Why do some prospects choose the NCAA?

[Johnny8242]

You can leave NCAA at any time. I might of looked over it but yeah you can. I think some players go that routed if they believe that they are ready to go pro they can leave.

 

[leoleo3535]

You can leave NCAA at any time. I might of looked over it but yeah you can. I think some players go that routed if they believe that they are ready to go pro they can leave.

True and a point worth remembering.
Obviously education is a good thing but NCAA players with high end talent often leave before completing their schooling.

 

[Pucknacious*]

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

And going the NCAA route does NOT mean giving up three or four years of a hockey career.

 

[puckguy11]

You can leave NCAA at any time. I might of looked over it but yeah you can. I think some players go that routed if they believe that they are ready to go pro they can leave.

Correct. A player can leave the NCAA's at any time, whether they choose to play in the CHL, AHL, or NHL. As to the previous poster's comment, the reason why they exclude the CHL is because they get "paid", when it in actuality is more like a stipend, or in certain cases they have to sit the number of games in which they were in the CHL. Myself, I'd amend the rule to allow CHLers in so if they can get their college degree/more time to work on their game if they so choose. I realize this is the reason for the CIS, but at least with the NCAA's you still have a shot of being noticed scout wise.

 

[melinko]

Getting drunk and stoned every week is why you would choose NCAA?

There's nothing that you can do in Collge socially that you couldn't do in the CHL, except for partying like an idiot.

CHL kids definitey have social lives. They don't get distracted as easily by alcohol or partying though, which is a good thing.

Does extra curricular activities only mean sex and getting drunk up in Canada?

College is basically high school for adults here, you go to the football/basketball game with your friends.

From an outsiders perspective the CHL looks like a job.

Kids stay in the Minnesota high school league for the same reason, you play for a community with your friends that you have a lasting relationship with.

 

[leoleo3535]

Correct. A player can leave the NCAA's at any time, whether they choose to play in the CHL, AHL, or NHL. As to the previous poster's comment, the reason why they exclude the CHL is because they get "paid", when it in actuality is more like a stipend, or in certain cases they have to sit the number of games in which they were in the CHL. Myself, I'd amend the rule to allow CHLers in so if they can get their college degree/more time to work on their game if they so choose. I realize this is the reason for the CIS, but at least with the NCAA's you still have a shot of being noticed scout wise.

Yes I know this and the NCAA rule is a crock.
Serves no one but themeselves.........hurts hockey players, fans etc.
No other hockey body has such dinosaur rules.

 

[cagney]

For every high scoring junior who fizzles on the pro/minor pro level, there is some unknown college guy who carves out an NHL career. The CHL gives kids better exposure to media, a pro like schedule as well as a high level of competition, but to say that it is the best road to the NHL is a highly biased opinion. I've seen as many sure fire CHL prospects become nothing more than draft footnotes, as I have unknown free agents becoming every day NHL players. The biggest truth is that potential needs to be cultivated in the right environment, and the CHL is not the perfect environment for every player.

A young player needs to choose a situation that allows them to learn and gain confidence in what they are doing. Not all NHL players were flashy, promising Bantam or Junior players who played for top teams. Some big programs or teams can stifle that development in many young players as well as cultivate it in others. It's up to the player to go where he can develop to his best ability, and sometimes that means going an ulterior route than the CHL. The Canadian leagues, American leagues, and European leagues all have success stories of players graduating into successful NHL careers. It's really about the player being in a proper environment and seizing his opportunities.

I think this is the most objective opinion you can find on the matter. Each player is different and what works for one might not work for another. The OP seems to be of the opinion that every player who ends up in the NHL would have been best off if they'd gone to the CHL and tried to be in the NHL/AHL by their 18 to 20 year old season. If they'd done so they may never have made it to where they are now. I think players should focus on the right route for themselves rather than the supposed "quickest" route.

 

[leoleo3535]

Does extra curricular activities only mean sex and getting drunk up in Canada?

College is basically high school for adults here, you go to the football/basketball game with your friends.

From an outsiders perspective the CHL looks like a job.

How so....not arguing just asking.

A typical week for a CHL player is 3 games, 4-6 practices, attend school / study and misc. community service appearances.

 

[wej20]

Getting drunk and stoned every week is why you would choose NCAA?

There's nothing that you can do in Collge socially that you couldn't do in the CHL, except for partying like an idiot.

CHL kids definitey have social lives. They don't get distracted as easily by alcohol or partying though, which is a good thing.

I'm sure CHL kids can party plenty hard.

