In the late 1990s, the Western Ontario Junior B Hockey League began complaining about their top level players being pulled from their teams at trade deadline time by Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League clubs without permission or compensation.

The 2008–09 season saw the complete liquidation of all three divisional managements and a single governing body was put in place for the league.

Despite leading 2–0 and outshooting Guelph, the defending Sutherland Cup Champions allowed five unanswered goals to drop the game 5–2.

On May 3, 2008, the Tecumseh Chiefs finished a four-game sweep of the Elmira Sugar Kings to win the first ever GOJHL championship.

On October 10, 2012, the OHA announced its intention to expand east of Guelph and form a new fourth conference for the GOJHL.

[2] The announcement comes on the heels of the relocation of the Owen Sound Greys to Brampton by their sponsor, leaving the northerly city out of OHA junior hockey for the first time in ninety-nine years (not including wartime).

During the 2014–15 season, the Golden Horseshoe Conference held a vote to determine their future with the GOJHL.

The teams voted to leave the GOJHL with OHA approval and govern autonomously from the league.

Before the playoffs began in 2015, the GOJHL announced that the Golden Horseshoe had rejoined the fold and that its annexation was averted.

In early May 2017, the Cambridge Winterhawks announced their intentions to sever ties with the OHA, stating that they would not be part of the GOJHL going forward.

[16] After the league returned from the COVID-19 pandemic, they reverted back to the old three-team round robin format for the Sutherland Cup.

This is a list of first round National Hockey League draft picks of players straight out of the GOJHL.