New commissioner Craig Spada wants to provide GOJHL players ‘the best opportunity’

There will be some changes for next year’s Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League (GOJHL) teams, including the Fort Erie Meteors. And one of those changes will be a new commissioner, Ridgeway Realtor Craig Spada.

Spada has refereed more than 200 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) in addition to Calder Cup and Memorial Cup finals, the American Hockey League and the Canadian Hockey League.

He said he enjoyed the “challenge” of reffing games. It also gave Spada a chance to stay involved with hockey.

Two years ago Spada joined the GOJHL as the director of player safety.

Moving into the new season, he said there are two big changes he is excited about.

The first change will see fist responders in every arena.

“We purchased paramedic equipment for each and every team and we will have first responders at every game,” he said, adding that the league will also be re-aligned into two different conferences, down from the previous three.

Instead of the seven-team Golden Horseshoe division, an eight-team Western division and an eight-team Midwestern division, the league will be divided into an Eastern and Western conference with 11 and 12 teams respectively.

The Meteors will play in the Eastern conference along with the Pelham Panthers, Port Colborne Sailors, St. Catharines Falcons and Welland Jr. Canadians. The move will allow fans to see more teams, instead of facing the same teams over and over.

Spada said the league’s primary focus is on development and part of that is making sure that play is “fair, safe and clean.”

“We’ve definitely been making those strides the last couple years and we’ll continue to pursue that,” he said. “We really want to provide the athletes the best opportunity going forward.”

He noted that, in the past three years, there have been four players with at least one year of GOJHL experience who’ve been drafted in the first round of the NHL. One of those players, Easton Cowan, was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs with the 28th pick in the 2023 draft.

The idea of players developing their skills and moving onto the next level is exciting for Spada.

“We want to make sure there’s a pathway for [players] to move from the minor hockey level, through our level, to the next level,” he added. “That’s the most exciting thing for me is to see the players move on.”

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