Quote:
Originally Posted by Royle9
So what kind of “offers” do these big NCAA schools have in their back pocket to try and pry kids out of the CHL.
Outside of the accolade of saying you graduated from it if you finish your years of course.
Financial? Sponsorships?
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Free education is a big factor.
NCAA players can now sign sponsorship deals, but I doubt any hockey players are getting much out of those deals.
Beyond those, I suspect the next biggest draw is the quality of competition and the chance to develop against older, stronger opponents than you'd get in the CHL. The CHL rules allow teams to have a maximum of 2 Europeans and 3 20-year-olds on their rosters. The NCAA has no such limits, and very few players under 20 are playing significant minutes in the NCAA unless they are top prospects.
If you're a bubble prospect, you're going to develop better playing against a bunch of stronger, older opponents, even if it's harder competition, than you will by dominating a bunch of growing teenagers. That difference will become even more pronounced if virtually every decent 18/19 year-old prospect starts making the jump.
Another factor is that it can extend the development runway for a bubble prospect. Every year, we see 23 and 24 year-old players signing NHL contracts out of the NCAA who weren't even if the conversation 4 or 5 years earlier when they were draft eligible. Meanwhile, a lot of junior players who were drafted 4 or 5 years ago are already forgotten after struggling in the ECHL and/or AHL for a few seasons.