2 weeks Ago By Perry Bergson
Even Western Hockey League commissioner Dan Near suggests the recent decision to allow major junior players to suit up for NCAA brings with it plenty of unknowns. Read this article for free: Already have an account? As we navigate through unprecedented times, our journalists are working harder than ever to bring you the latest local updates to keep you safe and informed. Now, more than ever, we need your support.
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Your pledge helps to ensure we provide the news that matters most to your community! Even Western Hockey League commissioner Dan Near suggests the recent decision to allow major junior players to suit up for NCAA brings with it plenty of unknowns. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? Even Western Hockey League commissioner Dan Near suggests the recent decision to allow major junior players to suit up for NCAA brings with it plenty of unknowns. Near, who took over in the top job last February after the retirement of longtime commissioner Ron Robison, admitted it’s almost impossible to completely understand how the changes are going to play out in the near and long term.
“It’s a bright shiny toy that sounds appealing and sounds attractive and everyone has their eye on it,” Near said. “‘Can I go? Should I go? When should I go?’ At the end of the day, there’s only so many spots. There are 64 Division I hockey teams and the averaging start age historically has been north of 20 years old.
“Who wants to be there? Who should be there? We’re going to figure that out over a period of time, and I don’t think the college side knows either. “Everybody is going to learn a little bit through this and we’re going to see the pendulum swing back and forth. You’ll probably see some jumpers looking to be the first movers thinking the grass might be greener and we might see some guys come back but I think we’ll see a normalization over one or two seasons as we start to see what that experience is like.
” That’s the rub. Major junior hockey is being buffeted by an external force beyond its control that might be the biggest such change in more than 40 years. In 1975, the National Hockey League went to a 20-year-old draft, then made it a year younger in 1979 and went to the current 18-year-old model in 1980.
“It probably has some parallels,” Near said. “While we’re not partners with everyone in the hockey ecosystem, there is generally a pretty cordial and communicative environment. We talk to the NHL, we talk to the Junior A leagues, we talk to the U.
S. development leagues, we talk to Hockey Canada and we talk to USA Hockey. “This one entity (the NCAA) is one that we don’t know very well and there was an unpredictability about it all that I think is definitely is unique and has some similarities to the NHL making a change like that.
” The NCAA decided that major junior players were ineligible in the early 1980s for reasons that were variously said to be the small stipend players receive or the fact they were suiting up against signed National Hockey League prospects. That put young players in the position of having to choose by age 16 or 17 if they wanted to follow the major junior or college route, although some players started at American schools and came back to the WHL. It wasn’t possible to go the other way.
Now there’s no obstruction to older WHL players going to the NCAA, or the top young academic-minded players coming to the WHL at 16. The beginning of the end seemed to come from three different directions. The most recent impact came from a lawsuit launched in August by 19-year-old player Rylan Masterson after he was denied entry to the NCAA for playing two pre-season games for the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires in 2022.
The lawsuit, which was filed in New York, called the rule an “illegal conspiracy.” But two bigger things had already taken place. In years past, the NCAA restricted the ability of players to change teams, and required players to sit out a year if they made a move.
That ended on Oct. 15, 2018 with the introduction of the transfer portal, which allowed athletes looking for a change to put their names on an online database and be contacted by other schools. Once they make a match, athletes were allowed to switch schools without losing a year.
The second shoe dropped in June 2021 when the Supreme Court ruled against the NCAA that the sporting body could not limit payments to athletes for name, image and likeness (NIL). Athletes still couldn’t be paid to attend a certain school or for their level of play, but the NCAA deferred to so-called state or university NIL laws that allowed players to be compensated for endorsement deals and things like social media posts that used their image. That opened the floodgates.
Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the son of former National Football League star Deion Sanders, topped the list this year at US$4.7 million this year. One evaluation suggested the 100th-ranked athlete stood to earn $583,000.
And last week, quarterback Bryce Underwood decided Louisiana State University had broken its NIL with him, de-committed and signed with Michigan for what some reports suggested was a guarantee of more than $10 million. Suddenly it seemed like skating against players with professional contracts or even earning a small monthly stipend didn’t seem quite as dire. Former Brandon Wheat Kings goalie Joe Caligiuri is now a practising lawyer at Tapper Cuddy LLP in Winnipeg who is also one of Manitoba’s two National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) certified player agents.
