A lot of guys in the CIS played in the CHL, maybe even the majority. They can't go to the NCAA so if they want an education after junior they don't have many options. The NHL doesn't usually scout these teams that extensively, but there are a few solid NHL players that have played in the CIS. Joel Ward is the most recent, who played at UPEI, Darryl Boyce and Jody Shelley come to mind too. Probably not worth it for an NHL team to regularly scout the CIS though.
I can't really speak to the quality of education because there are so many different schools in D-1 and CIS. The quality probably differs from school to school, and I'm not too familiar with American schools to judge. NCAA is the better league but I would actually say that it is somewhat comparable competition. A good CIS team would probably hang with a bad NCAA team. The big difference is that the good NCAA teams have star players that would never play in the CIS
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