College Hockey in Canada

North Dakota and Clarkson played in Winnipeg this weekend, and by all accounts it was a huge success. Having Winnipeg just a couple of hours away from Grand Forks helps, but I imagine the event will help open the doors to more events in Canada in the future.

Arctice Ice Hockey had an interview with Paul Kelly, where he talks a bit about the general challenges of opening potential recruits’ eyes to the benefits of playing college hockey, but he also noted that they’re looking at making this a semi-regular occurrence. Toronto could end up hosting a Frozen Four which, passport issues aside, would probably be a fantastic event.

The last two points Kelly touched on that are important is they hope the NCAA will tweak eligibility rules so that players who play in fewer than 10 CHL games would still be eligible for college hockey. Obviously the easy work around on this is to just have coaches make sure kids play 11 games and then they’re screwed, but it still helps. The other, more important one, is making kids who commit to a college and sign a LOI off limits to CHL recruitment. This probably won’t stop the under the table payments from some OHL teams, but hopefully more kids will get a season of college hockey under their belt and then get to make their decision based on facts and their own experiences rather than what they hear through the grapevine.