Blue and Green
Out to lunch
- Dec 17, 2017
- 4,336
- 4,767
Plenty more CHL '05s will follow as time goes along.
CHL can now play NCAA - change everything !
- Thread starter jtechkid
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Hockeyville USA
Registered User
NTDP
Registered User
To your first point - Yes that's fair, we can agree there.
2nd - Correct that's what I was saying earlier, USHLers leave before 20 and CHL draftees had to stay because of the CHL draft rule keeping their top 18-19's in the league. As you know it's either NHL or back to junior. I just wonder what the shift might look like now that they're NCAA eligible. This opens up a whole new option for even the mid round types to leave before twenty. If the top guys can leave and play in the AHL like you're saying, the next tier could move onto NCAA. Thus watering down the league which was my other original point.
I'm 25 minutes away from the Cleveland Monsters and go to several games a year and watch online. I'm going tomorrow for the Lumberjacks throwback night. Gavin Brindley is an example of who I'm talking about - wasn't first round but could have slid into the back of day 1. He absolutely would have been one of the better 19 y/o CHLers if he wasn't at Michigan and when I watch him play in the AHL there's times where he's good, but others where you see he needs to adjust to more physical players leaning on him when he tries to make plays with the puck, and pace of the game. He wouldn't have been ready at 18. Yes some of the high end teenagers could play there, but I don't think as big of a portion as suggested would have success and could hurt development. We'll see where this takes us but I appreciate the dialogue.
Nice to see more CCHA teams dip into the CHL player pool. Max was once a highly regarded player, who was even invited to the NTDP camp. He was then drafted 3rd overall by the Sarnia Sting. His size has always been a limiting factor and coupled with just average skating abilities doomed any chance at a legitimate pro career by the time he was 20/21. Enter the new NCAA eligibility rule and he now has another shot at that pro career. He is still highly rated (ranked comfortably in the top 100 in NZ top 500 04 NCAA eligibility birth rankings) and he should have a very solid four-year career at Bemidji.
There are perhaps 5-6 18-year-old elite players in any given year who have the strength and ability to play solid minutes in the AHL. There are more or less two dozen 19-year-old players who could do the same. It is a fairly small number, but this is who we mean when we say the elite prospects who may sign an ELC and forgo the NCAA route.
It's almost a certainty that the CHL-NHL agreement will be modified to allow players U-20 the option to sign and play in the NHL/AHL. Placing my ear to ground in this issue, I've heard that the CHL (desperately) wants certain guard rails and a hybrid system where players play up in the AHL and then sent back to the CHL by a certain date. No idea if the NHL and NHLPA will agree to this but I do know that the vast majority of NHL GM's want those CHL players to have the opportunity to play in the A if they cannot stick with the parent NHL club.
The real battle for top NCAA programs like a B.U. or Michigan is to convince those top end players to delay signing an ELC after being drafted and leave their CHL team in order to play their D+1 and hopefully their D+2 seasons in college. Now you can go back and read this thread as to how some of us think this may play out.
Kingpin794
Smart A** In A Jersey
This 100%. People sees guys in junior put up great numbers at 17/18 and think they will do well in the AHL. Its really not the case. If they do change the CBA to allow CHLers into the AHL before 20, I'd like to see it on a very limited basis. Something like you're limited to 1 U20 CHL player in the AHL per year. It should be about actual development and not just having a kid learn to survive in the AHL. This idea should extend to going to the NCAA as well. It's a half step below the AHL so guys picked in the top 40 or so picks should be able to handle NCAA at 18/19. But for guys picked round 3 and on, it should be about more than just surviving the NCAA.
One of the positive of the new rule it should make college hockey dramatically deeper which could have a lot of teams in the mix . Yea , BU - Michigan will get the stud kids at 18 but other programs start getting high end 20 year old kids from CHL verse kids from the Nahl could make huge difference . However , it looks to me college hockey just got little older not younger.
Strongly suggest you watch the podcasts done by Bob Turow and Dan K. They make the argument that the NCAA needs to get younger and not older, but you are correct, the NCAA will become much older.
Believe I linked these before but will do so again
The only college hockey fans happy about a bunch more 21 year old freshmen coming in are those supporting programs that have never figured out how to compete.
25 year olds playing against 18 (or 17) years old in college hockey is stupid.
25 year olds playing against 18 (or 17) years old in college hockey is stupid.
You do realize that for the past several years there have been far far more 21-year-old freshman than 18 your old ones, right?
This new rule change will probably make true freshman even scarcer, but this is the trajectory D-1 hockey has been on. It's a way for the smaller to mid-tier programs compete against the traditional powers.
All in all though, I wouldn't be opposed to a rule that limits 21-year-old freshman.
The 18 vs 21 stat makes sense. But I had seen a stat on here that I felt was incorrect on the number of freshmen by age, and I never saw a good link confirming it. I would reckon the average age of freshmen these days to be between like 19.8 and 20.4, but as I mentioned skewing higher and higher at the crappy schools.
So ya, I never liked 21 year old freshmen and this will just make the problem worse.
It’s completely ridiculous but the college’s don’t really care either . Their have been talk to lower age by one year which i think is just common sense ?
About six or seven years ago the Big 10 (hockey part) attempted to float a proposal limiting 20 year old freshman. It didn't get very far as most other conferences, teams and even the USHL/NAHL along with USA Hockey were adamantly opposed to the proposal.
The colleges don't care because it's the only way they can compete.
The programs trying to lower the age are the top 10-15 or so programs that bring in and develop young players, but they are outnumbered so it never passes.
It's the same reason regionals are not on campuses. The little loser schools are scared but they know they'll end up playing at the big schools in the first round more often than not.
I know. Our ex-coach was pushing that and we all wanted it.
Unfortunately, that is an almost impossibility in today's NCAA. They are openly discussing granting all players a 5th year eligibility and the recent JUCO court injunction pretty much ensures that D-1 hockey will be a league primarily consisting of 20–25-year-old players.
