The NCAA’s Division I Council has voted to adopt a rule change in men’s ice hockey, allowing players with previous involvement with professional teams to play for collegiate squads, the organization announced Thursday. As expected, the decision will enable prospects who played major junior hockey in the CHL to transfer to NCAA teams beginning next season.
Under NCAA bylaws, the three CHL sub-leagues (OHL, QMJHL, WHL) had been declared professional organizations despite being comprised solely of major junior players because players receive stipends from their clubs while under Scholarship and Development Agreements. Their restrictions against players with “professional” experience appearing for NCAA Division I member clubs thus previously barred a player who had dressed for a CHL team at any point from going on to play top-level college hockey.
With those restrictions removed, players drafted by NHL teams out of the CHL could theoretically play Division I hockey as an intermediary before signing an entry-level contract with their NHL team. Additionally, players with outstanding NCAA commitments can play CHL hockey without losing their eligibility – a new outlet that quite a few players have already taken advantage of in anticipation of today’s ruling.
The rule change also opens the door for NHL-drafted, unsigned prospects playing Division I hockey to attend their club’s rookie and training camps “as long as they don’t receive compensation above expenses and don’t play in any external scrimmages or exhibitions,” according to PHR’s Gabriel Foley. That means DI players are still unable to participate in NHL preseason action while still enrolled with their school, and they still won’t be able to sign entry-level contracts until they’re ready to turn pro.
It’s good news for both the CHL and NCAA, who expand their potential talent pools by a significant margin with today’s vote. It’s not so good news for other major junior alternatives like the USHL and junior ’A’ leagues in Canada, such as the BCHL and AJHL, who weren’t affected by the NCAA’s previous rules. Those leagues are no longer unique in being the only viable high-level pre-Division I option for players, meaning they’re likely to lose a lot of top-level talents to the CHL in the coming years.
This could be yuge
It leaves a lot of questions that will need to be buttoned up at some point. Here is one:
If CHL players don’t sign within 2 years with their draft team, they can go back into the draft.
NCAA players are chained to their draft team for 4 years.
So players can now access both pipelines, so they get governed by which rule?
@fightcitymayor – it’s not that NCAA players are chained to their draft team for four years; they’re chained to their draft team until Aug. 15 of the summer they graduate/decide to turn pro. Suppose a player gains fifth-year eligibility, for example, and takes advantage of it. In that case, the NHL club doesn’t lose their exclusive signing rights unless they surrender them voluntarily (which they can do at any time). For example, DET 2020 pick Chase Bradley turned pro this past offseason after his junior year, but the Wings decided they didn’t want him, so they let him hit UFA, and COL signed him.
My educated guess is that if a player drafted out of the CHL moves to the NCAA within their already established two-year exclusive signing window, then the NHL team will retain their rights under the NCAA transfer agreement (Aug. 15 after they graduate/turn pro). If a player drafted out of the CHL moves to the NCAA after their exclusive signing rights expire, the team will not have their signing rights reinstated. That’s my guess.
I can see there being a kerfuffle about NHL teams retaining rights to a player for potentially 6 or 7 years before they even sign a deal. I guess we shall see!
As do I, and as you originally pointed out, I do think we’ll see some changes! Just with how the transfer agreements are currently written, that’s how I’d interpret things shaking out immediately.
Why can’t they play in exhibition games? That seems odd. Is it because they get paid for the game? But they are not paid for practice/training camp?
The exhibition games are still considered professional games, which NCAA disallows players from participating in while they’re student athletes. Any form of additional payment would also pose an issue, but what you’re getting at is more the (now very) fine line created by the “no pro sports games” rule. Just me thinking, but it definitely feels like there are a lot of pieces to this that we won’t find out until they come up…
Agreed on the last part for sure. There are still a few lawsuits lurking out there.
High bloody time.