He founded CAL Sports Management with another former Wheat King, ex-NHLer Matt Calvert. Caligiuri was at an NHLPA agent meeting two or three years ago when the possibility of the NCAA changing its rules was briefly touched upon. “The thought process was that it was going to happen,” Caligiuri said.
“They didn’t know when but the way things were shaping up with the NIL money to those sports and a few years ago the transfer rule came back in so players can transfer now without sitting out a year. “You saw the power dynamic change in the NCAA, where there were a lot more rights given to the player. We knew within the last six months that something was going to happen and it was going to happen imminently.
” He added it was a good decision by the NCAA council not to implement the changes immediately, but instead to wait until Aug. 1 to get through this season. But the questions began the day the news was announced.
“We actually had a call with a bunch of our clients and some parents last week just as information meeting and to have the ability to ask any questions they might have,” Caligiuri said. “We don’t have all the answers.” Local agent Darryl Wolski, who runs the 2112 Hockey Agency and works with younger players in an attempt to get them to college teams, said the need for information has been insatiable: Some parents are worried the spots on college rosters will be vacuumed up by graduating CHL players.
“My phone has been on fire,” Wolski said on Saturday. “Today has been the quietest day for me. I had one call about it today but some days I’ve been fielding 10 phone calls.
” “There is legitimate high-level concern,” Wolski added. “Say their kid is playing at Shattuck-St. Mary’s or Bishop Kearney or Victory Honda, one of those prep schools.
They think it’s over, that the chance of their kid playing at any kind of Division I school, that the dream is over.” Men’s hockey and skiing were the two sports that resided on their own with separate rules, and the recent changes brought them in line with other sports. Even so, the NCAA and the CHL haven’t had any formal discussions yet.
“There is the legislative arm of the NCAA, and then there are all the hockey administrators, coaches and others who work in the sport day in and day out, and we’ve had different interactions, whether it’s with athletic directors or compliance folks or academic eligibility folks,” Near said. “Who we haven’t been communicating with is people at the table in and around the legislation, and that’s a really interesting dynamic. You talk to the coaches and the people at the conference commissioners, they aren’t necessarily in control of the situation anymore than we are.
” Near said the NCAA’s ruling on name-image likeness and the transfer portal showed a lot of evolution in their position, particularly with football and basketball. That gave the WHL’s board some things to talk about and time to prepare for the inevitable. “When it would ever change as it relates to hockey was an unknown to us,” Near said.
“We were not actively negotiating or brought in and informed. We were reading about a lot of that the way you were. However, given the foresight we had about how the landscape was changing, we were talking about it and contemplating what some of the outcomes and byproducts might be.
“Funny enough, even as we’re here now and the rule has been changed, we’re still having those same conversations. While we weren’t caught off-guard, it’s such a dynamic and rapidly changing situation that it’s really hard to be ahead of it and anticipate the different outcomes that might come from it.” That’s what makes this change so unpredictable.
No one has a real sense of how many young players will come to the league or how many older ones will leave before they graduate. Caligiuri said some of the clarity needs to be provided by the NHL. Players who are drafted out of major junior have a two-year window to sign a contract with an NHL, where if you’re drafted out of the USHL or NCAA, you have four years.
In theory, a player could be drafted at 17 as an NHL player and move to college at 18, and it’s unclear which rules would apply. Players who sign NHL contracts will still be deemed ineligible to play in the NCAA, because the new language says teams can only cover reasonable expenses by the players. “Three years from now, this will just become the norm,” Caligiuri said.
“I was talking to a Western League team last week and the benefit I think for major junior is they now are the highest level kids can play at 16. I know they’ve always been that, but there’s always been the caveat that if an individual wanted to play in the NCAA, they wouldn’t do that. “I do think it will allow Western League or Canadian Hockey League teams to recruit the top 16-, 17-year-old kids across North America and the advantage they have is the best recruiting tool, getting kids within the organization.
