On October 28, 2024, I became the second person (hat tip to the first, Jamie Tozer) to visit all 60 CHL buildings for games, and the first person do it who has never been employed in hockey or media. A number of people over the years asked me if I was going to rank the 60 rinks as I grew closer to the end, and so what follows is my attempt to do just that. A few notes before getting started:
1) All rankings by necessity are subjective. The things I tend to look for in an arena – atmosphere, character, great sightlines, a sense of place and belonging – are harder to quantify than “biggest video board”. My rankings are going to naturally skew to favour older rinks, because I tend to prefer them. But I have tried to rank arenas on what they 'should' do well; like an older arena should do older arena things well, and a newer arena should do newer arena things well. After all, it's not fair to judge a building on things they were never designed for. The biggest reason why an arena might tumble down the rankings is by failing at the things they should do well.
2) I haven't been to a game in Drummondville since January of 2005, and a few others on this list it's been more than fifteen years. It's impossible to keep up-to-date on everything, so I've tried as much as possible for the rankings to be true to the arenas as they were when I saw them. In cases where it affects the rankings negatively, I've tried to note that, but I can only rank what I saw and experienced when I visited if I'm to remain honest.
So without further ado:
60. Eastlink Centre, Charlottetown
An utter disaster of a hockey arena, built cheaply and with appalling sightlines. There are very few good seats in the entire house, moving around the building is challenging, and at least when I visited in 2006, the apathy of team ownership was apparent everywhere. I've heard from multiple people that the team's new owners have done a better job connecting the club with the local community, but Rocket times were dark times on Prince Edward Island, and I can only score what I saw when I was there. The one and only saving grace in Charlottetown was the absolutely wonderful, welcoming fans, who'd easily rank top five in the CHL for friendliness.
59. Centre d'Éxcellence Sports Rousseau, Blainville-Boisbriand
A perfectly nice, serviceable community sports complex that has absolutely no business hosting a CHL team. There's nothing even really to criticize about it as a junior B arena, but the CHL deserves more than a bland community rink complex in an industrial park. In the days prior to an AHL team in Laval it made a little more sense for the Armada to exist, but these days it's hard to understand why the team hasn't moved on to greener pastures when they'll forever be the second choice even in the northern Montreal suburbs.
58. CAA Centre, Brampton
While it's true I haven't made it back for a Steelheads game yet, I've heard that very little has changed about going to games in Brampton, and I did make it to at least 7-8 Battalion games throughout their history. The CAA Centre is a bland clone rink surrounded by parking lots and nearly inaccessible any way except by car, and even when it's full (I did go to one of the very few Battalion sellouts in their fifteen years), it's still dark, quiet and soulless. (For what it's worth – I previously had Mississauga ranked in this spot for largely the same reasons, but if I had to choose, Mississauga was a slightly nicer arena than Brampton.)
57. Moose Jaw Events Centre, Moose Jaw
The architecture is all wrong for the downtown location, with acres of dead frontage. Gameday operations and lighting are shockingly bad for a new arena. When I kindly pointed this out on Twitter when I visited, a bunch of locals informed me I was wrong, because the team is community-owned and doing the best they can, but had no retort to my pointing out the world-class operations in other community-owned teams like Kitchener and Peterborough. I'd be more willing to forgive Moose Jaw its flaws in an older arena, but in a new one it's hard to fathom. Moose Jaw's flaws are fixable, and there's potentially a good CHL rink in there waiting to come out, but as I saw it it was easily the worst of the legion of CHL clones.
56. Co-Op Place, Medicine Hat
Location, location, location. Medicine Hat's new arena sits on a plot of lonely prairie so far out of town that cattle literally graze on the open range adjacent to the parking lot. It's hard to imagine why the arena was built so far out in the middle of nowhere, but even if you ignore that, the rink itself isn't anything special. The random enormous upper level that only exists in one end, one that never fills up, makes the rest of the arena feel cavernous and empty, and the complete lack of team colours or personality in the building just creates a feeling of a bland, generic arena that could be anywhere. A team with the history of the Medicine Hat Tigers deserves much better than this.
55. KC Irving Regional Centre, Acadie-Bathurst
I saw Bathurst as good as it gets – a sellout against Moncton and one of the best junior games I've ever seen – and yet despite the arena putting its absolute best face forward, it still is a generic bare-bones CHL clone, built in a parking lot without a lot of personality. I was last here in 2006, but I've heard that the arena hasn't really kept up with the times, either, so I can't imagine a repeat visit would bump it any higher.
54. Town Toyota Center, Wenatchee
The powers that be in Wenatchee haven't quite figured out they're running a major junior team yet. Some people apparently find Wenatchee's amateurish gameday operations to be charming, but I wasn't overly impressed with PowerPoint scoreboard graphics and an announcer who sounds like a college radio DJ. The fundamentals of a good rink are there under the surface, and hiring an experienced gameday operations manager from another CHL or AHL team would go a long way to bumping this one higher in the rankings.
