The entire developmental landscape in hockey is about to undergo its most dramatic shift in the modern era. Thursday afternoon, the NCAA’s Division I council adopted rule changes that will allow athletes to retain eligibility even if they are involved with professional teams prior to enrollment. This decision is not final until the meeting is concluded, but this measure has already passed the vote. 

This now opens the door to players from the Canadian Hockey League to be eligible to participate in NCAA hockey.

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With the current rules, the CHL is expressly considered a professional league by the NCAA, largely because players with NHL contracts can be loaned back to the league. That will no longer be the case.

Per the NCAA, the new rule would allow men’s hockey and skiing athletes to compete with and against professionals. Per the NCAA, the new rule “would enable prospects who participate in major junior ice hockey or on professional teams to retain NCAA eligibility as long as they are not paid more than actual and necessary expenses as part of that participation.”

This ruling comes on the heels of a legal challenge filed earlier this year by a Canadian player who saw his NCAA eligibility lost after playing in preseason games with a team in the OHL. While that lawsuit specifically is not the cause of this, it probably hastened the action.

The NCAA has been losing legal battle after legal battle when it comes to amateurism and anti-trust laws. This is one they almost certainly would have lost, too. 

This is a seismic change that could significantly alter the landscape of hockey’s developmental ladder. It may take years to fully understand the impact of this decision.

Here are some of the burning questions that may have answers, and many more that do not. 

When Would CHL Players Become Eligible?

According to the NCAA, this new ruling will not go into effect until Aug. 1, 2025. That opens the door for CHL players to commit to NCAA programs now, as some already have. Braxton Whitehead of the Regina Pats was the first to jump the line and commit to Arizona State University for next season despite the ruling not being active or even technically under discussion at that point.

They will not be able to play until after that Aug. 1 date, which means the earliest any of these players can compete is next fall. Players could potentially enroll in school early, if they wanted to, though.

Will All CHL Players Be Eligible?

The NCAA will still maintain academic eligibility standards that are already in place. Students in good academic standing will be eligible.

That said, any CHL player that is already under contract with an NHL or European professional team that received more than expenses will not be eligible to play in the NCAA. The professional contract that includes compensation over and above what is allowable in the NCAA would not allow a player to maintain eligibility to compete in the NCAA.

How Will This Impact College Hockey?

That’s a big question that has a lack of clarity. For most of us and for many of those in college hockey, it is all speculation how this will impact the college game.

In the positive way, it will deepen the selection pool of players that could make a significant impact on a team’s competitiveness. This deeper pool of players also should spread talent more among programs, including the mid-majors that have long had to pick up those that bigger programs either overlooked or didn’t want. While the big schools will still own recruiting and get the best players, there will be more players with more talent available to the greater population of teams.

My sense is that college hockey could get a bit older as more players in the CHL could exercise their full junior eligibility before making the jump to school.

What we don’t know yet is how regional norms will impact a player’s decision. Will American-based players choose to stay home and go to college as true freshmen? Will more go the major junior route younger and potentially bypass college by going pro earlier? There’s a lot of factors at play there.

Conversely, will Canadian players choose to stay closer to home and go into major junior when several high-profile players instead decided to go a route that in the current setup allowed them to retain college eligibility?

How Will This Impact Major Junior Hockey?

This is going to be a very interesting time for the CHL. There’s a chance that this ruling leads to more players choosing to play in the CHL’s three regional leagues – the WHL, OHL and QMJHL – that are on a college track. This ruling opens the door for the player to try to get the best of both worlds, should they choose it.

CHL teams sign players to agreements that often include a length of time and an education package that goes with it, often with the CHL team promising to pay tuition at universities in a given timeframe. It is unclear how those agreements will hold up if a player wants to go to the NCAA before their contractual commitment to a CHL team concludes.

There has been talk among CHL sources that player agreements could be worked out to allow a player to leave for school before he has played four years in the league, though there is reluctance to let players walk before they are 19.

The CHL's hope is that more of the best players will come to its leagues, play from ages 16 to 19 and then either go pro or go to school. In that scenario, their leagues get stronger, potentially at the expense of other established junior leagues.

