NHL, USA Hockey, USHL funding agreement
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Takuto Maruki
Ideal and the real
I'm guessing if the NHL and USA Hockey is subsidizing the USHL...how much longer before USA Hockey places the ultimatum down on the CHL to stop with US Priority Drafts and to stay in their backyard when it comes to player rights, especially in the Midwest and Great Lakes?
eojsmada
Registered User
- Oct 23, 2022
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It's the only pressing need to deal with, due to the NCAA/CHL issue. Doubtful anything happens with CHL/Hockey Canada until Hockey Canada finishes their restructuring from the fallout from the abuse issues. Hockey Canada needs to re-establish a level of trust again and they still have a few folks that are holdovers from all the shenanigans.
The CHL isn't swallowing up all junior development though. This agreement only happens cause the NCAA is allowing CHLers to play NCAA hockey so that top talent that the the 3 CHL leagues struggle to keep cause players want to go the NCAA route are now able to keep them. USHL needs to complete for that level talent now.
I mean they quite literally have been extremely open about wanting to poach all of the top USHL teams and have already expanded significantly into the US.
GKJ
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- Feb 27, 2002
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The USHL serves a less important role if the CHL is now able to produce NCAA talent. They don’t even serve a purpose in the actual competition since all the best players are on the NTDP.
Voight
#winning
Not really. Previously yes, but with them no longer being one of the few paths to the NCAA, they are less important and relevant. If you're a top young player who commits to an NCAA team you dont "have" to play USHL or Junior A anymore. Celebrini for example could've played junior for a year before going to BC and had better competition.
Hence why Youngstown and Muskegon want to join the OHL.
It provides American players with a path to play junior hockey and potentially college and pro in the future without having to leave for a foreign country. Lots of problems with the league and I agree it needs to change and will feel more pressure now but it occupies a very important spot.
Voight
#winning
The CHL does that as well, now. & two of the three leagues happen to have American teams.
I don't think it's good for USA Hockey and American kids to rely on the Canadian Hockey League for elite talent development
Takuto Maruki
Ideal and the real
Which is why I initially suggested there might be a point, now with the USHL's existence set in a bit further stone now with the NHL and USA Hockey bankrolling them, there might be some saber rattling from USA Hockey and the USHL to tell the CHL to stop holding US Priority Drafts and to get out of their backyard when it comes to scouting and signing kids from the Midwest and Rust Belt.
I guess the issue becomes...most of the American franchises are in the WHL - and the entire US division has nearly 30+ years (and often times more) of history playing under the CHL. Even Everett, the youngest team by far, is firmly entrenched in the West, and it might be too hard to dislodge Canadian hockey pipelines from going southward down the west coast. But considering that the USHL has historically been a league based around the midwest and Minnesota/Wisconsin/No-SoDak, it might be more beneficial to take the fight there instead.
US hockey can't legally tell CHL that midwest and rust bellt region that off limits to them. CHL can easily sue US hockey in US courts and more likely win.
Takuto Maruki
Ideal and the real
Considering we're rapidly approaching a point where individual state justice systems are actively being plugged into a hyper-conservative federal court system, and also an administration that is being increasingly nativist, it's hard to not believe that some people in the USHL, USA Hockey and the like haven't brought up this point, and more over, plugged in conservative senators and politicians *won't* make a massive stink about Canadians trying to muscle in on the development pipeline and make a political dog and pony show over it, not unlike the Trump admin trying to effectively black ball Maine into giving in WRT Title IX and transgender students in collegiate athletics. Whether they're being seriously listened to, I don't know, but precedence is increasingly taking place.
I'm not saying it happens - by this point, the entire sports development pipeline, in all sports but especially hockey, is so intertwined with cross-border trade in essence that it's going to be effectively impossible to untangle it. And considering where the CHL, NCAA, and the NHL in essence is with regards to the landscape of college sports, and how the NHL is in a somewhat unique position of being effected majorly alongside political factors more or less out of their control, they're at least being proactive in doing what they can to protect the entire pipeline. But it's something people are going to have to keep in the back of their heads, especially once dollars are being threatened. The landscape even compared to 2022, 2023 when NIL began is massively changed, and now with the Trump admin, it's going to be changed even more outside of CFB and CBB.
Voight
#winning
Nobody said they'll have to rely on the CHL for development. Its just, the best American prospects will continue play for UNTDP but the rest may decide to play in the OHL or Dub because they arguably have a higher level of competition and there's more exposure to scouts.
Boonk
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- Oct 10, 2017
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I wouldnt say that. There are still some really good teams that develop college and pro talent consistently. Fargo, Chicago, Green Bay, Madison, Dubuque, Sioux Falls, Waterloo, Lincoln are all really good organizations that are worthwhile places for a junior player to go to outside of the CHL.
The USHL still has IIHF & USAH sanctioning and is a true Tier 1 junior circuit, unlike BCHL or the CJHL Jr. A leagues. There are still tons of American, Canadian, and Euro/Imports along with CHL cuts that will need a competitive junior league to play in that has international sanctioning.
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GKJ
Global Moderator
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They do, but they’re becoming more and more international. With restrictions on international players in the CHL, that makes sense. But now there’s less reason for Canadians to come down. Now it’s twice as many Americans being drafted into the OHL, so there is incentive to not have them go, but the bottom line is that the CHL is going to have a way better experience
I agree and there's nothing wrong with that. It is important for American hockey to have a healthy American T1 junior league.
superdeluxe
NAFO
Not sure it matters? Seattle drafted Celebrini, but he under up on the USHL.
superdeluxe
NAFO
. Wasn’t it the two USHL teams that approached the OHL? If you mean expanded significantly into the US, the U.S. Division of the WHL, these teams have been major junior for decades
