NHL and CHL being sued over alleged exploitative contracts for teen players

[Yukon Joe]

The billet family system has been around for eons. These people are subject to rigorous background checks and many families have been apart of the system for years.

There's never been any sort of controversy with it anyhow. Especially in the MeToo era, we didn't hear of billet families absuing or assaulting these players.

I get as a parent it's not easy to just trust some people you've never really met with looking after your kid, but these are good people.

So look - I'm not a billet, but I have hosted international students for the last 5-6 years. They're kids in grade 11, and we've had kids from Spain, Germany and Japan so far. I also did inquire with the Edmonton Oil Kings about being a billet (we're not in it for the money - but they really don't pay very much).

My concern isn't with billet families abusing (either physically or sexually) the players, although that can happen. The "rigorous background checks" are a criminal records check - I have to get one every year (twice actually, because I also have to get it for coaching minor hockey).

My concern is more what values would a billet family stress. What lessons would they teach. A 16 year old is still pretty young and impressionable. In particular - are they going to stress the importance of school? Or the importance of hockey.

Like I said I have some experience in this area. We've had multiple 16 year olds in our house. We try to include them in our family as much as possible - but they're NOT our kid. So we try to give them a fair degree of independence - but that makes it hard to really monitor if they're getting their homework done, for example.

We did have one kid who we really struggled with making sure they went to school on time. Which is a pretty basic requirement - but still something they struggled with. If I was a parent though sending my kid to a billet family - would that billet family necessarily make sure they go to school? In particular for a junior hockey player who has a busy hockey schedule?

So a quick anecdote - 6-8 years ago I'm at a pre-season Jets @ Oilers game (so in Edmonton). I get there early with my kid. Walking the concourse I see Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff. I at first give him some space, but when 5-10 minutes later I see he's still there I walk over to say "hi". He talks to my kid a little bit, and mentions he was just visiting with his former billet family. So obviously he made enough of a connection he's meeting with these people 20+ years later.

But that kid who chatted with Chevy is now a 13 year old high-end hockey player. The odds of him getting drafted into the WHL aren't high, but they're not zero. If you ask me how comfortable I would be sending him as a 16-18 year old to go live with a billet family a thousand kms away, the answer is not very.