Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League The Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League is a Canadian junior ice hockey league based in Southern Ontario , Canada . The league is sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Association , Ontario Hockey Federation , and Hockey Canada . The league was created in 2007 through the merging of the Western Ontario Hockey League , Mid - Western Junior Hockey League , and Golden Horseshoe Junior Hockey League to dissuade " player raiding " from teams in the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League . The skill level of the league is regarded as comparable to Junior " A " , but the league will not consider joining the Canadian Junior A Hockey League for at least a couple seasons . Twenty - five of the twenty - six of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League come from southwestern Ontario and one team comes from upstate New York . History . In the late 1990s , the Western Ontario Junior B Hockey League began complaining about their top level players being pulled from their teams at trade deadline time by Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League clubs without permission or compensation . The view in Southern Ontario is that Junior " A " and Junior " B " are the same skill level . In fact the OPJHL was known as the Central Ontario Junior B Hockey League until 1993 , as well the Metro Junior A Hockey League which folded in 1998 was a Junior " B " league until 1991 . The difference between the OPJHL and the MetJHL when compared to the Western , Mid - Western , and Golden Horseshoe leagues is that the OPJHL and MetJHL are Greater Toronto Area - based teams for the most part , while the other three leagues are more rural in nature . During the 2006 - 07 season , the general managers of all Ontario Hockey Association Junior " B " teams came together and voted unanimously to merge and create the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League effective for the 2007 - 08 season . The GOJHL will become the sole competing body of the Sutherland Cup , which once had as many as eight leagues competing for it at one time . The 2007 - 08 season has started off not as planned for the GOJHL . The management of the Mid - Western league resigned and needed to be replaced , and with a lack of organization due to the short time the new management had to get organized the MWJHL had to opt out of an interlocking schedule . As a result , the entire GOJHL will go without an interlocking schedule for 2007 - 08 . The 2008 - 09 season will see the complete liquidation of all three divisional managements and a single body will be put in place for all three divisions as well as an interlocking schedule between all three divisions . In the future , the league has stated that it will pursue club expansion , a reconfiguration that will move the league from three to four divisions , and possibly a move to join the Canadian Junior A Hockey League in future years . On September 8 , 2007 , the Cambridge Winterhawks and the Guelph Dominators played the first ever game since the inception of the GOJHL . Despite leading 2 - 0 and outshooting Guelph , the defending Sutherland Cup Champions allowed five unanswered goals to drop the game 5 - 2 . On May 3 , 2008 , the Tecumseh Chiefs finished a four game sweep of the Elmira Sugar Kings to win the first ever GOJHL championship . On September 24 , 2008 , the GOJHL hosted its first ever interdivisional regular season game between the Golden Horseshoe ' s Wheatfield Jr . Blades and the Western ' s London Nationals in London , Ontario . The Nationals won the game 6 - 2 . In April of 2014 the league had its request for reclassification to Tier II ( Junior A ) denied by the Ontario Hockey Association . The league has resubmitted the request in 2016 to become the second Junior A league in the province for the 2017 - 18 season . The denial in 2014 and other factors have the league and its members threatening to leave the OHA and Hockey Canada if the new request is denied . Sutherland Cup playoff champions . " Listed are the Sutherland Cup champions from the 1993 - 94 season until the 2006 - 07 season . < br > From 1993 until 2007 the Sutherland Cup was exclusive to the three leagues that now comprise the GOJHL . < br > For Junior " B " champions prior to the 1993 - 94 season , please visit : Sutherland Cup . " NHL Draft . " This is a list of first round National Hockey League draft picks of players straight out of the GOJHL . "