Why do some prospects choose the NCAA?

Ogopogo*

Guest
Why do prospects play NCAA hockey?

I understand the desire for an education but, why delay the start of an NHL career to get it? When you consider what the CHL offers, it really makes no sense.

For every season you spend in the CHL you get a one-year University scholarship. The CHL is also the best developmental league creating future NHL players so it is the best place for a developing prospect. If a player doesn't actually make it in pro hockey, he can then take his scholarship and get educated.

Now, opting for the NCAA means you spend more time playing amateur hockey, delaying your NHL career. If you complete your NCAA obligation, you end up as a pro at about age 22 or 23 - essentially wasting two to five years of pro hockey and pro money to get an education.

Why not take the most direct route to the NHL? If it doesn't work - then you get your education. Do players go the NCAA route because they believe they will never make it so they are taking their fall back first?

Based on what the CHL offers, I see no value to the NCAA route. Am I missing something?
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Bear of Bad News

Your Third or Fourth Favorite HFBoards Admin
Sep 27, 2005
13,345
26,516
Some people want to go to college. Some people enjoy it.

The pros will be there when you're done.
 

Ogopogo*

Guest
Some people want to go to college. Some people enjoy it.

The pros will be there when you're done.

The thing is, you are losing two, three or four years of your pro career to go the NCAA route. Your pro hockey window is very limited, you can always get your education once you are done.

It is like backwards priorities. Are kids getting bad advice? Sounds like it to me.
 

Bear of Bad News

Your Third or Fourth Favorite HFBoards Admin
Sep 27, 2005
13,345
26,516
Who's to say that you don't make it up on the back end?

Kid wants to go to college, I say let 'em go to college. You're only young once.
 

SuperSaiyanBeastmode

Registered User
May 20, 2010
4,982
0
Ontario
Some players aren't good enough and want to develop their game until their 23? Then if you are good enough you get a nice fat contract you don't deserve like bozak;)
 

LaLaLaprise

lalalaprise -twitter
Feb 28, 2002
8,716
1
Halifax, Nova Scotia
If players could tell the future than yea sure you have a valid point...but you fail to realize that when youre 18 and 19 who the heck knows if youre going to play in the NHL...
 

Analyzer*

Guest
Hockey isn't a certainty. You play in a competitive environment while getting an education to fall back on.

The league that sucks that you might be thinking of is the ECAC
 

AUAIOMRN

Registered User
Aug 22, 2005
2,345
847
Edmonton
Joke post? Let's pretend not.

Am I missing something?

Yes. Not every prospect becomes an NHL player. In fact, and this may shock you, MOST don't.

Ignoring that there is also the fact that some people actually like education for education's sake.
 

Bear of Bad News

Your Third or Fourth Favorite HFBoards Admin
Sep 27, 2005
13,345
26,516
So, the NCAA is like giving up ahead of time? Admitting you can't make it so you are doing the fall back plan first?

Your opinions regarding the NCAA are well-known. Are you looking for honest answers, or to be placated?
 

StrangeVision

Wear a mask.
Apr 1, 2007
24,477
9,339
Because most NHL careers are short and getting a degree will help after their hockey career is over.
 

boredmale

HFBoards Sponsor
Sponsor
Jul 13, 2005
42,363
6,930
Personally I never get why players go to the CHL myself. If I was a top prospect I would go to a league like the USHL and when I get drafted go to the AHL at 18. Seems like alot of guys waste a year or two playing the CHL when they probably better suited for AHL(although not quite ready for the NHL)
 

Ogopogo*

Guest
I think you guys are missing what I am saying.

Play in the CHL - if you make it to the NHL GREAT!!!!! Play in the CHL and you don't make it - that is OK you get your education paid for after you took your shot.

Play in the NCAA and you get your education but, you actually turn out to be an NHLer and you have lost 2,3 or 4 years of your playing career. You can't get those years back but, you can always go to school later.

Based on what the CHL offers, the NCAA seems like a mistake. The NCAA is not the safe route because you get the education; the CHL offers the education as well. You are just blowing several years of your playing career doing the education first in the NCAA.
 

Powdered Toast Man

Is he a ham?
Nov 22, 2005
13,852
1
No, we understand. You just have an extremely warped mind-set.

Why do NHL players have children? It only takes away from practice time.
 

Congo

Registered User
Sep 22, 2007
271
0
So, the NCAA is like giving up ahead of time? Admitting you can't make it so you are doing the fall back plan first?

This might sound insane, but there's more to life than hockey. You can go and play hockey, catch a blade, blow out your knee and your pro hockey career has been taken away from you before it started. No one can take your education away from you. Alternatively, think about it this way: You go CHL, you're one of the 80% of kids that come out of it and don't make it to the bigs. You spend 3-4 years riding the bus in the ECHL before you decide that maybe it's time to move on. So you've spent ~7 years playing hockey, when you could have had 4-5 years in school and 2 years with a job.

Also, quite frankly, some guys want an education. Most people who go to university aren't doing it because they have to, when you're out of high school you can make your own decisions and do what you want. A lot of people like what they study.
 

LWnumber09

Registered User
Jun 28, 2010
366
0
CT, USA
Seems to me like the issue is them playing NCAA in the US rather than going to Canada to play in the CHL....:help:.....like someone said before, they could also want the education too. Not that hard to figure out really
 

Rabid Ranger

2 is better than one
Feb 27, 2002
31,014
11,020
Murica
I think you underestimate the ties to college and college sports most American athletes have.Fast-tracking to the NHL isn't the only consideration.
 

Ogopogo*

Guest
Seems to me like the issue is them playing NCAA in the US rather than going to Canada to play in the CHL....:help:.....like someone said before, they could also want the education too. Not that hard to figure out really

Yes, it is hard to figure out becuase you aren't getting it.

Going the CHL route does NOT mean giving up the education.
 

Ogopogo*

Guest
I think you underestimate the ties to college and college sports most American athletes have.Fast-tracking to the NHL isn't the only consideration.

Finally, a response that makes some sense.

We don't have that tie to universities and colleges in Canada, why is being part of a certain school so important in the US?
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->