Western Canada Junior Hockey League (1948–1956)

[1] Earlier in 1948, the stronger junior teams based in Saskatchewan and Manitoba proposed an inter-provincial league.

Teams from the WCJHL won the Abbott Cup as the junior champions of Western Canada in five seasons, which included the Regina Pats in 1950, 1952, 1955, 1956, and the Edmonton Oil Kings in 1954.

[3] The WCJHL and other junior teams in Western Canada addressed the imbalance in Memorial Cup competition in a meeting with CAHA president W. B. George in August 1954.

The teams sought permission for the champions of any western leagues to add three players from their own league starting in the inter-provincial playoffs to determine the western representative for the Memorial Cup, and contended that the imbalance in competition caused lack of spectator interest and less prestige for the event.

[4][5] At the next CAHA meeting in January 1955, the request for three additional players for the Abbott Cup representative was approved.