High regard for the NOJHL

By Randy Russon
August 9, 2025
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One of my most liked amateur hockey leagues begins a fresh season of play in a month. With 11 teams — the Elliot Lake Vikings remain on leave of absence due to the continued closure of its city owned home arena — the sometimes hidden gem that is the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League features strong leadership and mostly good ownership.

At the helm of the NOJHL as commissioner is Rob Mazzuca, who has been the league’s commander in chief since 2011. While some like him and some don’t — as is the case with most people who are in authority — Mazzuca is mainly respected within Canadian Jr. Hockey League circles and carries a position of power within it. As Mazzuca is fond of saying: “Follow the rules and you won’t get into trouble.”

As for the member teams, the Sudbury Cubs will skate into the ’25-26 NOJHL season as two time reigning champions. The Cubs have the backing of long time junior hockey operator Mark Burgess and his family and are well coached by Darryl Moxam. (Of note, Burgess and his family owned the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League for more than 30 years, turning it into one of the OHL’s most profitable franchises over time.)

At any rate, Sudbury is the bigger market mainstay of the NOJHL with the medium market Timmins Rock and Powassan Voodoos — from the North Bay area — right up there in terms of operational and ownership strength. Meantime, small market franchises such as the Blind River Beavers, French River Rapids, Espanola Paper Kings and the Michigan-based Soo Eagles are much of what the NOJHL is all about.

While often taking a back seat to the likes of the Ontario Jr. Hockey League and the Central Canada Hockey League, the NOJHL is no slouch when it comes to recruitment, development and moving players to higher levels.

To be sure, the NOJHL does well as a recruiting base for schools at the Division 3 level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the Division 1 and 2 levels of the American Collegiate Hockey Association.

And every year, a good number of Ontario Hockey League draft picks end up with teams in the NOJHL. Powassan has had a lengthy relationship with the North Bay Battalion of the Ontario Hockey League as its number one farm team. And Sudbury, Timmins, Blind River, Espanola, French River, the Soo Eagles and Soo Thunderbirds all develop OHL draft picks with regularity.

Besides committed ownership, good coaches are also part of what attracts players of all junior ages from all around Ontario — and across Canada — to the NOJHL. Bench bosses of good repute include Darryl Moxam in Sudbury, Brandon Perry of Timmins, Kyle Brick in Blind River, Jeremy Rebek of the Soo Eagles and Peter Goulet in Powassan — while good guys Jason Rapcewicz in Espanola and Paul Frustaglio of French River are owners who also coach their teams.

Like any other junior A league across Canada, the NOJHL has its own challenges. There is market size and geography to deal with — and the issue in Elliot Lake where there is a committed owner but no arena to play in for going on two years now.

But the NOJHL has come a long way in the 20 plus years that I have been covering it with dogged regularity. There have been a few bad apples in the basket — and there still may be one or two spoiling it for the rest — but that is a fact of life no matter where or at what level hockey is played.

Here’s to the NOJHL. I absolutely love writing about most of it.