ROBIN SHORT
The Telegram

The St. John's Major Midget Fog Devils are in Moncton, N.B., for the big Monctonian AAA and major midget challenge this weekend, an event which attracts some 44 teams and 900 midget-aged hockey players.

It's a tournament where youngsters gather to be gawked at by a gaggle of hockey scouts and, in the Fog Devils' case, presumably offer some competition for a change.

St. John's has won eight straight provincial major midget hockey championships, and appears well on its way to a ninth title with an 11-0 record.

The dynasty has scored 84 goals in those 11 games, and have allowed only 14.

Last season, the Fog Devils' goals for and against was 197-47 while losing only three regular season games.

The program is the finest of its kind within Newfoundland and Labrador, and probably one of the top three in Atlantic Canada. Its alumnus includes NHLers Ryane Clowe and Teddy Purcell, former big leaguers Harold Druken and Doug O'Brien, along with countless more past and present junior and college players.

Luke Adam, who figures nicely in the Buffalo Sabres' plans down the road, played for the club when it was known as the Maple Leafs.

But the Fog Devils/Maple Leafs success has come at a price ... and not just the hefty $5,000 or $6,000 it costs parents to have their kids play for the best major midget outfit going.

No, St. John's dominance cannot be good for major midget hockey as a whole within the province.

Labrador stuck it out a few years, paying through the nose to travel to the island every second weekend, only to be eventually humiliated by strong St. John's teams. The Northern Huskies eventually fizzled.

This year, the Western Subways took a reprieve from major midget hockey. The folks who run Western maintain the team will return. It's just that with the peaks and valleys that come with graduating and incoming players, midgets good enough to play at the top level within the province now are few and far between.

At least that's what they declare.

Word continues to leak out that this could be the final year for the Tri-Pen Frost, based out of C.B.N.

Who knows.

Perhaps costs is the reason there are only three major midget teams this season (Central IcePak join St. John's and Tri-Pen). Or maybe it's a dearth of players.

That's debatable. But this much, however, is certain: to have a single club rule a league year after year, with a continuing surplus of talent ready and waiting in the wings each and every fall, cannot be healthy for the game's overall well being.

St. John's selects its players from the province's biggest and best minor associations - St. John's minor, Mount Pearl, Avalon-Celtics, Conception Bay Regional (C.B.S. and Paradise), Goulds, Southern Shore, Northeast and Bell Island.

Tri-Pen gets the St. John's leftovers (as many as 10 or 11 this year), along with players from C.B.N., Bonavista/Clarenville, Trinity-Placentia and Burin Peninsula. The Central players come from the Grand Falls-Windsor and Gander areas, Lewisporte, and all points in between.

St. John's contends it needs a deep player pool to contend at the Atlantics, a correct assertion. But if there is no provincial league in which to play - not an unreasonable assumption - having the best to offer will be all for not.

Following the Telus Cup national championship, which St. John's is playing host to next season at Mile One Centre, Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador needs to take a strong look at icing two St. John's teams in major midget play for the 2011-12 season.

Further, HNL must help establish a committee which would run the provincial major midget league, a setup which would include its own president, VP, etc. In other words, closer attention must be placed on the province's preeminent hockey developmental league.

Regardless if St. John's has one team or two, youngsters are still being developed. And better yet, there will be more of them.

Granted, Newfoundland might not be a perennial contender for an Atlantic title - a status which it currently enjoys - but at least a strong and vibrant major midget league makes for a viable future.

That cannot be said right now.

Robin Short is The Telegram's Sports Editor. He can be reached by email rshort@thetelegram.com