It’s official. The NCAA has voted to open up college hockey eligibility to Canadian Hockey League players effective Aug. 1, 2025, paving the way for major junior players to participate in the 2025-26 men’s college hockey season.
Over the last several weeks, The Athletic has spoken with more than 30 coaches and executives from around the NCAA, CHL, BCHL, USHL and NHL to talk through the implications for their leagues, players, scouting, recruiting, development and more. These coaches and executives were granted anonymity in order to speak freely about the NCAA’s decision.
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“It’s definitely the biggest shift that I’ve ever been a part of,” said one QMJHL coach. “I don’t see how you could get a bigger shift than what’s coming up in our world. It’s literally going to change everything.”
Here’s everything you need to know about that shift and what comes next.
Why did the NCAA make this decision?
The NCAA Division I Council first began considering a proposal “to eliminate legislation by which major junior ice hockey teams are considered professional; and in men’s ice hockey and skiing to permit involvement with professional teams and leagues (e.g., contracts, payments, tryouts, practice and competition) before initial full-time collegiate enrollment, provided not more than actual and necessary expenses for participation are received or guaranteed” last month.
The new legislation is a direct response to the wave of NIL money entering college athletics.
It also comes in the wake of litigation filed against the NCAA that argued its rule prohibiting players who played in one of the CHL’s three leagues (the OHL, QMJHL and WHL) from playing in the NCAA violated U.S. antitrust laws.
The move also followed 20-year-old Regina Pats forward Braxton Whitehead’s decision to duck the restrictions and verbally commit to play for Arizona State University in 2025-26.
Braxton Whitehead, a WHL player, verbally committed to Arizona State for next season. (Jonathan Kozub / Getty Images)
More questions than answers around the CHL — for now
“Mixed emotions,” uncertainty about “unintended consequences,” and plenty of questions.
Those were the most common refrains from the nearly 20 CHL general managers and coaches The Athletic spoke to about the change.
The NCAA’s decision, several acknowledged, was out of their control. But it was also the first in a series of decisions both sides will have to make and that the NHL will want to be involved in ahead of the expiry of its collective bargaining agreement on Sept. 15, 2026 (and in turn the CHL-NHL Agreement tied to it).
Several junior hockey coaches and executives wondered whether the NHL will make changes to the signing window for CHL players before they become free agents. (As it stands, NHL clubs retain the rights to drafted CHL players for just two years but NCAA players must spend four years in college before they’re eligible to become free agents.)
In the past, there have been debates about the rights of some NHL prospects who have moved from the NCAA to the CHL. Now there will need to be an answer on the rights of players who go the other direction.
One OHL general manager pointed to the very first such case, when former Devils draft pick Mike Van Ryn left the University of Michigan for the Sarnia Sting to exploit a loophole that allowed him to sign with the Blues.
Now, if the NHL doesn’t make changes to the CHL signing window, what of this question posed by an OHL general manager: “As the trend increases with American players looking for guarantees to sign, does a CHL player turn down an opportunity to sign at the end of their 19-year-old year with the hopes that a year at 20 in NCAA as a free agent gives them a better route to the NHL?”
Other issues, such as whether scholarship money accrued by CHL players will be honored for those who now choose NCAA instead of USports (the Canadian university route), were top of mind for CHL executives. To that, QMJHL commissioner Mario Cecchini said as of now there are no restrictions on how that money is used.
One OHL general manager’s first thought was about rookie tournaments. “Do CHL players now skip the prospect tournaments without being signed?” the executive asked. “Currently, NCAA players are only able to attend development camp.”
The answer to that question may be that the new language regarding pre-enrollment activity actually allows NCAA commits to attend rookie tournaments now.
Across the OHL, QMJHL and WHL, there is excitement about potentially retaining top 16-year-old players who in the past could only choose other leagues if they wanted to play college hockey.
“On the positive side, we will get all the top young players coming to the CHL because we’re the best development option at that age,” said one WHL general manager.
In recent years, the CHL has lost top players such as Adam Fantilli, Owen Power, Michael Hage and just this season Adam Valentini to the USHL’s Chicago Steel, as well as others like Sacha Boisvert even earlier to prep schools in the U.S.
We think it’s a good thing,” said one OHL general manager. “Players from USHL, BCHL likely track back into the CHL.”
There is also worry, though, about the impacts on all three leagues of potentially losing some top 18-, 19- and 20-year-old players after they’ve graduated from high school.
