Abbies Apply For One-Year Leave of Absence
There May Be No 2008/09 Season for Hometown Team

Charlottetown Abbies to drop out of MJAHL circuit
BY CHARLES REID
The Guardian

If you go looking for Maritime Junior A Hockey League games in Charlottetown next season, don't bother.

The local squad, the Charlottetown Abbies, is applying for a one-year leave of absence today from the 12-team circuit to sort out its financial problems, The Guardian has learned.

Jeff Squires, Abbies president and general manager, expects get the OK from the MJAHL's board of directors relatively quickly. He has until May 15 to rescind or amend the application.

"We're putting a request into the board for a leave of absence. The reality is it's becoming increasingly difficult to generate the revenue in order to continue the hockey team year in and year out that the Maritime Junior Hockey League requires," said Squires.

In 2006 and 2007 the team received $10,000 grants from the City of Charlottetown to defray operating losses and was for sale two years ago. It might have been sold to off-Island interests, but Kevin Murphy and the ownership group which includes Reagh Ellis, Terry McKenna, Al Stewart and Danny Murphy, revamped the organization and took the Abbies off the auction block.

Now, Squires isn't ruling out hanging up a For Sale sign.

"We haven't decided yet. It would be great if there were more people interested in getting involved," he said.

The move leaves the Summerside Western Capitals as the lone MJAHL squad on the Island, puts Abbies head coach Bill McGuigan and the coaching staff out of a job and forces Abbies players into a dispersal draft, likely in late spring.

The Antigonish Bulldogs will also apply for a one-year leave from the league today.