Re: NCAA Rule Changes to Slow Recruiting
From a pure morality standpoint, these are home-run rule changes that I endorse wholeheartedly.
My fear is this: How are the vultures from the Canadian major junior leagues going to exploit this?
If they push back the CHL eligibility cut-off to 21 then there will be plenty of problems for certain programs like Clarkson who dip into Canada a lot, for the college programs that dump resources into their hockey and have Power 5 conference facilities and money I just don't see it meaning much. Development has become a huge hurdle for the CHL, less and less NHL rosters are being filled out with major junior guys, obviously the first round talents will still be playing there in most scenarios but the depth of those leagues suffer. It seems a lot of the lesser known major junior organizations struggle to maintain a home and certain ones struggle with being profitable, the big boys like London or Portland won't go away, those are great organizations to develop in but the league as a whole isn't and there's no guarantee to where you're playing unless you're good enough and dictate the terms. Before the season the CHL lifted their ban on European imports for goalies, they are starting to become more aware of the fact college hockey has taken over as the best development path for early bloomers and late so there's no doubt in my mind they'll make a change and soon.
Just look at the last few kids that have decided to pass on their Clarkson commitment to make the jump to the CHL (names mentioned below), now obviously these kids aren't the Fabbro/Jost/Makar types but when they were recruited they were seen as difference maker type recruits for our program, the elite talent that is one or two years and done will still pick college if things keep progressing as they are. The Savoie kid who was not granted exceptional status by Hockey Canada recently committed to Denver, he's probably going to be one or two his draft year and yes I know it's a long time from that point but this kid is just that good, if he somehow sticks and continues all these elite Canadian prospects that value education business could be booming in that regard. :
Colton Kehler, now playing Canadian College Hockey, probably would've been a sophomore at CU -
https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/199955/colton-kehler
Liam Ham, very solid OHL player but soon will be pushed into the pro ranks, probably too early IMO -
https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/201669/liam-ham
Isaac Langdon, was actually heavily sought after and has a definite shot of playing pro hockey -
https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/402989/isaac-langdon
The point I'm trying to make here is there is always going to be a good path, you just need to surround yourself with people you can trust and not get convinced into a situation that's not best for that individual. With the current state of "adviors" I don't really think this new rule will be all that important, yes in theory it's nice but this isn't a cash cow sport for the NCAA and there will be millions of ways to have contact potential recruiters through secondary sources, I just hope they actually follow through and police it.
