Dunlops part of new 'Superleague'
Thu May 08, 2008

By: By Brian McNair

WHITBY -- The Whitby Dunlops will be playing in a new league next season.

Although being billed by some as a 'Superleague', it is no larger than the Eastern Ontario Senior Hockey League in which they have played in for the past four years.

However, it is hoped the new Major League Hockey loop will provide the very best senior hockey the province has to offer.

The Allan Cup champion Brantford Blast and Dundas Real McCoys of the old MLH will be joined by the Dunlops, Norwood Vipers and Orillia/Coldwater Tundra's, formerly of the Eastern Ontario Senior Hockey League.

Despite the name being the same, Mike Laing, past president of the Dunlops and president of the new league, says the MLH is considered a new league, the result of a merger, not an absorption.

In fact, if anything, he insists it was the eastern teams bailing out the western clubs.

"It was really a situation where the east had to salvage what was going on in the west, whether anyone wants to hear that or not," he says. "I think it's good for the survival of senior hockey in Ontario."

Laing says the MLH was going to be reduced to two teams, with Windsor folding and Tillsonburg and Petrolia looking to enter a league not sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Association.

In the east, he said the Frankford Huskies would be competitive enough to compete in the new league, but financial issues will likely prevent them from meeting a June 1 deadline in which to enter.

The Marmora Lakers, who won only one game last season, are looking at lower level of senior hockey.

Don Robertson, president of the Dundas franchise, will serve as chairman of the board for the new league while Bob Habkirk will be commissioner, the same post he held with the MHL.

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