The conference room at the Ann Arbor, Mich., Ice Cube was packed. Some of the best hockey-playing 14- and 15-year-olds sat up front, and they were listening closely.
Their parents lined the back of the room, some sitting, others leaning against a glass wall, straining to hear over the music from a rink as figure skaters practiced behind them.
John
Gibson is one of two elite goaltenders to bail on the University of
Michigan in favor of the Canadian Hockey League in the last two years.
(USA Hockey)
In the front of the room, college hockey coaches filled a row of chairs. Leading the talk was Red Berenson, the University of Michigan's coach, a Stanley Cup winner with the Montreal Canadiens and a former Regina Pats juniors player.
Considering its proximity to Canada, Michigan is the battleground for a fight that’s not new, but grows hotter each year. It’s one the NHL is also watching.
On one side is Berenson -- an All-America player at Michigan -- and his fellow college coaches, trying to convince North America's best young players to commit to college hockey. On the other side is Canada’s major junior powerhouse, the Canadian Hockey League, where elite Canadians -- and a growing number of Americans -- parlay junior careers into NHL careers.
Berenson looked at the young players in front of him and offered a warning against choosing junior hockey.
“You’re giving up the four best years of your life,” he said.
In the past two years, Berenson has lost two high-end goalies. In 2010, Jack Campbell picked the Ontario Hockey League's Windsor Spitfires over the Wolverines. This year, John Gibson is headed to OHL Kitchener after committing to Michigan.
But it’s not just Berenson’s problem. A recent Boston Globe story put the number of elite players breaking college commitments this year at nine.
Once they play Canadian junior hockey, they are ineligible to play NCAA hockey.
“I’m not prepared to say it’s an epidemic,” Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke told Sporting News. “The great majority of players who committed to college are going to college.”
Burke is a Providence College graduate.
But it’s the ones who have left that irk the world of college hockey because usually it’s the best -- guys like Cam Fowler, Patrick Kane and John Carlson.
The pull to play junior hockey is a strong one. The CHL, umbrella for the three Canadian leagues, has increased education options for its players, and according to CHL commissioner David Branch, the OHL has 263 players on scholarship in Canadian universities.
“The advent of the CHL player scholarship, which is second to none and supports the student athlete and his interest, has been a big, big factor,” Branch told Sporting News.
Unlike the NCAA, collegiate governing body Canadian Interuniversity Sport does not prohibit professional players.
Junior hockey facilities are outstanding, and the coaching is NHL-level. Players get a taste of life as a professional hockey player in the CHL, and most NHL teams would prefer their draft picks play junior hockey rather than college hockey. That reason alone often leads to changed minds after draft day.
To slow the trend, college coaches hired former NHLPA executive director Paul Kelly nearly two years ago. As the head of College Hockey, Inc., Kelly has hit the road to educate teenagers, like those in Ann Arbor, on the virtues of playing college hockey. His case is as strong as any major junior franchise.
Colleges also consistently develop NHL players, like Zach Parise (two years at North Dakota), Tim Thomas (four years at Vermont) and Jonathan Toews (two years at North Dakota). For the great majority of young players who never see the NHL, it gives them the backup plan of a college education, often at elite American universities. A degree from Harvard eases the pain of falling short on NHL dreams.
A lighter playing schedule also means college hockey players often have more time to devote to the gym.
Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Bylsma -- who spent four years at Bowling Green -- said he can usually distinguish the players who arrive via college.
“In a word, maturity. On-the-ice maturity,” Bylsma told Sporting News. “You get a player that’s had longer to develop physically and mentally.”
All things being equal, it’s a tough choice for a teenager to make.
College coaches contend all things aren’t equal. Far from it.
NCAA rules prohibit colleges from contacting recruits until June 15 after their sophomore year in high school. By then, if they’re good enough, they’ve already been aggressively pursued by junior programs.
Luke Moffatt was the second overall pick in the 2007 WHL draft by the Kelowna Rockets. At 14 years old, he had to make a decision that would impact the rest of his life. Long before college staffs could recruit him, he was visited in Arizona by Kelowna executives and coaches.
