Centennials announce new partnership with a hockey academy in the States

MERRITT – The Merritt Centennials have announced a new partnership with Lovell Hockey, a hockey academy from Rockland, Massachusetts.

The Cents and Lovell Hockey will be holding their first-ever BCHL Import Camp in New England from June 23-25 as part of the new partnership.

“The BCHL has recently made some changes for the upcoming season, with the most important change being the number of player imports, moving from 6 to 10,” wrote Lovell Hockey in their release of the partnership. “The BCHL is considered one of the top junior leagues in the world and now has made the league even stronger by allowing more import players.”

Also attending the camp is Centennials General Manager, Kevin Rabbitt, and the new Head Coach and Assistant General Manager, Brian Passmore.

The partnership does not only consist of the import camp, as Tim Lovell is joining the Cents family by taking on the role of Director of Player Personnel and Player Development.

Lovell Hockey has been in operation since 1998, operating numerous hockey ventures, including a prep school comprised of six programs that total 120 winter hockey teams, summer camps, spring clinics, summer leagues and tournaments.

There have been 17 NHL players come out of Lovell Hockey, including Ryan Donato, Noah Hanafin, and Kevin Hayes, while another 156 players have gone on to play college or university hockey.

“The Centennials are looking forward to working in collaboration with Lovell Hockey to help move the team forward with a strong contingent of import players along with our traditional streams of talent coming from Canada and, specifically, British Columbia,” wrote the Centennials.