OP seems to have ignored plenty of reasons why College is a better fit for some guys:

1. Some prospects will benefit more from the lighter schedule at college and the extra time they can spend in the weight room or practicing.

2. Just because a kid took the College route doesn't mean he's locked into playing 4 years in College, most of the best prospects don't play the full 4 years and plenty only play 2 years (so they'd turn pro at the same time as a Kid who'd gone the CHL route).

3. Getting a education is a good thing and studying now rather than later is easier.

4. Social aspect of college, If you go the college route you probably get a chance to mix with a wider range of people than if you went the CHL route (though it depends where your team is based)

5. It's not about becoming pro fastest it's about being a pro the longest and for some kids the college route will be better for them and they'll end up having longer careers than they would have if they'd gone to the CHL.

 

[SPORTSMANIAC]

Correct. A player can leave the NCAA's at any time, whether they choose to play in the CHL, AHL, or NHL. As to the previous poster's comment, the reason why they exclude the CHL is because they get "paid", when it in actuality is more like a stipend, or in certain cases they have to sit the number of games in which they were in the CHL. Myself, I'd amend the rule to allow CHLers in so if they can get their college degree/more time to work on their game if they so choose. I realize this is the reason for the CIS, but at least with the NCAA's you still have a shot of being noticed scout wise.

The common misconception on why the NCAA doesn't all CHL players is not they get a stipend because NCAA players get a stipend for food on the road, but because some CHL players have an NHL contract.

It goes the same with players playing in Europe before the NCAA...If they played in a game where one teammate had a professional contract, said potential NCAA player would become ineligible even though he's not making a dime.

Perfect example of this there was a Yale player this year that played in France last year and there were questions if his teammates were getting paid. They weren't but if they were Yale would have had to forfeit all the games that the kid played in.

Is it still a stupid rule, Yes.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Does extra curricular activities only mean sex and getting drunk up in Canada?

College is basically high school for adults here, you go to the football/basketball game with your friends.

From an outsiders perspective the CHL looks like a job.

Kids stay in the Minnesota high school league for the same reason, you play for a community with your friends that you have a lasting relationship with.

Kids can't have friends in the CHL?

What socially does the NCAA have that you can't have in the CHL that isn't negative? Nothing.

Absoulutely nothing. You don't have a clue if you think other wise.

@Wej, CHLers that party too much usually never make the NHL. They have poor work ethic and poor attitude.

 

[melinko]

How so....not arguing just asking.

A typical week for a CHL player is 3 games, 4-6 practices, attend school / study and misc. community service appearances.

The drafting and salary cap make it look like it is a job.

 

[keslehr*]

They can get an education while maintaining a chance to become a professional hockey player.

 

[leoleo3535]

The drafting and salary cap make it look like it is a job.

Salary cap?

The USHL has a draft.

 

[melinko]

Kids can't have friends in the CHL?

What socially does the NCAA have that you can't have in the CHL that isn't negative? Nothing.

Absoulutely nothing.

If it didn't have anything that CHL can't provide people wouldn't go.

You guys are just ignoring the reasons we provide.

Edit: The Salary Cap info I was looking at was apparently for some league called the Central Hockey League.

 

[Bjorn Le]

If it didn't have anything that CHL can provide people wouldn't go.

You guys are just ignoring the reasons we provide.

Players don't (Or rather shouldn't) pick their route for the social aspect even if the NCAA was somehow better so that means nothing.

 

[SPORTSMANIAC]

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?

Because college sports is so big down here....It's what they grow up with and aren't exposed to major junior until there teenage years if they are good enough for that level.

Just like any kid in Canada who's dream to play major junior, a kid in the USA is thinking of playing for BC, BU, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Minnesota, Denver etc.

I understand your point about the CHL offering an Education package to every player, but it's voided after a player plays a year and half of professional hockey. So after a 15 year career lets say, you can't use your CHL education package because it's null and voided.

 

[Drake1588]

The CHL is also the best developmental league creating future NHL players so it is the best place for a developing prospect.

For starters, that is not universally accepted. Mostly, though, the "bad advice" that kids are getting probably pertains to the value of securing an education. If you consider that education to be next to worthless, or believe the NCAA offers an inferior development path to the NHL, that is perfectly fine. It is not, however, an opinion that everyone shares. If a prospect and his support network believe as do you on those two points, they probably opt for the CHL.

The chances are excellent that you are being facetious, however, trying to serve an agenda against the NCAA game.

