Profound change is coming to major junior hockey starting Aug. 1, 2025.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced this week that starting on that date, hockey players who have previously suited up in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) no longer forfeit their eligibility.
For more than 40 years, 16-year-old hockey players who had outgrown minor hockey had to essentially make a life-altering decision. That choice, often made under the gun, without any guarantees or legal advice, was often the most important players would make in their lives. And it was made before a kid was old enough to vote, drink and, in many cases, drive a vehicle.
It’s worth noting that anyone who has signed a professional contract will remain ineligible for NCAA competition even with this week’s announcement. In other words, the Barrie Colts need not worry that Cole Beaudoin is going to bolt next season. Utah has signed him to a contract and he is considered professional now in the eyes of the NCAA even before playing in a game for that National Hockey League (NHL) club.
Beaudoin’s Colts teammate, Brad Gardiner, has not signed with the Dallas Stars and therefore is an interesting player to monitor. His father, Bruce, under the soon-to-be old rules, played four years at Colgate after Jr. B in Barrie before embarking on an itinerant NHL career with four teams.
If Brad Gardiner doesn’t come to an agreement with the Stars by the deadline this spring, the 19-year-old forward could return to Barrie as an overage player, try to catch on with another NHL club, or go to school, knowing the option to turn pro will always be there after school.
There are literally dozens of players in Gardiner’s position who now have options. Many dozens more playing Jr. A around Canada or in the United States Hockey League can now suddenly play in any of the CHL’s three member leagues without fear of surrendering their college eligibility.
There is are so many variables to consider, it is difficult to wedge them into one column, but there are two more points to consider: The first is that the name/image/licensing (NIL) regulations that mean collegiate athletes can effectively get paid is much more difficult for Canadian citizens to realize because of the restrictive nature of U.S. student visas. Basically, if a Canadian kid is going to school in the U.S., they are not allowed to work, so they therefore can’t get compensated in the same way an American citizen can.
So, it’s hard to imagine a big-ticket American school such as Michigan or Boston College dangling a financial inducement beyond a scholarship in front of a Colts player such as Kashawn Aitcheson or Parker Vaughan. If those two players want to pursue school before turning pro, that is now an option. But it’s unlikely they are going to break the bank doing it.
Interestingly, Will Moore’s OHL rights are held by the Colts and he is slated to attend Boston College next year. Moore is a dual citizen of both countries who grew up in the Toronto area; he will be taken in the 2025 NHL Draft. NIL money could be a factor that determines when Moore signs with the NHL team that drafts him and whether he ever reports to the Colts.
The second factor is traffic going the other way across the Canada-U.S. border.
How many more American players will be open to playing in the OHL and then go to college? Will there be a flood of Americans, a trickle, or somewhere in between? And, frankly, how much different is that from now? American players still suit up across the CHL in reasonable numbers, just not to the extent they otherwise could now that the rules have changed. And, within that wider question, how much will NIL money tie the hands of CHL clubs, like the Colts, that could see American players suddenly leave to “go to school” with their pockets stuffed with NIL money Canadian kids can’t access?
Whatever happens, next season will bring in an entirely new world in major junior hockey. No one really knows how that new world will look.
