Yesterday, I saw this
New York Times article about the recruiting wars between the CHL and the NCAA and while it doesn't tell me anything I don't already know, I'm continually blown away that David Branch, the commissioner of the CHL and someone who attended the University of Massachusetts on a hockey scholarship, continues to say things like, “We feel our education package is not only the best in North America but probably the world.”
To be clear, the NCAA provides scholarship while you are in school so you can get a free education while developing your hockey skills. While you are certainly able to take college classes while in the CHL, they don't provide scholarship until you've exhausted your junior eligibility and only if you don't sign a professional contract and they do not reimburse you for previous educational expenses. Not quite sure how that equates to the best educational package in the world, but I will save that debate for another day....
What I'd really like to discuss today is this little tidbit of information at the very end of the article:
Bob Nicholson, president of Hockey Canada, which oversees every aspect of hockey in the country, from grass-roots development to the selection of Olympics rosters, said that he supported Kelly’s efforts and that the two have a respectful relationship, but, he added, “What I would like to see is for college hockey to stay out of Canada and for C.H.L. teams to stay out of the U.S.”
Nicholson has just sent a recruiting protocol agreement to USA Hockey in the hope of defining the process better, although he admitted that was probably unenforceable.
Is this something you'd be in favor of??
Currently, there are six CHL teams located in the United States - one in Maine, Pennsylvania, Washington, Oregon and two in Michigan. Should they relocate to Canada?
This all stems from recent talk about the NCAA holding sanctioned events in Canada. It was recently announced that North Dakota and Nebraska-Omaha will be playing a regular season game in Winnipeg in early January 2012 at the MTS Centre and there is talk about hosting an NCAA-sanctioned event in the Toronto area as well.
Personally, I don't see the problem with it. I think it's a great opportunity to show the players and their families all of the opportunities that are available to them. I've been a champion for both the CHL and the NCAA as viable options for players to develop into an NHL-caliber athlete and don't think there's a one size fits all path to the NHL. Why not let them make an informed decision?
What are your thoughts?
Also, if this is less about where games are played and more about recruitment like the last sentence might suggest, I think it's awful that Hockey Canada would try to force players into a decision that might not be best for them.
Below is a Prospect Profile published last year about Kristo.
Julie
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