The most significant development for the Barrie Colts this week had nothing to do with a trade, or losing on the road last night in London.
Instead, the news that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) will soon vote on whether to allow Canadian Hockey League (CHL) players is sure to have a profound effect on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.
More on that pending development in a moment, but first a heads-up that the Colts are back in action tonight at home against the CHL’s No. 1-ranked team, the Brampton Steelheads. The Colts will be looking to make amends after meekly falling on home ice to the Steelheads last week.
Overage forward Dalyn Wakely, picked up in a trade earlier this week from North Bay, will be in the lineup. Wakely scored two shorthanded goals and added an assist in his Colts’ debut, but London scored three unanswered goals in the third period to win 5-4 on Friday night.
Game time tonight is 7:30 p.m. and it’s fan appreciation night down at the barn, with $1 hotdogs and cheap(er) beer pre-game.
You may need a pint or two to digest the looming college-major junior decision. The NCAA will pass it, if for no other reason than the American college sporting behemoth wants to reduce its exposure on a pending lawsuit.
So, what does that mean? No one really knows for sure except that starting next season, players who have suited up in any of Canada’s three major junior leagues will now be eligible to play in U.S. college hockey.
Players who have already signed professional contracts will not be eligible to play college hockey, so the likes of Colts forward Cole Beaudoin or defenceman Tristan Bertucci will not be making a beeline south no matter what takes place in NCAA boardrooms next month.
But, would Canadian players of Beaudoin’s and Bertucci’s ilk — unsigned, or future NHL picks — instead move to college a year or two after playing in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and before they sign with the team that drafts them?
One scouting director for a National Hockey League (NHL) team was asked that question in the corridor of Sadlon Arena at the Colts-Steelheads game 10 days ago.
“The CHL better be careful,” he pointed out. “How many OHL teams other than London can compete with the Big 10 and schools like Michigan?”
It was an interesting comment, and the scouting director was not even trying to draw a parallel with Colts defenceman Gabriel Eliasson, who indeed picked the OHL over Michigan and is now playing in Barrie. When that fact was pointed out, the longtime scout responded by saying Eliasson’s style of play was more suited to major junior hockey.
“If he’s going to make the NHL,” explained the scouting director, “he’s going to have to play (tough) and fight, and you can’t really do that in college hockey.”
Fair enough. The bigger point is whether money will entice Canadian players to forgo the CHL because NCAA hockey programs can now compensate players through Name-Image-Licencing.
There’s the rub. Will a 16- or 17-year-old player, if he’s offered it, take money to play college over major junior, or wait a year or two until he’s drafted by an NHL team, being compensated in a similar manner through a signing bonus when/if he signs a contract? Will CHL member clubs be allowed to sweeten the pot for certain players to head off those types of situations? Even if not, how many Canadian players will be willing to play U.S. college hockey below the glamour programs such as Michigan, Denver, Boston College or Boston University, with their shortened seasons and unfamiliar nuances, instead of major junior?
The Colts are smack-dab in the middle of one interesting scenario involving 2025 NHL Draft prospect Will Moore. The Colts own Moore’s rights, but he is headed to Boston College next year. The dominos have already begun to fall with other players with news that Zach Morin has signed with the Saint John Sea Dogs despite heading to Boston University next year. Noah Kosick did the same with the Calgary Hitmen. Morin and Kosick left their United States Hockey League (USHL) teams to play in their native Canada, knowing they could still play college hockey down the road, if that is what is desired.
One undeniable positive moving forward is that 16- and 17-year-old kids no longer have to make a snap decision in training camp with their CHL clubs whether to play in exhibition games. At present, once a player does so, he’s ineligible to play NCAA hockey. If the NCAA does as expected and strikes down the four-decade-long restriction, players have potentially a nine-year window to play elite-level hockey once they are drafted into major junior. That’s based on the assumption a player can play as many as five seasons in the OHL (with an overage season) and then four years at college. At present, the only avenue to take off from that eight- or nine-year runway before (finally) turning professional, or entering the real world, is by playing U Sports in Canada. Edmonton Oilers forward Derek Ryan, still plugging away weeks before his 38th birthday, did just that by playing in the Western Hockey League and then Canada West conference before (finally) turning pro.
It’s hard to imagine anything but a bad outcome for U Sports in any scenario that shakes out. Long heralded as hockey’s best-kept secret, Canadian university hockey could go dark simply because most players graduating major junior will likely prefer to play NCAA hockey because of its more lucrative scholarships and the big-time feel of U.S. college sports.
Paradoxically, the CHL may become more attractive to some elite U.S. players because they, too, no longer need to worry about jeopardizing their college eligibility if they play first in Canada, which is generally considered a sliver higher, depending on a few factors, than the USHL.
