How the 2017/2018 Canadian Hockey League season shapes up on Twitter

On Thursday of this week, the puck drops on the 2017/2018 Canadian Hockey League (@CHLHockey) regular season. Fans across Canada will once again flock to Twitter to cheer on their favourite teams and share the love for their favourite players, personalities and teams.

The @CHLHockey is comprised of 60 teams from across three leagues: the Ontario Hockey League (@OHLHockey), the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (@QMJHL) and the Western Hockey League (@TheWHL). At the end of each season, the winners from each league, plus a host team, come together to compete for the #MemorialCup.

The @CHLHockey conversation continues to grow on Twitter with hockey fans in Canada and the U.S. joining the conversation in record numbers. For example, mentions of the #MemorialCup hashtag grew by 15% during the 2016/2017 season, when compared with the 2015/2016 season. Looking at a two-year stretch, mentions of #MemorialCup grew 28% when you compare the 2014/2015 and 2016/2017 campaigns.

The Windsor Spitfires (@SpitsHockey) captured the #MemorialCup this past Spring and saw huge wins on Twitter too as a result. The team has already 1.6x more Twitter followers than they had heading into the past @CHL and they gained more new Twitter followers during the 2016/2017 season than any other team in the @OHL.

Entering the 2017/2018 season, the London Knights (@GoLondonKnights) are once again the most followed team in @OHL and the @CHLHockey with more than 60,000 followers. The Edmonton Oil Kings (@EdmOilKings) are the most followed team in the @WHL with more than 50,000 followers while the Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) are the most followed team in the @QMJHL with more than 38,000 followers.

The Erie Otters (@ErieOtters) and Kitchener Rangers (@OHLRangers) round out the Top Five list of most followed @CHLHockey teams.

Team mentions on Twitter also paint a picture of which fanbases are most active on the platform. These were the most mentioned CHL team accounts (by league) during the 2016/2017 hockey season:

Ontario Hockey League:

1. Erie Otters (@ErieOtters)
2. London Knights (@GoLondonKnights)
3. Windsor Spitfires (@SpitsHockey)
4. Mississauga Steelheads (@OHLSteelheads)
5. Peterborough Petes (@PetesOHLHockey)

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League:

1. Saint John Sea Dogs (@sjseadogs)
2. Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads)
3. Charlottetown Islanders (@IslandersHKY)
4. Moncton Wildcats (@monctonwildcats)
5. Gatineau Olympiques (@LesOlympiques)

Western Hockey League:

1. Seattle Thunderbirds (@SeattleTbirds)
2. Regina Pats (@WHLPats)
3. Lethbridge Hurricanes (@WHLHurricanes)
4. Calgary Hitmen (@WHLHitmen)
5. Portland Winterhawks (@PDXWinterhawks)

Interestingly, the Twitter discussion of the top US-based teams in the @CHLHockey was especially strong during the 2016/2017 season. If you take a cross section of the three most mentioned Canada-based teams (@GoLondonKnights, @SpitsHockey, @sjseadogs) and the three most mentioned US-based teams (@ErieOtters, @SeattleTbirds, @PDXWinterhawks), the American squads had 12% more total mentions during the past season than their Canadian counterparts.

Emerging @CHLHockey talents were also hot topics on Twitter over the past year. These were the most mentioned @CHLHockey players during the 2016/2017 hockey season:

1. Dylan Strome, Erie Otters (@stromer19)
   
2. Mikhail Sergachev, Windsor Spitfires (@sergachev31)
3. Alex DeBrincat, Erie Otters (@Brinksy97)
4. Jeremy Bracco, Windsor Spitfires (@jbracco97)
5. Sam Steel, Regina Pats (@ssteel23)

Stay locked to Twitter this season for the best content, insights and live reactions as the 60 @CHLHockey teams vie for the #MemorialCup.