If you get a kid there at 16 or 17 and things are going well and they’re developing, there is maybe less of a likelihood they are going to leave early. “Obviously the way the rules are now it’s going to wide open, and I don’t know how the Canadian Hockey League is going to respond. Are they going to change the terms of the WHL standard contracts? Are they going to withdraw schooling if kids leave early?” The Ontario Hockey League didn’t take long to make their decision on that point, posting a question-and-answer sheet on their website that pointedly suggests any player who leaves before he completes his 19-year-old season won’t receive a dime of scholarship money.
Wolski doesn’t think there will be a flood of players heading south. “I’m not actually convinced there are going to be that many CHL guys that go the NCAA,” Wolski said. “When I think back to Calder Anderson for example — I’ll use Calder as a local example — he had every U Sports team calling him and he didn’t go, he went to Italy.
I think there are a lot of guys in Calder’s position, when they are 20 years old, they’ve had enough of organized junior hockey, they’ve had enough of school, my theory is that lot of these guys want to make money. “Sure you can go play at Penn State for a year or two or go play St. Cloud State for a year or two, but I’m not sure there are that many guys who are going to jump at this .
.. For a guy to leave the CHL at 20 and be academically prepared to go to school at North Dakota, I’m not really sold on it.
” The economics of NCAA Division I hockey itself are also changing. Right now, there are 18 full scholarships per team, with many schools opting to split them into 12 full rides and 12 half rides. “That’s currently the model that’s being implemented,” Caligiuri said.
“A rule change that’s also going into effect next year is if teams opt in, they can go to 26 full rides.” The catch is that schools can then only carry 26 players. With three goalies on the roster, that gives each team 23 skaters, which can be problem in the event of a rash of injuries because schools can’t make trades or call extra players up from anywhere like in junior.
“What I’ve been told is you don’t have to opt in, but then you’re under the current rules where you have less scholarship money,” Caligiuri said. “Every conference is a little bit unique — there are ways for them, and this is what I don’t have full clarity on because we had some kids on it — but they have the ability through different funds at the institutions other than provide scholarship money that doesn’t count in those 18 scholarships.” He said his experience is that most kids do go down on full academic scholarships, and tuition, books and living is essentially covered.
“The cost of some these institutions is significant for out of state or foreign residents to attend, but we’ve never had a situation where a kid is paying a significant amount,” Caligiuri said. He expected most schools will opt in for the full 26. But if a team was only offering a half scholarship, it’s possible a Canadian player could actually end up having to pay some money because there is a cap on what a CHL team has to contribute through the scholarship and some schools now cost more than $70,000 a year.
“Guys have to tick so many boxes now,” Wolski said. “Are they financially prepared? Not all of them are going to get 100 per scholarship.” The spectre of potential NIL money is also in the equation.
If a player had a significant offer from a university, there could be a strong financial incentive to leave that CHL teams simply couldn’t match. There have been reports that some current NCAA hockey players are earning six figures. Near is skeptical of the benefits, especially for younger players considering a move from the WHL.
“If somebody is contemplating leaving early, are you going to get the power-play time or be in the top six? Is your scholarship going to be guaranteed?” Near asked. “That NIL money that people talk about, is it a real thing for a Canadian citizen travelling on an F-1 student visa? Those are things to think about, but in my mind it’s an opportunity to do both so we don’t see a tremendous number of players thinking it would be good to leave early.” Near said before the league looks at changing to meet the demands of the situation, it needs to re-examine what it does well and double down on those strengths.
But he said the ultimate goal is for the prospects being recruited to understand they’re in good hands, and to help existing players make the best decisions they can. “We’re seeing a lot of NCAA people in our buildings and at different scouting events trying to understand the makeup of our players,” Near said. “We’re reaching out to them when a player tells us ‘Hey, I had aspirations once I completed my CHL experience — my WHL experience — to go play NCAA.
’ “We have education advisors who need to make sure their academic eligibility is there and if there is SAT testing or other things that need to happen, that we’re there to support them. “We’re involved on both ends of it.” » In Part 3 of a three-part series in Friday’s edition of The Brandon Sun, four general managers weigh in how the changes will affect their jobs.
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