The Western Canada Cup (WCC); is the Junior A ice hockey championship for the champions of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, British Columbia Hockey League, Manitoba Junior Hockey League, and Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. The tournament features a five-team round robin followed by playoffs, which use the page playoff system. The winner and runner-up from the event move on to the Royal Bank Cup, the National Junior A Championship.
History
Much like the now-retired Abbott Cup, the WCC is the championship for all of Western Canada. The Abbott Cup was a playdown championship consisting of a best-of-7 series played between the winners of the Doyle Cup (AJHL and BCHL) and Anavet Cup (MJHL and SJHL) to determine a single seed into the old national championship, the Centennial Cup. The Abbott Cup winner from 1971 until 1979 played the Eastern Canada Champion, the winner of the Dudley Hewitt Cup. From 1979 until 1989, the Abbott Cup winner played a round robin against the winner of the Dudley Hewitt Cup (Central Canada) and the J. Pius Callaghan Cup (Atlantic Canada). In 1989, the Abbott Cup was divided up and both the Doyle Cup and Anavet Cup winner were allowed into the Nationals. From 1995 until 2012, the format was that the Royal Bank Cup would host the winners of the Doyle Cup, Anavet Cup, Dudley Hewitt Cup, and a new Eastern Canada Championship called the Fred Page Cup.
In 2011, the four western leagues proposed to Hockey Canada and the Canadian Junior Hockey League that the Doyle Cup and Anavet Cup be discontinued in favour of a new tournament named the Western Canada Cup. Hockey Canada announced the tournament's creation in January 2012.
Plans for the new tournament were first reported by the Estevan Mercury in October 2011. The trophy presented to the WCC Champion was unveiled in March 2013 and was named in honour of Crescent Point Energy, the title sponsor.
In 2016, reports circulated that the 2017 tournament in Penticton, British Columbia might be the final edition of the WCC. Crescent Point Energy pulled its support of the event despite at least two of the four previous tournaments had turned a profit. In addition, the four participating leagues reported challenges in finding hosts for the event, expressed concern that the tournament format might be preventing the best teams from advancing to the RBC Cup, and that the WCC detracted from longstanding territorial rivalries. Sun Life Financial replaced Crescent Point Energy as the title sponsor for 2017.