MisterGopher
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https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6666264/2025/10/06/college-hockey-chl-rule-change-gavin-mckenna/
Adam Nightingale, Michigan State’s head coach, grew up in Cheboygan, in Northern Michigan. An hour to the north was Lake Superior State University. A few minutes past that, across the Canadian border, the Ontario Hockey League’s Soo Greyhounds. Both have storied hockey programs, with the Lakers winning the NCAA Tournament in 1992 and 1994, and the Greyhounds winning the 1993 Memorial Cup as Canadian Hockey League champions.
Until recently, though, those two teams also symbolized a very real fork in the road for young hockey players.
NCAA rules governing amateurism previously deemed CHL players to be professionals, and thus ineligible for U.S. college hockey. As a result, players were forced to choose at 15 or 16 whether to set off for major junior hockey, or to ply their trade in lower divisions (or move to American junior leagues) in order to preserve their amateur status.
That all changed last November, when the NCAA’s Division I council voted to make CHL players eligible — and in the process, opened the door to a sea change moment in the sport.
:
While the CHL track record for producing NHL players is impossible to deny, college hockey can offer players a host of developmental opportunities even beyond what they get from the university experience. The competition tends to be older, and thus bigger, stronger and faster. The schedule — with games mainly on weekends — can mean more freedom for players to push themselves in the gym during the week.
And while the number of games is smaller, that can also up the competitive stakes.
:
While the CHL track record for producing NHL players is impossible to deny, college hockey can offer players a host of developmental opportunities even beyond what they get from the university experience. The competition tends to be older, and thus bigger, stronger and faster. The schedule — with games mainly on weekends — can mean more freedom for players to push themselves in the gym during the week.
And while the number of games is smaller, that can also up the competitive stakes.
Adam Nightingale, Michigan State’s head coach, grew up in Cheboygan, in Northern Michigan. An hour to the north was Lake Superior State University. A few minutes past that, across the Canadian border, the Ontario Hockey League’s Soo Greyhounds. Both have storied hockey programs, with the Lakers winning the NCAA Tournament in 1992 and 1994, and the Greyhounds winning the 1993 Memorial Cup as Canadian Hockey League champions.
Until recently, though, those two teams also symbolized a very real fork in the road for young hockey players.
NCAA rules governing amateurism previously deemed CHL players to be professionals, and thus ineligible for U.S. college hockey. As a result, players were forced to choose at 15 or 16 whether to set off for major junior hockey, or to ply their trade in lower divisions (or move to American junior leagues) in order to preserve their amateur status.
That all changed last November, when the NCAA’s Division I council voted to make CHL players eligible — and in the process, opened the door to a sea change moment in the sport.
:
While the CHL track record for producing NHL players is impossible to deny, college hockey can offer players a host of developmental opportunities even beyond what they get from the university experience. The competition tends to be older, and thus bigger, stronger and faster. The schedule — with games mainly on weekends — can mean more freedom for players to push themselves in the gym during the week.
And while the number of games is smaller, that can also up the competitive stakes.
:
While the CHL track record for producing NHL players is impossible to deny, college hockey can offer players a host of developmental opportunities even beyond what they get from the university experience. The competition tends to be older, and thus bigger, stronger and faster. The schedule — with games mainly on weekends — can mean more freedom for players to push themselves in the gym during the week.
And while the number of games is smaller, that can also up the competitive stakes.