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By Anne-Marie Iemmolo
Cronkite News
PHOENIX – A landmark legal battle by a 19-year-old Canadian defenseman has forever changed the face of college hockey in the United States.
The swift action began last August with a lawsuit that challenged the NCAA’s long-standing rule prohibiting Canadian Hockey League players from competing for Division I schools. Rumors swirled almost immediately that the NCAA would buckle and change its eligibility rule, which has barred generations of CHL players from competing in U.S. collegiate athletics.
On Nov. 7, the NCAA Division I committee voted to drop the ban. The new rule will take effect on Aug. 1 – and the landscape for college hockey in the U.S. will change drastically.
At the center of this historic change is Rylan Masterson, a defenseman for the CHL’s Fort Erie Meteors. His lawsuit against the NCAA and 10 U.S. universities focused on losing his NCAA eligibility in 2022 when he played in two exhibition games for the CHL’s Windsor Spitfires.
In the NCAA’s eyes, Masterson was considered a professional player.
“Despite not ever playing a regular season game, just playing exhibition games cost him his chance to play NCAA hockey,” said Rod Mawhood, a sports reporter and radio host based in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.
In Masterson’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, New York, lawyer Erik Magraken argued that the NCAA’s rule is “per se illegal under the antitrust laws, including because it constitutes a group boycott” and “puts sixteen-year-olds in the impossible position of deciding, at that young age, whether they will ever want to play Division I hockey.”
The NCAA decision to change its eligibility rules in less than three months surprised few who followed the case closely.
“I was told by anybody and everybody in hockey that this was going to happen,” Mawhood said.
As the case moved closer to a decision, former CHL player Braxton Whitehead verbally committed to Arizona State University’s men’s hockey program. The 20-year-old Regina Pats forward has scored eight goals with 20 assists in 65 games during his last year of CHL eligibility.
“I think they (ASU) love the idea of me being a trailblazer throughout all this and paving the way with NCAA and CHL relations,” Whitehead told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski in September.
Whitehead’s commitment to the Sun Devils further indicated that change was on the horizon. Sure enough, the NCAA rule change was approved a few weeks later.
“It’s going to probably take a couple of years before we see the full effect of everything, but it’s definitely going to change the landscape of hockey in Canada, if not the United States as well,” Mawhood said.
Top Junior Hockey League: The CHL’s system
The CHL represents three Canadian-based hockey leagues: the Western Hockey League, the Ontario Hockey League and the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. There are 51 Canadian and nine American-based teams spread across the three leagues.
Before the NCAA’s vote, the organization barred CHL players from competing in the NCAA due to its amateurism rules which classified these players as “professionals.” CHL players receive a monthly stipend of $250. They’re also given free equipment, training and other necessary expenses, which will still be allowed under the NCAA’s new rules.
The CHL is considered the apex of junior hockey leagues and supplies numerous players and officials to professional leagues like the NHL.
“It (the CHL) is the closest thing in terms of scheduling that you’re going to get to an NHL schedule,” Mawhood said.
He added that CHL players could compete in up to 62 games leading up to the postseason, whereas NCAA players could play up to 34 regular season games, making the CHL a prime destination for player development.
Previously, many players chose to retain their eligibility and play for lower-level leagues before signing with an NCAA team, which allows athletes to continue evolving and developing their skills while also pursuing an education.
“Overall, this will open up a lot more opportunities for everybody, and it should increase the caliber of our game,” said Robert Babiak, a retired hockey coach and sports content creator.
Babiak was eager for the change and dubbed it some of the most exciting hockey news he’s seen as of late.
“A player should be able to decide where they play,” Babiak said. “If they go play pro hockey, maybe they shouldn’t be allowed to go play college hockey, but Major Junior has never been professional hockey. The compensation isn’t there for that.”
Last May, coaches across the NCAA’s three divisions held their annual meetings in Naples, Florida, to discuss key issues, including the eligibility of CHL players. There was not extensive support from coaches to change the organization’s eligibility rules, according to reports from Mike McMahon, publisher of College Hockey Insider.
But the NCAA Division I Council, which features college athletics representatives like athletics directors and administrators, had the final say.
When the proposal was introduced in October, Josh Whitman, Division I Council chair and the University of Illinois Athletics Director, told the NCAA Media Center that the vote represented an important step in aligning men’s ice hockey with the eligibility conditions of other sports.
“I’m very glad that we’re making the steps forward to doing things that are better for the players, opening up the market and giving more choices,” Babiak said.
Scott Roblin, a sports reporter with Global Saskatoon in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan who has covered the WHL for over a decade, produced a three-part series on the NCAA’s final decision. He interviewed coaches, players and league officials from the WHL, the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League and U Sports, the national sports governing body for universities in Canada, and took away one key change for hockey in the U.S.
“The biggest thing from players that I’m getting right now is this opens up opportunities,” Roblin said.
During part one of Roblin’s series, Colin Priestner, president and general manager of the Saskatoon Blades, said that asking hockey players in their early teens to forfeit their NCAA eligibility to play in the CHL was an uncomfortable task when recruiting.
“At the end of the day, it’s a 14- or 15-year-old making that decision,” Roblin added.
However, as the commotion died down since November, questions remain about how the change would impact other leagues, such as the United States Hockey League and U Sports.
Impact on other hockey leagues
OHL players are eligible for scholarships from their respective teams for each year they compete, which can be used towards tuition costs, books and compulsory fees. According to the league, 131 former OHL players are using their scholarships at Ontario universities and competing for OUA teams this season.
“A lot of former CHL players come to our teams and our programs after they conclude their junior careers,” said Gord Grace, the president and CEO of Ontario University athletics, a U Sports regional conference.
Grace, whose organization has a strong relationship with the OHL, had been anticipating the NCAA rule change for quite some time. As a result, Grace’s team has deployed strategies to strengthen the team’s efforts to remain competitive.
“Given the changes that are happening with the rule, our coaches will start to look to recruit differently than they did before, and that could be international,” Gord said.
Canadian universities offer lower tuition costs and have less rigorous eligibility rules, such as time limits. However, a perk that U Sports does not provide is name, image and likeness (NIL) deals that U.S. athletes can profit from at U.S. universities.
Grace noted that the OUA will continue improving its student-athlete experience by enhancing scholarships and providing more unique opportunities for current athletes and potential recruits.
“If a player doesn’t necessarily think he’s NHL-bound and really wants to focus on his academics and still play high-quality hockey, he can do that in the OUA,” Grace said. “He can do that in U Sports.”
More NCAA hockey alumni heading to NHL
There were 240 NCAA alumni across the NHL’s 32 Opening Night rosters for the 2024-25 season, according to College Hockey Inc. During the 2021-22 season, 349 NCAA alumni played in the NHL, a record high for the league.
Colorado Avalanche defenseman and Canadian Cale Makar chose to skip the CHL and play in the NCAA. In 2017, after his two seasons with the UMass Minutemen, Makar was drafted fourth overall by the Avalanche and went on to lead the team to a Stanley Cup in 2022.
“It’s going to allow the NHL to scout easier because we’re just going to get more of the best players playing in the best league,” Babiak said.
With the new law set for August, hockey players on both sides of the border have a new option to explore their future careers – one that may redefine the future of the sport for generations to come.
“It is hard to predict exactly how it’s going to go, but it’s something, certainly, we’re going to watch very closely,” Grace said.
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