“The USHL will probably be hit pretty hard, but I also don’t really understand why the CHL wants this? Do they understand the colleges are coming for their best 18-year-olds, not their age-out guys?” warned one NHL executive.
“NHL needs to get involved,” argued one OHL general manager. “If not, 18s and 19s could be jumping ship.”
An important point of clarity for both the CHL and NCAA will be whether NCAA programs will only have access to players not signed to pro contracts, with those around the CHL arguing players signed to NHL deals should remain ineligible to play college hockey. Currently, NHL contracts can slide in the CHL but not the NCAA.
The new pre-enrollment language specifically highlights contracts as permissible, though, potentially opening the door for players on entry-level contracts to slide them and maintain eligibility.
Some also wonder about the potential for a formal transfer agreement between the CHL and NCAA.
“Is it just we can take their players and they can take our players just like the NCAA portal is now?” asked one OHL general manager.
“Will colleges have to pay a release like we have to if we want to go get a player?” asked a QMJHL coach.
The former, multiple managers worried, could open a Pandora’s box.
“I think that if both the CHL and the NCAA sit together and make a structure, I think that would be the best thing ever. But I doubt it big-time, and in this case I think it could be a clusterf—,” said one QMJHL general manager. “If a guy starts and he’s not having a good year, he comes back to the CHL after, he gets drafted, he goes back — like that back-and-forth, it doesn’t make any sense.”
A QMJHL coach also worried about the growing power struggle in leagues he feels are already too agent- and parent-driven, cautioning he could already hear hypothetical calls of “If I’m not on the first power play next year, I’m heading to the NCAA.”
“I don’t know how bad it will be, but that will be an issue in particular with the younger, lesser-known agents that we see more and more of,” the coach said. “The established guys won’t play that card because they’ve got a reputation but the younger guys that have something to prove to their clients will use that card without a doubt.”
Some CHL coaches and executives aren’t expecting an exodus, though.
“There’s an assumption that I’ve encountered over the years that everyone wants to jump to the NCAA but there are some players who aren’t interested at all. Not everyone’s a university student,” said one OHL general manager. “The impact’s maybe not going to be as much as some think.”
There’s no questioning whether the CHL will get younger, though. Multiple coaches and executives pointed to NHL prospects they’ve had in recent years who could have played their 20-year-old season in the NCAA instead of jumping into the AHL before they were ready. Multiple CHL commissioners also told The Athletic they’ve had discussions about aligning all three leagues’ draft ages as well — the WHL’s bantam draft is currently held a year earlier than the OHL and QMJHL’s 16-year-old drafts. One QMJHL coach also wondered whether the league would give teams more roster spots for 16-year-olds to offset the loss of some of their older players.
CHL coaches and executives anticipate they’ll have to build their teams differently moving forward, too, unable to risk counting on older players sticking around to help them contend.
“You’ll have to win now with high-end 17-year-olds and some really good 18s instead of really good 18s and 19s,” said a QMJHL coach.
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How different will the NCAA look?
“I think this is bad for the American player and USA Hockey.”
That was the first thought one Hockey East coach had.
There was a ‘but’ though: “The big caveat is ‘unless it leads to college hockey expansion,’” he said. “Is college hockey better? In general, probably. But the battle for the high-end talent in their 19-year-old season between the CHL and NCAA will probably determine which league is ‘better.’”
How could the NCAA hockey landscape change? (Bailey Hillesheim / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
He raised similar questions to his CHL counterparts about a transfer agreement, scholarships, CBA changes to address the different NHL signing rights, and the big one for NCAA folks: “Will players who have signed and not played (in the NHL) remain eligible?”
“Those rules and how they are set up could certainly be a determining factor in which direction kids choose,” the Hockey East coach said. “My biggest concern is that the people voting on this and implementing the structure may not understand the intricacies of our sport and how every decision could impact the strength of the college game. The coaches are not involved in determining how this is laid out — at least not yet.”
Naturally, there is also worry around the CHL about the growing sway of NIL money in college athletics.
“(Top 2024 prospect) Caleb Desnoyers who once he gets drafted, I don’t know, eighth overall, we don’t want to lose him to BU that makes him a $100,000 offer because they’re allowed to give NIL money,” said one QMJHL general manager.
In that sense, both sides agree, the shift in the language was overdue.
“The guy who plays left defense for us gets $470 a month and he was a ‘pro,’ but there are college athletes now getting millions in NIL. Like that’s just asinine to even say,” said one OHL general manager.
There are other factors that will affect just how many players make the move as well. Chief among them: grades.
