By Dr. Thomas Orr and Jamison Ness.
Background Knowledge
The Western Hockey League (WHL), Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) and the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) are the premiere junior ice hockey leagues, within the CHL (Canadian Hockey League) as they are classified as major junior hockey for players under 21. The WHL features teams as eastern as Manitoba, Canada and as far south and west as the Portland area while both the OHL and QMJHL are geographically closer to their province but can and do include American teams. Major Juniors is technically described as an amateur league, but the players do receive a small stipend for their efforts in the league. Additionally, the scholarship program basically ensures that for every one year played in the CHL for that player, they will receive one year of tuition and books paid for at any time. Some players begin post secondary courses online with this scholarship while they are still active in the CHL, while others wait until they are done. If they wait until they are done in the CHL, often they play hockey at a Canadian university and participate in the Usports league while they use their CHL scholarship.
WHL logo.
What Is The Problem?
Essentially, because you have to be an amateur to compete in NCAA athletics, the stipend that WHL players receive stops them from being able to participate in NCAA hockey after they have signed a standard Player Agreement for the OHL, QMJHL or WHL. Another issue the NCAA has with Major Juniors is that it is common for players to get drafted to the National Hockey League in the middle of their junior career, sign an entry level contract, then be reassigned to their same Major Junior team to develop. Because of this, the NCAA believes it is extremely hard to vouch for these players as amateurs. An issue that a lot of CHL advocates have about this is, “Whether a player dresses in 200 CHL games or one pre-season game, they lose their eligibility for NCAA hockey. That means a player who never gets their shot at the CHL level, playing sporadically as a 16- to 19-year-old, would have no opportunity to establish themselves in the NCAA despite never playing meaningful minutes in the CHL.”. This is a large area of controversy because many people believe that there is a gray area for those players that do not play consistently throughout the CHL, but the rule is a blanket rule that covers all players; no matter how different their situations may be.
Why Spark Change Now?
The NIL deals within the NCAA are essentially what sparked this conversation. Primarily, people are arguing that if NCAA players can make piles of money off of NIL deals and still be deemed amateur, why can't the NCAA look past the Western Hockey Leagues modest stipends?
OHL Logo.
What Progress is Being Made?
Although the conversation has become much more lively within the last 9 months in the sports world, concrete changes have not been made. An article by SportsNet revealed that a meeting was held in Florida around May 5th with the American Coaches Association, and only about “15-20% of college coaches were interested in changing the bylaw”. Although this may not seem promising for those who want Major Junior players to play NCAA, the conversation around this decision seems to not be “will this happen?” anymore, but actually “when will this happen?”. Because the NCAA is allowing athletes to make large salaries off of NIL deals, it is very hard for them to make a sound argument that the amateurism of Canadian Hockey League players is not legitimate enough to participate in the NCAA. CHL teams know that Macklin Celebrini, Adam Fatntilli and Cale Makar skipped their league for the NCAA and also have reason to think hard about their current model.
What Next?
As the conversation around this topic continues to be a huge hot spot in the junior hockey world, a decision could be further than we think. If the NCAA and CHL both decide they want to do this, it will take some time and rigorous planning to figure out the legitimate details of it. Things like What age of players can come? How many players at once? How do we honor players already committed to NCAA schools? These and many more questions will need to be answered before the decision is made, and publicized however that is not always how things have worked. Given the many problems that have arisen for the NCAA when it makes changes such as the NIL and transfer deals many unintended consequences and collateral damage can occur. If the NCAA were to allow instant eligibility in the same sudden manner it would be a shock to the system and would displace many student athletes who would not have the talent needed to play in a league where they were originally recruited to play in prior to the presumed influx of elite talent. NCAA opportunities are fairly rare in hockey compared to some other sports so more players competing for these spots would create a trickledown with players either quitting or finding other places to go. American players and Canadien players would be competing for CHL rosters in hopes of going to the United States for college while tier 3 options in the United States and even some tier 2 teams may struggle to find relevancy if very few players from their leagues have a future in hockey. NAHL players and even some lower level Major Junior players will be competing for ACHA rosters with the few NCAA D1 teams choosing between the absolute elite.
With that in mind the experts at HockeyPhD (www.hockeyphd.com ) have proposed the following ideas;
Americans can play Majors and Canadiens can play in the US so its important to remember that when making rules. We do not restrict rosters on nationality in the NCAA but our concern is on how many “major junior players” can be on each roster.
3 Major junior players allowed per NCAA roster during the first year of allowing them to play would make sense. During the year it was announced each school could add the players they felt fit them best and make any lineup changes to create room by the fall. A team could add a few good players and this would not be a drastic change but certainly allow for some upper talent. A team could go goalie, forward and defense or load up. This is common in junior hockey where both imports and also age out players are often limited. For example the CHL limits teams to three twenty year old players so teams often play figurative chess to figure out their lineups.
In year two each team could add up to 2 more players and have a roster limit of 5 major junior players. Teams would now have more talent and we would hypothesize that teams like Michigan would have OHL talent while teams like North Dakota would have WHL talent added.
Each subsequent year two more players could be added. In year 3 a team could now be at 7 players. By this time many young American skaters would be developing in the WHL with hopes to come back to the US for college.
After this time it should be evaluated again. If things are working well we could continue on for the next decade until a team could be all Major Junior Players if so desired. If not, perhaps a cap could be placed such as 10 players total. If more restrictive measures are called for, it could be 5 or back to three even. One factor would be how junior hockey teams are faring and the other would be the success of developing these student athletes. Did opportunity grow for both Americans and Canadiens. Another variable to watch beyond our control would be what would happen to the NIL deal as other NCAA sports are asking for reform. If the NIL deal changes, this entire line of thought changes.
Finally, grandfathering current players in by protecting them from losing their scholarships is also critical as these are students.
Final Thoughts;
To conclude, the Canadian Hockey League is full of talented, well rounded athletes who would love the chance to be a NCAA athlete. The stipend they are making is nowhere near the potential NIL money that NCAA players come into contact with. Because of this, it is likely that the barrier between the CHL and NCAA will be broken down, we just do not know when. This is very exciting and also very scary for many kids and families involved in junior hockey, as the NCAA is an amazing experience to allow these kids to continue to play hockey, while receiving a top notch education so changing who may have access to this affordance is going to be controversial. Whenever this decision does reach a close, it will be monumental in the junior hockey world and it needs to be done right.