CHL Can Now Play NCAA - Changes Everything

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So I suppose the question of who is next depends on whose season ends first. But at this point, I'm guessing neither McKenna nor Misa are playing another season in the CHL. Too much smoke there. But there haven't been the same amount of rumors regarding Martone or Schaefer. Defense is the one area where NCAA >>>> CHL in recent years, so I could see that being a good move for Schaefer.
There was a Martone linked to Michigan rumor a few months ago but that has cooled since. I'm guessing we'll see more news after the NCAA & CHL seasons are over, and then a spike of news after the NHL Draft of course.
 
With the CHLers, especially the ones who've dominated junior already, but who aren't good enough to jump straight into the NHL nor can play in the A because of their age & CHL-NHL Agreement, the NCAA would be a very intriguing option. NHL teams (like the Boston Bruins as I keep bringing up as an example), might tell guys pre draft or those they select post draft that some NCAA time would be most beneficial.

Many of these guys might want to play in the NCAA for a year or two already and have schools lined up to commit to during the offseason. I think a guy like Jackson Smith could definitely benefit from playing against older competition & getting stronger, just for example.
 
For many of those players, they will also want to participate in prospect tournaments, experience NHL training camp and play in pre-season games. These will be factors in why many will sign their ELC.
Okay, but that’s already part of the NCAA vs. junior/maybe pro decision. It’s not due to the allure of an ELC is my point.
 
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I do think overall this will be a positive for the development of Canadian hockey players as a whole. I get the worry of CHL as a league to an extent. But I think it will give top end Canadian players more control over their development and another level to push themselves at or tackle before turning pro. We also might start seeing less drafted Canadian players missing from something like the World Juniors.
 
Okay, but that’s already part of the NCAA vs. junior/maybe pro decision. It’s not due to the allure of an ELC is my point.
There is some financial allure of an ELC too. I remember reading a Philadelphia Flyers article several months ago about Oliver Bonk. He will have earned $285,000 USD over the last 2 years. Not a crazy amount in the grand scheme of things, but not exactly chump change either.

But yes, the ELC is likely viewed as incidental to the opening of options within the NHL organization, all of which we can reasonably assume the player signing the ELC views as superior opportunities for his development.
 

A poster in this thread went on and on about how NIL money is nonexistent in college hockey. Even if that is the case at this very moment with NIL in its infancy, money making its way into college hockey is as easy as this: an anonymous benefactor deciding to indefinitely funnel $1.5 million to the team at Lake Superior State. That's quite literally all it takes: one person deciding to donate money. The article specifically mentions that the money will in part be spent to "recruit and retain top talent."

Why wouldn't this happen at other programs? And this program is one that has not been relevant in 30 years and is affiliated with a university that is relatively tiny/obscure.
 
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I do think overall this will be a positive for the development of Canadian hockey players as a whole. I get the worry of CHL as a league to an extent. But I think it will give top end Canadian players more control over their development and another level to push themselves at or tackle before turning pro. We also might start seeing less drafted Canadian players missing from something like the World Juniors.
The CHL will be fine. They will just have to get used not being at the top of the development pyramid for every high end 18 and 19 year old hockey player. They will lose overage eligible guys earlier too.

On the flip side, they will gain a lot of talent from both Canada and the States who were going to go NCAA regardless and now remain eligible for that, can play high end junior hockey before heading off to university. While I don't know how many Minnesotans will go to the Dub after HS, a ton of Michiganders & New Yorkers/New Jerseyans will go to the O, a fair number of Massachusetts kids will go to the Maritimes teams in the Q, and some solid Western states kids will also go to the Dub.

The BCHL and AJHL are in trouble. Junior A will be forced to downsize/consolidate across Canada IMHO
 
NCAA is a 20-25 year old league, any top level player drafted at 18 will be wanted in the AHL at 20-21 anyway.

NHL teams will pay more money in signing bonuses to offset and get them in the system IMO.

Like Zayne Parekh.

Guys who swap at 18-19 will be middle of the road guys looking for another 3-4 years of visibility.

Good for players all around.

Agents for Mckenna's and Martone want to get to the free agency as soon as possible, so they get paid right... so you wanna delay that for another 2-3 years? Nah.

No point in going for 1 year IMO.

There's no point for super high end players
 
They might as well. It would just be easier for them travel wise.

I guess Chilliwack wants to try again even though they failed the last time.
My memory is that the ownership group with Brian Burke involved failed Chilliwack but that's just a first gut memory.
 
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NCAA is a 20-25 year old league, any top level player drafted at 18 will be wanted in the AHL at 20-21 anyway.

NHL teams will pay more money in signing bonuses to offset and get them in the system IMO.

Like Zayne Parekh.

Guys who swap at 18-19 will be middle of the road guys looking for another 3-4 years of visibility.

Good for players all around.

Agents for Mckenna's and Martone want to get to the free agency as soon as possible, so they get paid right... so you wanna delay that for another 2-3 years? Nah.

No point in going for 1 year IMO.

There's no point for super high end players
19-23 year old league mostly.

Plenty of high end players, including recent Canadians, have played in the NCAA and it has benefitted their development. Age appropriate competition instead of stat padding against younger junior players or being fish in the water in the NHL.

The super elite can go straight to the NHL, but very few CHLers are NHL ready at 18 or 19 years old. They should play in the CHL at 16, 17, and even 18 years old, play NCAA for a season or two, and then move on to pro.
 
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My memory is that the ownership group with Brian Burke involved failed Chilliwack but that's just a first gut memory.

Yep, you're right. Definitely some mixed reactions in Chilliwack. They mayor didn't go the press conference because he isn't behind this new franchise.

And initiating a franchise without an owner is kind of putting the cart before the horse.
 
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Yep, you're right. Definitely some mixed reactions in Chilliwack. They mayor didn't go the press conference because he isn't behind this new franchise.

And initiating a franchise without an owner is kind of putting the cart before the horse.
Yes awarding the franchise without an ownership group was just really weird.

Seems bass akwards really.

But maybe my lottery ticket will enable me enough to buy the franchise but honestly I was reading something like $15 million to buy the franchise?

Even if I win that's doesn't sound like the best opportunity for 15 million bucks.
 
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Yes awarding the franchise without an ownership group was just really weird.

Seems bass akwards really.

But maybe my lottery ticket will enable me enough to buy the franchise but honestly I was reading something like $15 million to buy the franchise?

Even if I win that's doesn't sound like the best opportunity for 15 million bucks.

And a nice hefty fee to Ron Toigo for territory rights!

If you become the owner, appoint me chief scout lol.
 
And a nice hefty fee to Ron Toigo for territory rights!

If you become the owner, appoint me chief scout lol.
Apparently Penticton paid Kelowna 7 figures for Territory rights which sounds like a cash grab to make but the Giants play in Langley and I wonder if had they stayed at the old coliseum if the wack would have been considered far enough away but it's a moot point.
 

A poster in this thread went on and on about how NIL money is nonexistent in college hockey. Even if that is the case at this very moment with NIL in its infancy, money making its way into college hockey is as easy as this: an anonymous benefactor deciding to indefinitely funnel $1.5 million to the team at Lake Superior State. That's quite literally all it takes: one person deciding to donate money. The article specifically mentions that the money will in part be spent to "recruit and retain top talent."

Why wouldn't this happen at other programs? And this program is one that has not been relevant in 30 years and is affiliated with a university that is relatively tiny/obscure.
It's certainly not impossible, but requiring a donor putting up significant amounts of money in perpetuity is not "easy". There are not a lot of people in the world who can just drop $1.5M every year on what is essentially a passion project, there are even fewer who want that project to be college sports, and even fewer than that who love college hockey and not football or basketball.

Even with this gift, the amount of money they have to play with is not actually that much. Probably half of it at most will be given directly to players. You have at least 20 guys that you probably want to spread that money around to. Not that ~$30k isn't real money, but it's probably not enough to convince top end, NHL prospects to come to your school especially when your school is not very prestigious hockey-wise or academically.

It's not that NIL doesn't exist for hockey it's that
1) the sums of money being talked about are much lower than you'd think
2) at the flagship programs, football is the all-consuming black hole that is every booster/collective/AD's first and last priority
3) foreign players for the most part cannot make any NIL money while on a student visa
 
It's certainly not impossible, but requiring a donor putting up significant amounts of money in perpetuity is not "easy". There are not a lot of people in the world who can just drop $1.5M every year on what is essentially a passion project, there are even fewer who want that project to be college sports, and even fewer than that who love college hockey and not football or basketball.

Even with this gift, the amount of money they have to play with is not actually that much. Probably half of it at most will be given directly to players. You have at least 20 guys that you probably want to spread that money around to. Not that ~$30k isn't real money, but it's probably not enough to convince top end, NHL prospects to come to your school especially when your school is not very prestigious hockey-wise or academically.

It's not that NIL doesn't exist for hockey it's that
1) the sums of money being talked about are much lower than you'd think
2) at the flagship programs, football is the all-consuming black hole that is every booster/collective/AD's first and last priority
3) foreign players for the most part cannot make any NIL money while on a student visa

Lake State is facing heavy financial pressures due to declining enrollment, stagnant state funding and an athletics department that is taking up an increasing share of the overall budget ( I believe they just eliminated the golf and tennis programs). The Hockey program was teetering as well and this donation is a life line to keep it solvent and will be used not to pay players NIL (schools can't do that unless they opt into the House settlement and LSSU wont) but rather to run day to day operations and keep the program from being eliminated.

Your summation of the current state of NIL in college hockey is spot on.
 
3) foreign players for the most part cannot make any NIL money while on a student visa
Exactly- It can't be pointed out enough to some people on this forum that it's illegal for athletes on foreign student visa to work. Collecting nil money is 'work'. They'd be breaking the law to accept the money, those offering the money would be breaking the law to do so.

If the 2 time National NCAA basketball player of the year couldn't get paid because he was Canadian, why would a hockey player?
 
NCAA is a 20-25 year old league, any top level player drafted at 18 will be wanted in the AHL at 20-21 anyway.

NHL teams will pay more money in signing bonuses to offset and get them in the system IMO.

Like Zayne Parekh.

Guys who swap at 18-19 will be middle of the road guys looking for another 3-4 years of visibility.

Good for players all around.

Agents for Mckenna's and Martone want to get to the free agency as soon as possible, so they get paid right... so you wanna delay that for another 2-3 years? Nah.

No point in going for 1 year IMO.

There's no point for super high end players
As much as people continue to say this, it's rather naive. There's been a pretty massive migration towards college hockey as a developmental path in the last 20 years for high end picks, compared to the traditional perception of college hockey being a path for pro hockey prospect rejects who wanted a degree and every so often backdoor their way into the NHL. The repeated claims that the end result of CHL players maintaining their NCAA eligibility is that NCAA prospects become weaker are built on dubious foundations that require a big leap of logic.

Every CHL guy may not want to jump into NCAA, but it's almost certain that everybody that would have been playing it before will continue to do so and more guys that weren't before will do so now. The NHL teams are unlikely to actively prevent this and many will likely welcome it because college hockey (with older players) is seen as a step up in difficulty from junior hockey, so they may view it as an opportunity for prospects to come in more pro ready than jumping directly from junior.
 
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Exactly- It can't be pointed out enough to some people on this forum that it's illegal for athletes on foreign student visa to work. Collecting nil money is 'work'. They'd be breaking the law to accept the money, those offering the money would be breaking the law to do so.

If the 2 time National NCAA basketball player of the year couldn't get paid because he was Canadian, why would a hockey player?
No, it's not, it's just more complicated. I know this for a fact because I know Kasparas Jakucionnis secured a lucrative NIL deal to play college basketball for Illinois this year, a program I follow closely and has tons of insiders. I know that he would not have played college basketball if it were not for NIL because it was not in his plans previously. Another player that was on this year's team is a Canadian named Will Reilly, who is likely also going to the NBA and insiders have said it would take around a $2 million NIL deal to keep him, nothing about "he didn't get any NIL and can't get any NIL". People need to stop repeating this because it's not accurate. This is a situation that evolves in real time. Edey didn't pursue NIL aggressively as a loyal guy who wanted to finish it out with Purdue and he was a guy that started college before the NIL stuff took off, and even that is probably already "outdated" info now.

Literally right here


A flurry of elite international prospects are expected to announce their commitments to some of the top programs in college basketball, as the proliferation of NIL agreements has made the NCAA a far more attractive route in recent years.
 
As much as people continue to say this, it's rather naive. There's been a pretty massive migration towards college hockey as a developmental path in the last 20 years for high end picks, compared to the traditional perception of college hockey being a path for pro hockey prospect rejects who wanted a degree and every so often backdoor their way into the NHL. The repeated claims that the end result of CHL players maintaining their NCAA eligibility is that NCAA prospects become weaker are built on dubious foundations that require a big leap of logic.

Every CHL guy may not want to jump into NCAA, but it's almost certain that everybody that would have been playing it before will continue to do so and more guys that weren't before will do so now. The NHL teams are unlikely to actively prevent this and many will likely welcome it because college hockey (with older players) is seen as a step up in difficulty from junior hockey, so they may view it as an opportunity for prospects to come in more pro ready than jumping directly from junior.
Agreed on all points here. The Misa and Schaefer types of the world will have an opportunity to go straight from junior to the NHL because they are talented enough, but others like Jackson Smith, Jake O'Brien, Ben Kindel, Justin Carbonneau are certainly in the tier of "probably too good for junior, not old enough for the A, not ready for the NHL, would benefit heavily from the NCAA". And teams that draft them (like the Boston Bruins or Detroit Red Wings for example) might encourage them to go to a program like Boston University, Boston College, Michigan, North Dakota, Denver, etc for a year or two for better development.
 

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