CHL teams also could potentially save a significant amount of money if more players get scholarships to NCAA schools, as major junior teams commit to paying for their alumni's college education, which is a large expense.

How Will This Impact Other Junior Leagues?

This is a huge question that will be watched closely by the USHL, BCHL, CJHL and many more in terms of how this impacts them. The USHL has long been the hotbed of top American players on a college track, while leagues like the BCHL and OJHL have been top choices of Canadians looking to stay NCAA-eligible.

Recently, two players -- Bryce Montgomery of the Lincoln Stars and Hayden Reid of the Sioux Falls Stampede in the USHL -- made their intentions known to go to OHL teams. Montgomery plans to sign with the London Knights, while Reid signed with the Flint Firebirds. Both players, per sources, have indicated their intention to maintain their college commitments with Montgomery tied to Wisconsin and Reid with Minnesota. Those are just two examples, as there are plenty more players in the USHL that are staying put.

Is there a chance more of those players will go to the CHL? It’s certainly possible and it’s something sources in all leagues have been bracing for. Sources with teams in multiple leagues all feel strongly about what they offer their players, and each has been a proven path to the NCAA for hundreds of players. That's still a selling point that will resonate with players, but they now have more options available to them.

My sense is that this new rule could skim some top players from each of the leagues, especially those that would prefer to stay closer to home as the regionalized junior leagues would allow. 

The USHL has no jurisdictional boundaries in terms of where it can pull players from like the CHL’s three leagues do, which is an advantage. The same is true of the BCHL, which broke from Hockey Canada to have that kind of flexibility. 

Among the top players from the BCHL in recent years, Bradly Nadeau, a first-round pick of the Carolina Hurricanes who played for Penticton, came all the way to the BC from New Brunswick.

These leagues still have plenty to offer, including a proven path to the top NCAA schools for players.

How Will This Impact The Players?

There are going to be winners and losers with this new rule. The clear winners are the best players that will no longer have to make career-altering decisions at 15 and 16 years old and have a number of options available to them.

In terms of choice and players taking control of their development, this is a big positive.

There are going to be players left behind, however. Players that are currently verbally committed to schools now have a new group to compete with for roster spots, playing time and scholarships. 

The ugly truth is that some of these players that have verbally committed will not be retaining their spots as they will be pushed out by players that are newly eligible if the NCAA team thinks those players better fit their needs.

This actually could end up having a significant impact on an influx of talent to both NCAA Division III and ACHA schools, which will strengthen those levels in terms of depth and parity. It should be noted that this ruling does not extend to the Division III level, meaning players who played in the CHL are still ineligible to compete at the Division III level in the NCAA.

Another level that is bound to be impacted in some way is U Sports, Canada’s collegiate level, which pulls a significant number of its players from CHL teams. They will now be competing with NCAA teams for many of the same players.

How Will The NHL React To This?

This is ruling is something the NHL has been bracing for, but there hasn’t been a ton of action one way or another. 

The NHL and NHLPA’s collective bargaining agreement currently has rules that impact NCAA-track players and CHL-track players differently. For example, players drafted out of the CHL have their draft rights held for two years before they have to be signed or rights relinquished, while players drafted from outside the CHL have four years of draft rights retained.

That won’t change until the CBA is changed. This new ruling could push things in that direction, however.

Because the CBA is still in place, players on certain tracks may choose one path over the other based on the timeline of draft rights and other CBA-related reasons. But the NHL and NHLPA are gearing up for negotiations in the near future, so things could change rather quickly.

There has also been talk about the NHL raising its draft age to 19, which is not out of the realm of possibility, but could get some pushback from the NHLPA.

NHL teams will still sign their players when they want to sign them and should a player sign with an NHL team, that ends their NCAA eligibility. So that will also play a role in how this entire new ruling shakes out. Players that have the chance to go pro sooner, likely still will in larger number.

There is a lot left up in the air and to be determined. It’s going to take a while to figure out all of the implications. Regardless of what happens, change is coming and those that fail to adapt quickly enough to it, whether it be players, teams, or leagues, they risk being left behind.

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