The Ottawa 67’s have withdrawn from the bidding for the 2018 Memorial Cup.

Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group president of sports Jeff Hunt notified the Canadian Hockey League the 67’s were out a week ago.

“It was a very difficult decision,” said Hunt. “I would say the biggest factor was we made a fairly significant commitment this year by drafting three 16-year-old defencemen (Peter Stratis, Carter Robertson and Kevin Bahl) — they’re all going to be great players in this league, for our team. If you look at the profile of teams that win the Memorial Cup, you need 19- and 20-year-olds at key positions to win. Our team is just not going to be peaking early enough to be able to stand in front of the league and say we have a team which can win the Memorial Cup.

“We were trying to make it happen, but you can’t try and force something where the timing wasn’t right. We didn’t feel it was appropriate.”

The 2017-18 season will be the 67’s 50th anniversary, along with being the 100th anniversary of the Memorial Cup. It just didn’t make sense for Ottawa in the end.

“We’re going to be coming off a very busy 2017 (on the Ottawa sports landscape with many national and international championships during Canada’s 150th birthday) where there may be a bit of market fatigue going into 2018 and that was a factor as well,” said Hunt. “We’re going to have a great team for years to come. The year after or the year after that, the Ottawa 67’s are going to be an elite team in the Canadian Hockey League, but we’re just not ready for next year.”

tbaines@postmedia.com

Twitter: @TimCBaines