CHL president Dan MacKenzie on how the NCAA’s rule changes affect major junior players

With the NCAA’s ruling earlier this month allowing major junior players in the Canadian Hockey League to participate, many are still trying to understand what the future of recruiting will look like for both sides.

And that’s the case for CHL president Dan MacKenzie, too. In the first episode of On The Sheet with Jeff Marek, MacKenzie shared his thoughts as to what he has seen since the announcement and what’s going to happen from here:

Jeff Marek: “The big story: the NCAA has changed their regulations on how they view CHL players. The ripple effects are being felt everywhere. Everybody has questions at every level, players, managers, operators, parents, fans. It seems as if there’s a sort of big fog over all of it. No one really knows how it’s gonna end up when the fog lifts. Let me start this way. Is the fog starting to lift? Are we starting now to see what this is going to end up looking like with all these different relationships?”

Dan MacKenzie: “I think the fog is starting to (lift), but I think the reality is it’s gonna take some more time. The interesting element to this is that – I’ve been asked by various people about the CHL NCAA negotiation around this. And I have to stop the folks and say, ‘Listen, there’s no negotiation. This was an NCAA rule that the NCAA changed.’ And although there were lots of signals that this was coming, until the text of the resolution was read and you really understood what you were talking about, it was hard to make exact decisions on what to do.

“So I think what you’re seeing now is people are beginning to make decisions based on the reality of what was in there, but there’s still a lot of unknown questions. And so we’re in the process of determining how we go forward on a variety of topics. But in some cases we just still need more information. And so I’d say that if this was a hockey game, we’re probably still halfway through the first period.

Jeff Marek: “Right. Historically, there’s always been a recruiting war, for lack of a better term, between the two sides. How would you describe the nature of recruiting right now or the conversations around trying to sell the CHL program versus selling the Division I program, given that we all understand where this thing is headed next August? Is it a temporary ceasefire? Is it a pause in hostilities? I know I’m drawing a lot of aggressive analogies here, but how would you describe what’s happening with recruiting between the two?

Dan MacKenzie: “Well, I think probably the place to start would be that, if you’re talking about it from a hockey league perspective, let’s take that to the side for a second – CHL, NCAA, whatever, and just think about the player. And I think if you look at it from the players’ perspective, we think that overall, it’s good for the players and their families. You’ve got kids who are playing elite hockey at 15 years old to have to make a decision as monumental as playing in the best development league in the world or foregoing that because you have an opportunity to maintain your eligibility. We think that having not to have to make that decision anymore is good for players. And we think at the end of the day, it’s going to be good for the game. So we’ll start with that.

“I think all we can really focus on our side is making sure that we’re doing what we do in terms of providing the best experiences for our players. And that includes on-ice development, making sure we’ve got the best facilities and the best coaching staffs and the best training and schedule and opportunities to kind of get better as a player, to prepare you as a hockey player for playing pro. And we think that we do that better than anybody else.

“And then, on the flip side, as a student, we need to make sure that we’re doing the best by our players in the classroom, making sure they have the right academic opportunities. If you come into the CHL as a B student, you’re not gonna leave as a D student, you’re gonna be B or better, those kinds of things. And I think that’s an area where for us where we’re spending a lot of focus with our academic advisors on this new world because we never really before had to worry about. What are the eligibility requirements to get into the NCAA, to get into NCAA schools? What’s the difference between various schools?

“So we’re really in learning mode, I’d say, on that side of it to make sure that by next season, we can be in a situation where we can really add value to our players on the academic side, because that’s an area that we haven’t really been focused on – NCAA specific.”

You can listen to the full episode below: