I don't think I said further CHL expansion would hurt American player development. I do think that expanding in a way where you try to just gobble up two teams from a successful league already in place is not necessarily beneficial. At best, you have a similar product on the end of however that plays out. Could end up a worse product (look at golf with the LIV/PGA Tour squabbles and how the overall product of the sport has declined out of two products beefing).
If it's done in a proper way, I think CHL expansion into the USA could be beneficial. I don't think the proper way is how they've gone about it here. You can claim that the teams approached them, but regardless if that's true or not, I think the CHL should have had some foresight that trying to go through with taking two teams from another league is too ugly of a process and probably ends up creating a lose/lose or lose/net neutral situation as opposed to any type of win/win.
First off, you can read my prior posts about this matter. I was at first surprised that these two franchises wanted to join the OHL, then questioned their viability in the OHL and then hoped that the OHL would not agree to their request to join.
Secondly, it is absolutely true that both ownership groups gave notice to the USHL that they wanted to exit the league and approached the OHL for expansion.
Lastly, you are opposed to CHL expansion because you, as directly stated, think this is bad for USA Hockey and they do not want to be taking orders from Hockey Canada but that is not the way things work.
I had hoped that the OHL would have denied their request to join, that river has been crossed. USA Hockey, because of these two franchises wishing to leave the USHL, has placed a moratorium on all further CHL expansion. They cannot say, well you can expand to Buffalo but not Muskegon. So USA Hockey has to leave behind the past, and embrace the new reality of today and allow for further CHL expansion, even if it is into Muskegon and Youngstown.
At the end of the day, how bad do the optics look for both USA Hockey and the USHL when they are preventing two franchises from leaving and pursuing other options.
In the end, I fully expect both Muskegon and Youngstown to exit the USHL and join the OHL. As to how successful those two franchises will be, well that is another matter.