53. Sadlon Arena, Barrie
One of the worst arena locations in the CHL, Barrie's rink is located in the middle of a sprawling suburban hellscape that's challenging to navigate to during shopping hours. Built too small and in the wrong place, and there's a reason why no other rink I'm aware of put the suites right down at the glass - giving the best viewpoints to the rich isn't a good look. Despite all this, it still could be a good rink with decent crowds, but I've never encountered much in the way of atmosphere or noise on any of my visits to Barrie. The team's inexplicable cash-only policy for concessions, which was still in place as of 2023-24, was also a relative black mark.
52. Arena Iamgold, Rouyn-Noranda
I was only ever there before renovations, but the arena I saw in 2007 was run-down, filthy, and the music was way too loud out of a garbled ancient sound system that in no way was set up to handle rock concert volume. My least favourite old barn in the CHL, but I'd still very much like to go back someday to see if my issues with it have been fixed post-renovation. Atmosphere was only so-so by Quebec standards.
51. Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary
I'd have this one ranked a lot higher as an NHL arena. Junior hockey generally always suffers in full-sized NHL rinks, but Calgary's atmosphere was poor and I didn't like that the team didn't sell the seats on the sides on the overhang – among the best seats in the house across the entire NHL, so why shouldn't junior use them? The Saddledome's design flaws are accentuated as a junior rink with a small crowd. Gameday ops were world-class at least.
50. Progressive Auto Sales Arena, Sarnia
Poor location out by the highway, inexplicable outdoor ticket windows despite Sarnia's legendary winters, and a famously quiet arena except when London is in town. Even then, I've been to London games there several times and have never really found the locals got too energized even when it's us in town. One of the closest road rinks to my house, and Sarnia has never been a difficult ticket, so the fact I've only been 4-5 times lifetime just about says it all.
49. Prospera Place, Kelowna
Virtually unchanged since it opened in the late 90's, Prospera Place was really starting to show its age by the time I got there in 2022. Between one of the oldest scoreboards in the CHL and a bunch of twenty-five year-old seats, deferred maintenance is finally starting to catch up to Kelowna's rink, which felt just a little run-down and a little dirty when I was there. It's entirely possible I'd rank this a little higher if they someday clean and fix the place up, but I also found a building without a lot of atmosphere or personality for my visit. It's in a great location, at least.
48. Slush Puppie Place, Kingston
Another new clone arena that suffers from generic disease. The location is great, the exterior architecture blends beautifully into Kingston's wonderful downtown, but inside, this could be any arena anywhere in North America. A few gallons of black and gold paint would go such a long way. I've also never really encountered much in the way of atmosphere in Kingston, though with the form of the Frontenacs over most of their history one can't really blame them.
47. Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, Victoria
From this point on begins the 'mushy middle', arenas I liked just fine and which are harder to rank since a lot of them are so similar. For Victoria, no, I didn't dock points for the name. Victoria's arena has a real community-run feel to it, and the war memorial is lovely and moving, but the small crowds really didn't help endear this rink to me. Good location in downtown Victoria. Gameday ops were just okay. Little to criticize, but nothing really stands out as a huge positive either, which probably contributed to it falling down the rankings this far.
46. Scotiabank Centre, Halifax
Adding suites ruined it. The lower level alone I'd have ranked significantly higher, between the great atmosphere and the great sightlines, but thousands of upper level seats have obstructed views because of the addition of the suite level. The Mooseheads run a tight, professional ship and going to games there is a blast, as long as you're sitting lower level, but there are more bad seats here than any other CHL rink.
45. TD Place, Ottawa
Probably not long for this world, as of my first visit back in 2005 I'd have ranked this higher. But what's left of the former Frank Clair Stadium complex is crumbling, and the Civic Centre really feels like it's gotten long in the tooth. Seats on the small side are claustrophobic; seats on the big side can be a long way from the ice. I've seen it rocking when it's full, but the 67's generally don't sell out too often anymore. Gameday ops are good, and indoor heated parking is an absolute luxury otherwise absent from the entire CHL.
44. Centre 200, Cape Breton
Another rink where the small crowds probably lowered its grade a bit. It's a decent enough arena in a decent location, the locals are incredibly friendly and hospitable, but apart from the fiddle music on the PA this could have been anywhere in North America. I liked this one more than some arenas I have ranked higher, but I couldn't figure out a reason to objectively bump it above any that appear ahead of it.
43. Bayshore Community Centre, Owen Sound
I've always enjoyed going to games here, but the arena very much has that 'built on the cheap' feeling. It's dark and cramped and you can tell it originally was built as a community barn, even as multiple subsequent renovations have just about brought it up to snuff as a CHL arena. It would be intimidating as hell playing up here if the locals weren't so darned friendly.
42. Rogers Place, Edmonton
As an NHL rink I'd actually have this below Calgary, but as a junior barn the Oil Kings do it better. NHL-quality gameday ops and great views from the lower bowl make this about as good an experience as it can be given the limitations of playing junior hockey in a cavernous NHL rink. But 12,000 empty seats every game is never going to make this place feel like a great junior barn. Easily the largest rink by area in the CHL.
41. Credit Union iPlex, Swift Current
For a building so small, there are more than a few poor seats in the house, with the corners even in the front row being a long way from the action. Location on the fringe of the town, even fifty years after opening, could be better. The game I went to didn't have much in the way of atmosphere. I wanted to like this one a lot more than I did.