The reason that some prospects go to college is to simultaneously develop as a hockey player, while also receiving an education. You don't have to agree with those reasons, but those are the reasons. There may well be other reasons, such as the social aspect or the fact that a particular prospect in a particular environment has always dreamed of being a Golden Gopher or a Wolverine, growing up in Minnesota or Michigan, but I would not weigh this too heavily except in certain circumstances. For every Jack Johnson, there are a far larger number of kids who simply do it for the education coupled with what they consider an excellent development path. The emotional side may simply determine which school they attend.

Certainly almost every Canadian who comes down is doing so for the education, not out of reverence/sporting tradition dating to childhood the way it works in a few states like Minnesota, North Dakota, Michigan and Massachusetts.

 

[puckguy11]

Kids stay in the Minnesota high school league for the same reason, you play for a community with your friends that you have a lasting relationship with.

I'm a Minnesotan as well, and I think another reason why a lot of kids stay is because of the quality and lore of MN HS hockey...it's the hockey equivalent to Texas HS football or basketball in Indiana.

 

[Ogopogo*]

For starters, that is not universally accepted. Mostly, though, the "bad advice" that kids are getting probably pertains to the value of securing an education. If you consider that education to be next to worthless, or believe the NCAA offers an inferior development path to the NHL, that is perfectly fine. It is not, however, an opinion that everyone shares. If a prospect and his support network believe as do you on those two points, they probably opt for the CHL.

The chances are excellent that you are being facetious, however, trying to serve an agenda against the NCAA game.

The reason that some prospects go to college is to simultaneously develop as a hockey player, while also receiving an education. You don't have to agree with those reasons, but those are the reasons. There may well be other reasons, such as the social aspect or the fact that a particular prospect in a particular environment has always dreamed of being a Golden Gopher or a Wolverine, growing up in Minnesota or Michigan, but I would not weigh this too heavily except in certain circumstances. For every Jack Johnson, there are a far larger number of kids who simply do it for the education coupled with what they consider an excellent development path. The emotional side may simply determine which school they attend.

Certainly almost every Canadian who comes down is doing so for the education, not out of reverence/sporting tradition dating to childhood the way it works in a few states like Minnesota, North Dakota, Michigan and Massachusetts.

It is pretty obvious by your post that you haven't read much of what I have said. So be it, you have missed my point.

The bolded is the answer.

 

[Ogopogo*]

Because college sports is so big down here....It's what they grow up with and aren't exposed to major junior until there teenage years if they are good enough for that level.

Just like any kid in Canada who's dream to play major junior, a kid in the USA is thinking of playing for BC, BU, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Minnesota, Denver etc.

I understand your point about the CHL offering an Education package to every player, but it's voided after a player plays a year and half of professional hockey. So after a 15 year career lets say, you can't use your CHL education package because it's null and voided.

I would hope that a player wouldn't waste all of his earnings froma 15 year pro hockey career and could pay his way through school.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

It is pretty obvious by your post that you haven't read much of what I have said. So be it, you have missed my point.

The bolded is the answer.

Canadians play NCAA hockey for reverence/sporting tradition? Because Canadian youngsters grow up dreaming of playing for (for example) Minnesota?

You selectively bolded a part of his sentence. I'm sure that it was an honest oversight on your part.

 

[member 30781]

How many draft picks in the entire history of the NHL have had a successful career in the NHL?


There is your answer. The chances of you making the NHL are very slim. You have a better chance at getting a degree and finding a job in the real world than playing in the NHL.

 

[leoleo3535]

Because college sports is so big down here....It's what they grow up with and aren't exposed to major junior until there teenage years if they are good enough for that level.

Just like any kid in Canada who's dream to play major junior, a kid in the USA is thinking of playing for BC, BU, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Minnesota, Denver etc.

I understand your point about the CHL offering an Education package to every player, but it's voided after a player plays a year and half of professional hockey. So after a 15 year career lets say, you can't use your CHL education package because it's null and voided.[/QUOTE]

Correct and fair comment......you leave junior ....go pro your education is gone.
Same thing with players that leave the NCAA after a year or 2. You leave and your education is gone.

 

[PlagerBros*]

It's interesting to see that the people ripping the NCAA are all Canadians. It's also interesting how they make claims that make the CHL sound like it has the best of everything and the NCAA is simply pee wee hockey in Mississippi. It's amazing how many terrible coaches are in the NCAA. How NCAA players have no time to practice, lift weights, study video, have one on one coaching, etc. How taking the NCAA route doesn't help players physically mature or mentally mature.

I honestly was not going to respond when I saw who the OP was (and knowing his history here) but felt I had to say something when I saw the asinine anti-NCAA comments.