Varsity hockey planned for Laurentian U

Sudbury will be home to varsity hockey within five years, if all goes according to Laurentian University's five-year strategic plan.

Laurentian President Dominic Giroux said the university wants to resurrect its men's hockey team and also create a women's team, in a bid to boost enrolment numbers and raise the school's prestige.

Giroux said Sudbury is already a hockey town, having raised a number of NHL players.

"Sudbury after Toronto and Ottawa is the third city in Ontario that's produced the highest number of NHL players," he said. "And we're one of the few Ontario universities without a varsity hockey team. Our plan between 2017-18 is to fix that."

The university plans to also add 1,000 students by 2016 as well as set up a campus-wide wireless internet network.

Giroux said the university can afford to be ambitious because it's in better financial shape than many of its Canadian counterparts.

"We have a balanced budget. First time in four years," he said. "We're one of the few Canadian universities that actually has a balanced budget."