“I had it in my mind that I was going to college, but they have a way of trying to throw stuff at you,” said Moffatt, who eventually enrolled at Michigan. “They were totally professional about everything, they respected my decision… but they try to convince you whichever way they can up there.”
The junior programs get first crack at recruitment and increasingly face accusations that they're slanting the playing field with payments outside guidelines set by the CHL.
“The amount of money under the table in those leagues is rampant,” said RPI coach Seth Appert, who just ended his term as president of the American Hockey College Association. “That’s against NCAA rules, no matter how we slice it.”
Said Berenson: “I know some kids have been paid, there’s no question about that. I can’t tell you what the OHL allows or what they don’t allow. I know some kids that have been paid.”
In a conversation with Sporting News, one player weighing the decision confirmed he’d been offered a significant financial package to play in Canada, saying it’s not an easy thing to turn down.
“Everybody has their price,” he said.
It’s not a new accusation. Kelly has been publicly vocal in his belief that elite players are getting six-figure payments to lure them away from the NCAA. And, Kelly contends, it’s for more than just education.
Kelly shared a conversation he had with a player who broke a college commitment last summer to play in Quebec. Kelly asked him why he did it.
“He said because ‘they wrote me a check for $100,000 and I’m going to go out and buy a new car,’ ” Kelly said. “This kid never had any education anywhere in his radar.”
As the CHL has grown, Branch said the league has been deliberate in developing clear-cut policies on allowable benefits for players, which are largely for education and training allowances.
The OHL has hired an enforcement officer to investigate any allegations of impropriety, and the league’s competitive balance depends on a level playing field.
“I believe that 99 percent of the cases, no they are not" being paid under the table, Branch said of the CHL’s elite players. “I would not go as far to say that none have received benefits that exceed our permissible benefits. We are addressing it.”
The NHL is counting on it. In an effort to help develop elite young players, the league provides a grant to the CHL and to USA Hockey. This year, the league sent $9.8 million to the CHL earmarked for player development, education and wellness programs. It’s dispersed evenly among teams, with some getting bonuses for players drafted by the NHL.
It becomes an NHL issue if those franchises are then using that money to lure players to break their college commitments.
“Nobody has ever made that connection that we’re subsidizing under-the-table payments to players,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told Sporting News. “That’s a stretch to suggest that. I understand there are rumors that payments are made. I don’t think any specific payments have been substantiated or evidenced in any way.”
Still, the issue is one the NHL takes seriously.
“We’re going to ask for more vigilance on the part of the CHL to make sure payments are not being made,” Daly said.
Burke said there was recently a small group of NHL general managers who met to discuss the issue, and it’s something that they will continue to investigate.
“At some point, where there’s smoke there’s probably fire. I would like to get to the bottom of this,” he said. “If there are improper payments to a league we subsidize, I think we’re entitled to know what they are and bring them to a stop.”
The NHL also essentially funds College Hockey, Inc, a fact that isn’t lost on the CHL. Kelly’s aggressive pursuit to recruit not only American hockey players but Canadians as well, is leading to a turf war. This year alone, Kelly has done educational summits in Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa.
Tyler Boldt is the manager of player development and recruitment in the Western Hockey League, and part of his job is educating young players, including correcting misinformation he believes circulates about his league. His position exists largely because of the effectiveness of Kelly’s campaign.
Yes, it’s a fight, but there’s a positive. Hockey-playing teenagers now are more educated about their options than any group before them. Glen Bates, a 16-year-old from Michigan, estimated that he’s attended at least 10 College Hockey, Inc. seminars.
“It’s increased people’s thirst for knowledge,” Boldt said.
Ultimately, that should lead to families making more informed decisions, whichever path they decide -- college or junior.
“They’re both wonderful ways to get (to the NHL), both viable ways to get there,” Burke said. “It’s a very personal situation and individual decision for a player. It’s hard. I think we’re fortunate in the NHL to get players in all three sources (including Europe). There’s great merit to all of them.”
