King on CHL: Misguided anger from NCAA
Posted February 8, 2012 9:45 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The endless saga that is the Canadian Hockey League and college hockey cold war reached new lows recently.
North Dakota head coach Dave Hakstol is understandably upset after losing forwards J.T. Miller to the Plymouth Whalers last summer and now Stefan Matteau to Blainville-Boisbriand a month ago. Neither suited up a game (nor will ever suit up) for the school where Jonathan Toews once starred.
Frustration is giving way to sensationalism, something those within the college game never seem to shy away from. The portrait being painted south of the border is that of a renegade league of bandits, one part Jesse James another part John Dillinger.
“We need to have a deal in place with the NHL and with the CHL,” Hakstol told the Grand Forks Herald recently. “We are going into a back-alley brawl. They are bringing guns. We’re coming with no weapon and one hand tied behind our back.”
If a picture can tell a thousand words, Hakstol managed to use far fewer to portray the CHL as a callous, indignant league with no remorse for its ramifications on the college game. It’s hardly the first time — and we’re betting far from the last — where a coach of a college program cries foul over a rule whose injuries are self-inflicted.
It is, after all, the NCAA’s rule which prevents players from joining their program if they sign a standard CHL contract or play so much as an exhibition game of major junior. Therefore, it’s the NCAA, not the CHL, that handicaps its own program.
It’s not exactly like showing up with a knife to a gun fight, which, as per Hakstol’s comparison, would actually lessen the disadvantage. This is a supposed war involving two parties, one of which is practically blissfully unaware of its participation. That’s more like a back-alley brawl where a punch-drunk boxer is fighting with the image he sees in the mirror.
College Hockey Inc. is now working on a legislation that would enable any player who signs a letter of intent, as Matteau did, to join the CHL only until after one season in the NCAA.
Michigan’s head coach, Red Berenson, once went as far to say a player “contaminated” his college eligibility by playing major junior in a Globe and Mail story. Others have called it poaching or stealing. We get it. Playing major junior renders one ineligible for college. But is it really necessary to be so dramatic and negative towards another program that did nothing shady or outside of their own rules and regulations?
No such rule exists where a player can’t play in the CHL after suiting up in college. No such rule exists within the CHL that declares a player ineligible of taking his craft to the college game after his junior career concludes.
Their arguments make about as much sense as the analogy Hakstol presented. We’ve heard it all before; a player makes a verbal commitment and must then fulfill his obligations. Should he back out, he is then viewed as a liar and accused of using the NCAA as a bargaining chip to land in whichever CHL destination he desires most.
What’s never mentioned is the timing the commitments are being made. To get a leg up on the CHL, players are being recruited and giving verbal commitments around the same time as they’re attending a Grade 9 math class.
Kenny Ryan’s father, K.C., once put it in perspective when his son was being wooed by college programs.
“Here’s a kid who is still having sleepovers,” he said.
And yet, when a young kid returns from said sleepover, he’s supposed to have his college career sorted out well before high school graduation day. Should he change his mind, as teenagers are prone to do and hardly ever chastised for doing with any other decisions, he’s suddenly a liar unwilling to see through a commitment.
Sometimes it’s a matter of numbers. Jack Campbell withdrew his commitment to Michigan to join the Windsor Spitfires last season. As a goaltender, he knew his college options would be lessened if he waited to declare his destination after attending the United States National Team Development Program and the NHL draft, since a team would make sure those spots are taken care of well in advance.
“Really, what it comes down to is people don’t realize that players are getting recruited at such a young age, 14, 15-years old,” Campbell said. “Being a goalie, there’s only two spots on the team, especially with scholarships and everything. It wouldn’t have been possible for me to wait until my (age) 18 year to commit to a college or after the draft.”
If a college coach feels slighted, and there are many examples, he should redirect his anger. Rather than pointing a disapproving finger at the CHL and saying, “shame on you,” maybe it’s time for those within college hockey to review their constitution.
Blaming the CHL for doing nothing more than operating their league as they see fit is nothing more than looking for a scapegoat.
If Hakstol and others feel as though their hands are tied behind their backs, it’s bound by the NCAA and not the CHL. And if they’re at such a disadvantage, then maybe they should stop looking for a fight.