“I had a lot of kids that wanted the Harvard or even a Clarkson but guess what? They couldn’t get in,” said one CHL coach who used to coach at Canada’s Jr. A level.
There’s also disagreement about how many CHL players will even fit the NCAA game.
“In some cases guys may not be good enough. The two games are quite a bit different in style of play, too,” said one OHL general manager. “From a development standpoint, does it make sense to leave an Oshawa for a Northern Michigan at 20? From a Northern Michigan standpoint, does it make sense to bring a guy in who may only want to be there for one year? The answer might be no.”
If the answer is yes, several posited the NCAA would get older, with teams potentially deciding to bring in fewer true freshmen if they can round out their fourth lines and third pairings with 19- or 20-year-olds who are more ready.
The NCAA’s decision could open up eligibility to some European players as well.
“There’s already some European and Russian players getting eligible, but what would be needed for them to be eligible?” asked the Big Ten coach.
For all of those reasons, the total number of CHL players college programs will be after could be smaller than you might think.
“We would want difference-makers. From what I’ve seen, the bottom six forwards and last D pairings don’t move the needle for us. I don’t think it will be an avalanche,” said a Big Ten coach. “The 20-year-olds are usually just OK — that’s why they haven’t signed NHL or AHL deals.”
What about the USHL, BCHL, NTDP, Canadian Jr. A and USports?
The most common refrain from CHL executives and NCAA coaches who spoke with The Athletic was that the USHL, Canadian Jr. A leagues, and the BCHL — which they say “were thriving off of guys that wanted to go NCAA” — will be most impacted by opening up the CHL-NCAA route.
One NCHC coach’s sense was that the CHL wouldn’t lose many players to start, but the USHL would be hit hardest because “there are many unhappy kids on fourth lines” who’ve had a lack of high-end places to play.
“The rich will always get richer but college hockey will only get better,” the coach said.
A Hockey East coach said he expects the NTDP’s ability to recruit dual citizens will be negatively impacted, and that some of the top Americans may also consider the CHL as well.
At the moment, Canadians make up 9 percent of Division I men’s hockey players. A USA Hockey spokesperson says they don’t expect material impacts from the change on any of the leagues, though the transfer agreement between USA Hockey and Hockey Canada may need tweaks over time.
“Might that (Canadian percentage) tick up a little bit? Perhaps. I don’t think there’s (a) mass exodus of players going back and forth between the U.S. and Canada in junior hockey either,” said USA Hockey senior director of communications Dave Fischer.
As for potential impacts on the NTDP? They’ve heard that before.
“The National Team Development Program is just different than the programs in the CHL. It’s a different way forward,” Fischer said. “We had this when the National Team Development Program started and in the U.S. and in Minnesota there was, ‘Why are kids going to leave high school hockey to go play at this?’ And high school hockey is great but it doesn’t have the elements of the National Team Development Program, nor does the CHL or USHL.”
A Big Ten coach said the “USHL and BCHL will look different in the coming years” and wondered whether top teams in those two leagues would try to join the CHL, though he also argued that USHL rosters generally have more depth than CHL ones.
“The CHL is the number one development league for the NHL. The investment made in the student athletes in terms of development, schooling, scholarship money, player support, etc. — you can’t compare the quality to the BCHL or USHL, it is a different league,” countered a QMJHL executive. “Previously, and unfortunately, players had to compromise their quality of experience and development and go to those leagues in order to maintain their NCAA eligibility. That won’t be the case anymore.”
Others asked, “Why would you now go to play for Penticton if you could go play for the Vancouver Giants?”
“I’m sure the BCHL isn’t going to die and they’ll recoup some guys as well, but it’s not going to be the original quality they thought,” said one QMJHL coach.
But those within the USHL and BCHL are prepared to make their own case.
“I’m all in favor for kids having more access to education through athletics. The USHL has built itself up to a very high-quality league with not only a strong player base with close to 50 kids a year drafted to the NHL, but also a very high level of hockey being played. The last hurdle for the league is the perception of the league historically compared to the CHL,” said one USHL general manager. “There (will) no doubt be changes but I would put our development model up against anyone.”
One USHL coach pointed to top 2025 NHL Draft prospect Adam Benák’s recent decision to play for Youngstown in the USHL, when he could have gone into the CHL import draft, as an example of it not being all about college.
A BCHL general manager believes the move will also open up his ability to recruit players from the CHL if they’re unhappy. In the past, when BCHL clubs tried to pull from the CHL, the players were restricted to minor pro or USports.
