By Jon Heshka
In a move that has the potential to seismically shift the landscape in developmental hockey, the NCAA has voted to make Canadian Hockey League (CHL) players eligible to play college hockey.
The rule change effectively Invites hockey to the table to sit alongside other sports and be treated equally. It will take effect on August 1, 2025. The rule change was made necessary in response to the effect that NIL has had on the NCAA landscape. With student-athletes like University of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders earning $4.7 million and gymnast Livvy Dunne from Louisiana State University earning $3.7 million, it made no sense to prohibit a hockey player who appeared in even one pre-season game for a major junior team as a teenager because of its rules against professionalism.
The NCAA was no doubt further motivated to move hockey out of the dark ages by lawsuits including a class action claiming the NCAA violated U.S. antitrust laws. In one such suit, Rylan Masteron claimed he lost his eligibility to play Division I hockey because he played two exhibition games for a team in the CHL as a sixteen-year-old.
The rule change, which applies to both men’s ice hockey and skiing, brings the NCAA’s bylaws in line with other sports such as golf and tennis. It represents “a pragmatic step in aligning men’s ice hockey with other sports in terms of allowable pre-enrollment activities,” said Josh Whitman, athletics director at Illinois and chair of the council.
The new rules move to permit prospects to compete, practice or tryout with a professional team, provided the prospect does not receive more than actual and necessary expenses from the professional team. They also allow for prospects to tryout on more than one occasion with any professional team and even participate in an NHL Development Camp and does not sign a contract promising current or future payment above actual and necessary expenses with the professional team.
The rules also permit a prospect to sign a contract with a professional team, provided the contract is limited to actual and necessary expenses and does not promise or guarantee future payments. If a prospect had signed a multiyear contract, it must be terminated prior to initial full-time enrollment at any college or university.
The rule change will have a destabilizing effect on hockey in Canadian universities and put them at a competitive disadvantage versus the NCAA. Under the current CHL scholarship program, a player receives one-year post-secondary scholarship for every season a player participates in one of its three leagues: the Western Hockey League (WHL), Ontario Hockey League (OHL)), or Québec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL).
The CHL’s 60 clubs collectively invested over $7 million CDN to support more than 930 CHL graduates pursuing post-secondary education during the 2023-24 season. The player can attend any post-secondary or career-enhancing institution of his choice but the vast majority attend Canadian universities.
In contrast to the one year of scholarship for every season played, most NCAA Division I hockey players receive full-ride scholarships. This will be a draw to major junior hockey players when deciding whether to play in the NCAA or U SPORTS (the Canadian equivalent to the NCAA).
U SPORTS simply can’t compete with the juggernaut of the NCAA. The NCAA was a behemoth compared to its Canadian cousin before this and got only bigger with NIL. This rule change will add to the gravitational pull and talent drain of the NCAA sucking players south at the expense of Canadian universities.
Todd Johnson, the head coach of the University of Regina Cougars in Saskatchewan, has described the change as “a brand new world” to universe of major junior hockey and post-secondary options for its players. He figures there are first-year U SPORTS players who will take a hard look at playing in the NCAA and others who played in the American Hockey League or East Coast League but are now back at U SPORTS that will now consider going the NCAA route.
There are a few things that still need to be ironed out. It’s unclear, for example, if CHL teams will let players out of their contracts and how the NHL will address the two-year signing period for CHL players and four years for NCAA players.
Regardless, despite its effect on U SPORTS in Canada, the ultimate effect to players on both sides of the border of this rule change is that they now have more options and development paths to consider.
Jon Heshka is a professor specializing in sports law and adventure tourism law at Thompson Rivers University in Canada.
