Surrey Knights ice young team under new coach/GM Robinson, PJHL vet
Published 11:55 am Friday, September 4, 2026
A winter without coaching hockey was on the horizon for Steve Robinson, but then an opportunity in Surrey proved too tempting for the veteran, cup-winning PJHL bench boss.
Previously with Delta Ice Hawks, Robinson now leads Surrey Knights in the new-look Pacific Junior Hockey League, more firmly designed for the development of young hockey players.
With Andy Liboiron leaving the Knights for a job with the BCHL Surrey Eagles, a door opened for Robinson with PJHL Surrey as head coach and GM.
“This summer was the first time in 24 years where I wasn’t having to prepare a team for fall hockey, and this came together quickly,” Robinson said Aug. 18. “I met with John (Craighead, Knights owner) and we shared a vision about what we need to do here.”
The Knights will ice a team of mostly 16- and 17-year-olds this season, which starts Thursday, Sept. 10 with a game in North Surrey against Cloverdale, as the PJHL becomes an eight-team Junior B circuit.
“I did some homework on the league,” Robinson said, “and with the model they’re going for, by cutting down on 20s (20-year-old players) and going with U20 development, that really spoke to me.”
Robinson brings several former Ice Hawks players to the bench in Surrey including Henry Smith, Merik Erickson and Danylo Bereza, coaches of young players.
“We will recruit kids with the mentality of whether they stay here for a week, a month, a season or part of a season, we’re happy to have them come in and move then on, be a development stepping stone,” Robinson said. “The more kids we move on, it’s the best recruitment tool we can have.
“It becomes a U.S. college vibe where kids are one (season) and done,” he added. “It makes more work that you’re turning over your roster, but if you embrace that whole college vibe, a transient roster, we’ll have kids of similar mindsets where they’re coming in to get their feet wet junior-wise and maybe need a little bit more seasoning before (Junior A), whatever league it is. That makes a lot of sense to me.”
The Knights’ five-game preseason ended Sept. 3 with a 7-6 loss to White Rock Whalers, reigning PJHL champs.
The season ahead sees 7 p.m. Thursday home games at North Surrey Sport & Ice Complex and road battles for the Knights in Cloverdale, White Rock, Port Moody, Mission, North Vancouver, Aldergrove and Abbotsford, details on pjhl.net.
Last April, B.C.’s junior hockey landscape changed with the arrival of British Columbia Hockey Conference (BCHC), a new 22-team Junior A league launching this fall. The BC Hockey-sanctioned BCHC will include Delta Ice Hawks and seven other teams that have exited the PJHL.
The BCHC will rival BC Hockey League (BCHL, Surrey Eagles included), which left Hockey Canada in 2023 in a move designed to give players a better pathway to NCAA teams in the U.S.