Case Study: How Sunco Powered the Technology Infrastructure Behind the 2026 OHL Priority Selection

About the Client

The Ontario Hockey League is one of the most prestigious junior hockey organizations in North America. With 20 teams spread across Ontario, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, the OHL serves as one of the premier development pathways for NHL talent and has placed hundreds of players on professional rosters over its decades of operation.

Each spring, the OHL Priority Selection introduces the league’s next generation of talent. In 2026, the Priority Selection returned to a large-scale, live-event format with all 20 member teams participating in real time, marking the first live Priority Selection event in 25 years.

Delivering an event of that size and significance required a technology partner capable of building and supporting the communications infrastructure from the ground up throughout the live broadcast.

The Opportunity/Challenge

Sunco has served as the OHL’s Official Business Communications Partner for two seasons. When the League began planning the 2026 Priority Selection as a full in-person event, the conversation about technology infrastructure expanded. The OHL needed a partner that could design, deploy, and manage a complete wired and wireless network inside an NHL-standard arena, support simultaneous live connections for all 20 teams, and keep journalists, broadcasters, and live podcast crews online without interruption. The event’s real-time nature left no margin for connectivity gaps. A delayed pick or a dropped broadcast would be felt immediately by everyone in the building and everyone watching remotely.

Sunco was named the Official Technology Partner of the OHL Priority Selection, taking on full responsibility for the event’s communications and IT infrastructure. The designation reflected the trust built through the existing partnership and the specific capability Sunco brings to high-pressure, time-sensitive deployments.

The Solution

Sunco designed and deployed a portable, enterprise-grade network built specifically for the event. The infrastructure connected to a 10 Gbps fibre uplink at the venue and supported approximately 500 devices across two full days of live draft activity.  Of those, 30 devices used direct wired connections at the 20 team tables and at dedicated stations for journalists and broadcasters. The remaining 400-plus devices were supported by a wireless network built on UniFi Wi-Fi 7 access points, ensuring consistent coverage across the arena.

Network isolation was central to the design, with each of the 20 OHL teams receiving a dedicated, segmented connection that ensured no team’s data or traffic was visible to another. The wireless network for media and staff ran on an entirely separate channel. All core equipment, including the cloud gateway, 2 x 24-port PoE switches, and uninterruptible power supply. More than 6,000 feet of CAT6 cabling was run manually across the arena floor to reach every team table, with all cables secured to meet trip-hazard requirements.

The deployment required pre-event lab testing, a full day of on-site setup and validation, and a Sunco technician present throughout both days of the draft to monitor the network and respond to any issues in real time. During the event period, a known firmware issue was identified and managed by the team on-site, with no disruption to event operations.   

The Outcome

Every team connection stayed live and isolated from first pick to last. No connectivity issues were reported at any table, and the media network held up under the sustained load of a full broadcast day. The event ran the way it needed to: with the technology invisible to everyone in the building. “Hosting the first live OHL Priority Selection in 25 years required a technology partner we could trust. Sunco designed and managed the communications infrastructure with professionalism from planning through execution. The network performed exactly as it needed to, giving our teams, media, and broadcast partners a seamless experience throughout the event,” said Josh Sweetland, Josh Sweetland, Director, Communications, Ontario Hockey League

The work at the OHL Draft is not unique in kind, only in setting. The same planning, testing, and operational discipline used at the OHL Priority Selection is the approach Sunco brings to enterprise networks, managed IT environments, communications infrastructure, and business continuity projects across Canada. For any business evaluating a technology partner, the question worth asking is not what a provider has done in a controlled environment. It is what they have done when the stakes were high and there was no room for a second attempt.

OHL Priority Selection 2026

Technology Reference Sheet

Sunco designed and deployed a complete portable network infrastructure for the 2026 OHL Priority Selection at Slush Puppie Place, Kingston, Ontario. The following tables summarize the equipment deployed and the key network architecture parameters that supported the event.

Equipment Deployed:

Network Architecture at a Glance