on where its players end up. The league reported more than eighty-seven NCAA, U SPORTS, CHL and professional commitments in one recent season, including more than forty-eight NCAA Division I scholarships, and more than 135 commitments the following year.
Across the CJHL as a whole, the 2025-26 season saw 265 alumni on NCAA Division I rosters, 612 in U SPORTS, 264 in the Canadian Hockey League and 159 in the ECHL. The OJHL says thirty-eight of its alumni are currently in the National Hockey League, more than any other CJHL league.
A new era
In August 2026 the league unveiled a new brand identity and a renewed player-first vision built around a league-wide philosophy it calls The OJHL Standard. It rests on six commitments shared by every player, coach and organization: We Set the Tone, We Play for the Guy Next to Us, We Play for the Front of the Jersey, We Leave It Better Than We Found It, We Earn the Next Level, and We Pull the Same Rope.
Alongside it, the league is building a Player Journey Map covering every touchpoint from first contact through to the day a player leaves, and has created a Team Leadership Group of captains who meet with the league office to shape the standards that govern their daily experience.
What it means if you are…
A fan
Twenty-seven home nights against the best Junior A teams in the country, for $15 at the door. You’re watching players who will go on to NCAA Division I, U SPORTS and professional hockey, in a building ten minutes from your house, before anyone outside Niagara knows their names.
A player
The top of the OHA junior ladder, in the largest Junior A league in Canada, in front of scouts every night. The league’s own standard is built around getting you to the next level, whether that’s the NCAA, U SPORTS, the CHL or the pros. The room you walk into reflects that reach: this season the Canucks have drawn players from across Canada and the United States, and from as far as Austria and Russia.
A billet family
You’re housing a young man who has earned a spot in the country’s largest Junior A league, and who is held to a league-wide standard on and off the ice. Most billet families tell us they gain a son, not a boarder.
A sponsor
Your name in front of a hometown crowd, twenty-seven nights a year, attached to a national league with a professional brand and a growing broadcast footprint. Sponsorship starts at $300 plus HST.
Where to next
- How Do I Become a Canuck? — camps, summer skates and what it takes to earn a spot
- Billeting — host a player and become part of the team
- Sponsorship Opportunities — six tiers, starting at $300 plus HST
- Visit the OJHL at ojhl.ca →
