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Potential policy change could harm U Sports men’s hockey

Stingers centre Gabriel Proulx, faces off against a Gee-Gees player. Both are formerly from the QMJHL. Photo Alice Martin

Jared Lackman-Mincoff,
Local Journalism Initiative

Potential policy change could harm U Sports men’s hockey

U Sports men’s hockey could have a major obstacle coming its way.

Hockey writers have begun wondering about the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)—which governs varsity athletics in the United States—possibly changing its amateurism policy to allow eligibility to junior hockey players from the Canadian Hockey League (CHL).

The NHL’s agreement with the CHL forces NHL teams to send their prospects back to their CHL teams if they are not yet ready for the NHL. Therefore, the junior level is filled with top NHL prospects already signed to their entry-level contracts.

CHL players receive stipends for their services, and go toe-to-toe with players already under professional contracts, deeming the entire league professional by NCAA standards. As such, players relinquish NCAA eligibility by playing a single CHL game.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said in February, “We are headed towards a future of where CHL players are going to be able to play NCAA hockey. The question is when.”

CHL players that don’t make it to the NHL or another professional league often turn to U Sports hockey to continue playing hockey while pursuing higher education.

As a result, former CHL players make up the majority of U Sports men’s hockey rosters. Twenty-one out of the 25 members on the Concordia Stingers men’s hockey team previously played in the CHL.

“[The current policy] kind of protected us a little from losing talent down to the U.S. colleges,” said Concordia Athletics Director D’Arcy Ryan.

However, the NCAA’s inception of the name, image and likeness (NIL) rules in 2021—which allows athletes to receive compensation for their personal branding—incited a shift in leniency regarding amateur versus professional status of athletes.

CHL players would be attracted to American colleges rather than Canadian universities should they have the choice, largely because of the discrepancy in allowable scholarships.

Ryan explained that U Sports only allows scholarships to cover tuition and other compulsory academic fees, meaning that Canadian universities cannot offer much money to entice an athlete. “Whereas in the States, making living accommodations, room, board, all that would be covered. We can’t compete with that,” he said.

However, an NCAA policy change is not as simple as it may seem. The earliest the policy could be discussed is in April at the annual college hockey coaches conference. By that time, the U Sports men’s hockey recruitment cycle for 2024-25 will have mostly run its course.

It would also take some time yet for the policy to be changed. The decision would need to go through several different committees within the NCAA for approval and execution, according to Jim Connelly of United States College Hockey Online.

“This is something that we’re gonna talk about in April. We might vote on it in June, and then next December there’ll be a conference where somebody else will hear it and they’ll vote on it,” he said, adding that NCAA operations mimic parliamentary order.

But Adam Wodon, managing editor of College Hockey News, does not believe that the change will come from the NCAA itself. He thinks it is more likely that a CHL player sues the NCAA and demands to be made eligible.

“The NCAA keeps losing every court decision that there is,” he said. “That takes some kid playing [in the CHL] to say, ‘I want to go play in the NCAA. They’re not letting me, so I’m going to sue them.’ to do that. And then some court will say, ‘Yeah, you can’t stop them from going.’ And then it’s just open season at that point.”

U Sports declined The Link’s interview request and indicated that it has “no comment to make about media reports on a potential coaches association vote in the United States.”

UPDATE: In an earlier version of this article, Adam Wodon’s quote was mischaracterized. The Link regrets this error.

This article originally appeared in Volume 44, Issue 13, published April 2, 2024.

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Flying Elbows hockey tournament celebrates 25 years

Guillaume Laflamme, LJI Reporter

The Flying Elbows Hockey Tournament returned to the Shawville arena last week for its 25th year of bringing together hockey players from across the greater Pontiac community.
What started as a small memorial for the beloved coach James A. Smith in 1999 has since grown into a three-day, 18-team tournament, which sometimes brings in players from as far as Calgary and Montreal.
This year, after three days of fierce competition between the tournament’s 18 teams, the Danford Lakers team beat the O’Brien team to take home the James A. Smith memorial trophy and the bragging rights for the A bracket, winning the finals in a 2-0 shutout.

The Benders were the victors of the B bracket against the Puck Pirates, winning the Bryan Murray trophy.
Will Armitage has been organizing the fundraising event for the last eight years. “It started with a group of guys . . . and now, here we are today,” Armitage said. “It’s kind of a fundraiser. Whatever we can raise, it’s going to go towards arena upgrades and different things like that.”

The tournament plays an important role in helping the local community, both economically and socially. “It’s a big thing for the community,” Armitage said, “It helps restaurants and the town and everything like that.”
For players like Matthew Dandy, who has made the journey to Shawville for the tournament since 2006, the event serves as a reunion of sorts, bringing together old friends and reigniting a shared passion for hockey.
“You’ve got to appreciate the guys that put it together. If you don’t have them, you don’t have a tournament,” Dandy said. “A lot of us don’t play anymore, and it’s our once-a-year hockey for the year so it means a lot for them to organise it.

The event included live entertainment and refreshments in the Lions Club hall above the rink to keep the players’ spirits up while the tournament took place.
Valley Mountain Band, featuring Rory and Julia Mayhew, kept the Lion’s hall entertained during the tournament’s final games on Saturday night.

“I love getting to play in Shawville because I’m from here,” Rory Mayhew said.
“We’re primarily a country band, so in the city we play more rock and stuff like that, so we kind of push to play out this way a little bit more, so we can play more country music.”
For this year, Armitage expects the money raised will be used to upgrade the arena’s water and plumbing systems.

In previous years, the tournament fundraiser has helped purchase new boards as well as a new score clock for the arena.

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