March 3, 2016

11:18 AM EST

The Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) today unveiled the spring/summer Ontario Junior Development League (OJDL).

Following a successful pilot program that was launched in the spring of 2015 with four teams, the OJHL officially launches the OJDL to begin play in May of 2016 with 14 teams taking part in three locations.

The 2015 OJDL pilot program was spearheaded by the Cobourg Cougars, Stouffville Spirit, Whitby Fury and had a fourth ‘OJHL’ team taking part, playing games once a week at the Campus Ice Centre in Oshawa, Ontario. The 13 game schedule saw Cobourg crowned as the champion on July 18, 2015.

This season will see three divisions with 11 new teams joining Cobourg, Stouffville and Whitby. The division and location breakdown is as follows:

Oshawa – Campus Ice Centre

Cobourg Cougars

Kingston Voyageurs

Stouffville Spirit

Trenton Golden Hawks

Whitby Fury

Toronto – Scotiabank Pond

Aurora Tigers

Newmarket Hurricanes

North York Rangers

Orangeville Flyers

Pickering Panthers

Burlington – The Wave

Burlington Cougars

Georgetown Raiders

Milton Icehawks

Oakville Blades

Teams will play a minimum of a 12 game schedule once again beginning in mid-May with the Toronto Division completing play in June and the Oshawa and Burlington Divisions finishing in July.

All games will consist of three (3), 20-minute, run-time periods, with the final five minutes of the 3rd period being played as stop-time. All players are required to wear full facemasks.

There will be a Showcase Weekend taking place at Campus Ice Centre in Oshawa on June 4-5, 2016 with all 14 teams taking part and playing games against the other divisions. All other games during the season will be played exclusively within their own division and each division will have their own playoff format to crown three separate champions.

Roster competition for each team is as follows:

Maximum roster size of 18 players (including goaltenders)
Maximum of two 1998 born players
Unlimited number of 1999 & 2000 born players
Maximum of three 2001 born players
Up to five (5) affiliated players

For more information, including the 2016 OJDL schedule, please visit the OJDL website at www.ojdl.pointstreaksites.com/view/ojdl or the OJHL website at www.ojhl.ca.