“I think it will have a negative impact on the teams that don’t invest enough into player development (full-time strength coach, skills and skating coaches, goalie coach, sports psychologist, etc.) and teams that don’t have long-time relationships with NCAA teams. For the teams that do, it could actually be a positive,” the BCHL general manager said. “The key is having the infrastructure to continue to develop players so they are contributing when they get to NCAA.”
He did, however, hypothesize the BCHL may have to consider broader changes themselves in order to keep up.
“My guess is our league will try and split into two tiers. A ‘super league’ with all the big programs and a ‘development league’ with young players and maybe a pay-to-play model,” he said.
There is also now, in theory, more opportunities for CHL teams to recruit college-bound American players away from the USHL in their designated U.S. territory to come north at 16 and 17 before the draft. The QMJHL, whose territory includes the hockey hotbed of Massachusetts and parts of the east coast where many of the top college programs are, would stand to benefit the most. Again, in theory …
“The issue there is that no American-born player will come here instead of the NTDP,” said one QMJHL coach. “In the Q, you’ve got the big markets and then after that it’s a huge drop in terms of all of the tools coaches and GMs have to offer their players, so you really have to get creative with that financially, I find.”
No level will be harder hit than USports, though.
One OHL coach argued scholarship money should remain only for players who pursue USports as a way to support Canadian universities and said that even if it’s made available in the NCAA, the cross-border differences in tuition costs, especially after converting currencies, mean “it’s nothing.”
“Some USports programs still think they’re pretty good programs and still think they’re going to attract athletes,” countered one OHL general manager with a USports background.
The NCAA becoming an option is also likely to affect USports programs in Canada. (Erica Denhoff / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
NHL Draft ripple effect?
There has long been talk within NHL front offices about the risks of selecting CHL players in the draft’s later rounds when you have a longer timeline to make a decision on Europeans and college-bound players.
One QMJHL coach wondered if a change to the CHL signing window could be a net positive for players who deserve to get picked on merit but have traditionally been passed over for that reason.
“There’s a lot of times where we question ourselves and say, ‘There’s some really good players that don’t get drafted in rounds 5-7 but then there’s guys that are getting drafted out of the Minnesota high school league.’ Well, the consensus seems to be: ‘We’ve got four years to work with these guys and now the CHL guys we only have two,’ and that kind of goes to the detriment of some of the quality players that are in the CHL,” said that coach.
Asked if they’d feel more inclined to select CHLers in the draft’s later rounds if they had more time to make a decision, two NHL scouting directors were split.
“100 percent I would,” said one.
“Not really,” said another. “Being 23-24 and still playing in the NCAA is a low-probability bet for NHL success.”
An AHL layer(s)
There are two new questions for the AHL in all of this.
One that’s top of mind for major junior execs is whether the NHL will uphold the rule that prohibits CHL players from playing in the AHL until they’re 20.
“So if you get drafted in the NHL at 17, at 18 you could go play in the NCAA for one year and then are you now allowed to play in the AHL at 19?” asked one QMJHL general manager. “To lose (a) first-round pick at 18, that could be tough for us.”
There is also some chatter as to whether the AHL’s demographics will shift if more CHLers elect to wait a little longer before turning pro.
Asked one QMJHL coach: “Are they going to lose those 20-22-year-olds that would have played in the American League and now that kid says ‘F— this, I’m actually going to go play for North Dakota.’ Does the kid say, ‘You know what? I played for Moose Jaw for the last whatever and now I’m going to go to North Dakota and see what I can do? Does the AHL now become more of what it was back in the day as an older pro league?”
A win for the players
There is unanimity about only one thing across levels and leagues. As one OHL coach put it, “This is amazing for the players.”
One OHL general manager called it “awful” that for years players who’ve played one game in the CHL at age 16 would lose their eligibility.
“It seems so draconian in some ways,” the OHL general manager said. “I’m glad that that’s going to be gone and that that’s going to take that weight off of families’ shoulders.”
One QMJHL coach who used to be a player said he remembers starting his own junior career and asking himself “Why does this rule exist?”
Now that it no longer exists, another QMJHL coach said the increased competition for players will force all programs to provide better conditions. Ultimately, a win for the players is a win for the NHL and hockey at large, too.
One OHL general manager went as far as saying the move could create more NHL-caliber players and even help with expansion.
“If everybody is aligned properly, it’ll be the best path for every player and I think that it’s going to be great for the NHL,” he said.
(Photo: Mark Kohlman / NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
