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The Gunners have been silenced before ever firing a shot.
Jun 01, 2026 • Last updated Jun 02, 2026 •
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The Gunners have been silenced before ever firing a shot.
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A local group that has spent the last nine months trying to bring back the once-great Simcoe senior hockey team has faced a setback in their bid to join the Ontario Elite Hockey League.
Group spokesman Gary Lazou shared the disappointing news on social media Monday.
“It was tough for our group to swallow; we weren’t just a last-minute thought,” Lazou said. “We started this late last summer and thought we did things the right way. We wanted to show the league there’s a rich history with the Gunners that goes back to 1951, and that we had won three OHA (Ontario Hockey Association) championships. We had done our due diligence, we had community support, we had ice time, and we had 15 players that had never played senior hockey before.”
The one thing the group didn’t have was enough backing among the OEHL’s 18 clubs. Simcoe needed at least 75 percent approval during last week’s expansion vote.
“We were told it wasn’t close, and right away, you know there’s been talking going on behind the scenes,” Lazou said.
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Lazou was informed by OHA representatives that their application and a recently released documentary about the franchise’s history were sent out to all current league members.
“Whether they look at it or not is up to them,” he said. “I really have some concerns that some teams didn’t look at the application.”</Lazou expressed online that he felt “shocked, deflated, flabbergasted and gutted”.</”We weren’t able to attend the meeting; we weren’t able to defend ourselves,” he added.</The concern likely came from teams already having franchises in both Tillsonburg and Delhi.</”We had spoken to a few teams and went and watched a bunch of games, and I think we addressed any issues fairly,” Lazou said. “We didn’t seek any sponsors or players west of Simcoe. All our players that had committed were all Simcoe, Port Dover, Waterford guys who had never played senior hockey and were all in beer leagues or LUG (university or college) leagues.”</Lazou pointed out that another senior league, the Northern Premier Hockey League (NPHL), “aggressively” pursued their group. The NPHL operates outside of Hockey Canada regulations and has teams in both Six Nations and Dunnville; however, local volunteers aimed for their team to reconnect with its roots within the OHA.</This has not loaded yet, but your article continues below..P
“No disrespect to the Northern Premier Hockey League,” Lazou noted.”but it wasn’t for our group; it wasn’t what we were about.” Our whole story was based on past achievements and reviving it now. We’re a community-supported small-town team with volunteers all around us; we’ve got no wealthy owner.”
The group mentioned they’ll take a break for now but didn’t rule out future efforts to bring senior hockey back into town.
“We’re taking a break,” he stated. “I don’t know what lies ahead-a year is quite long. There are many disappointed folks in Simcoe who were excited about this because we’d done our homework prior to applying.”
“I hope other small-town teams in Ontario looking at bringing senior hockey back see our journey as an example they can learn from,” he concluded.
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