CHL navigates new era of player movement as NCAA, AHL doors open wider

CALGARY — The Canadian Hockey League is navigating a transformed player-movement landscape after changes to NCAA eligibility and, more recently, the ability of elite 19-year-old players to play in the American Hockey League instead of returning to their major junior clubs.

The CHL, which is the umbrella of 61 teams in the Western, Ontario and Quebec-Maritime major junior leagues, is the top feeder of hockey talent to the NHL and vows that will continue.

The league features players between the ages of 16 and 20, with some 15-year-olds allowed entry under exceptional status.

The NCAA previously considered the CHL a pro league, but announced Nov. 7, 2024, that CHL players would be eligible to play Division I hockey as of Aug. 1, 2025.

The CHL’s commissioners and team governors met Tuesday in Calgary less than two years after the NCAA’s announcement.

Discussion revolved around the early effect of what QMJHL commissioner Mario Cecchini called “change with a capital C.”

“The changes are monumental,” concurred CHL commissioner Dan MacKenzie. “We still don’t know where it is going to land.”

A high-profile player to immediately jump from major junior hockey to the NCAA was Gavin McKenna, who played for Penn State last season after leading the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers to the Memorial Cup final.

He’s now in his NHL rookie season with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who made him the first draft pick in June.

Overall, there’s been a push-pull effect on the CHL in the early going.

Some players who previously avoided the CHL to retain their NCAA eligibility immediately joined major junior clubs, even if some didn’t stay and went to the NCAA when they reached college age.

As more players now choose the CHL as an option, more players can also choose to leave it for the NCAA.

One example is 18-year-old centre Caleb Malhotra, who departed the BCHL to play for the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs last season.

Malhotra was drafted third overall by the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks in June and started his freshman season at Boston University this fall.

The CHL states that since the NCAA announced the eligibility changes two years ago, over 350 players who could have chosen another path opted to compete in the CHL, including 61 from the BCHL, and a combined 144 Americans from the USHL, NAHL and U.S. national development team.

The WHL’s Calgary Hitmen have a record 10 players from the United States on their roster this season.

“Two, maybe three, is the most in years gone by,” said Hitmen vice-president Mike Moore.

“We adapted by trying to find the best talent in Canada, in the U.S., in the import draft to build our hockey team, knowing that we may lose those players at 18, 19, 20.

“The development cycle used to be three, four years you could build your team. Now it’s two, maybe three years, if you’re lucky.”

There are 397 former CHL players on NCAA Division 1 men’s rosters this season compared to 174 to start the 2025-26 season, according to College Hockey Inc.

The consensus Tuesday was that CHL clubs have upped their off-ice game in workout facilities and player amenities to compete with the NCAA.

“We don’t want to lose any of these great players before they age out of our league and we’ve got to make sure we do the right things to make sure that it’s attractive for them to continue to play here,” said OHL commissioner Bryan Crawford.

As a club that travels a lot, Soo Greyhounds president Tim Lukenda says the team spends more on meals and accommodation on the road.

“We’ve all kind of sharpened our knives a little bit because of the NCAA,” Lukenda said.

A player must turn 18 before Sept. 15 of his NHL draft year to be eligible for it, so the CHL remains confident its leagues and teams will continue to play a large role in developing sought-after NHL prospects.

Of the 247 North American prospects on Central Scouting’s players-to-watch list in October, 69.2 per cent (171) were current CHL players.

Landon DuPont, who played two seasons and won a WHL championship with the Everett Silvertips, joined the University of Michigan this season. He’s also a top-ranked Central Scouting prospect.

“If you want a career in pro hockey you’re likely going to need to play in the CHL. That will help you prepare when you’re 16 years old 17 years old, 18 years old for sure,” Mackenzie said.

“The other side of the coin is the old rules indicated that you couldn’t leave till after you were 19. Those rules have now gone away. We have lost some 19-year-olds we would have kept, but it’s been mitigated definitely from a numbers perspective by the amount of players we’re getting coming in that we wouldn’t have gotten.”

An additional wrinkle this season that can also siphon an elite player away from a major junior club is a change to the CHL-NHL agreement. NHL teams can assign their 19-year-old, first-round CHL draft picks to the American Hockey League, where previously that player had to be returned to his junior club.

Among the handful of those players in the AHL this season is centre Brady Martin, who played three seasons for the OHL’s Greyhounds before the Nashville Predators assigned him to the Milwaukee Admirals this fall.

“We hope that he’ll have a very long NHL career, but he’s 19 years old and, in the past, he would have spent one more year at our level developing physically, developing emotionally, and preparing for that next step of hockey. He’s also a player that was not inclined to go the university route,” Lukenda said.

“Brady was probably our most popular jersey sale. Brady was the most popular player in the community. We hate losing a player like that has such an impact on the overall team dynamic, but at the same time, we wish him the best.”

Tuesday’s meeting in Calgary included NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly. The latter felt the CHL will find equilibrium after a sea change.

“Based on the player shifts I’ve seen, other than the fact that the CHL teams aren’t used to losing 19-year-old players, I’m not sure we’ve noticed anything detrimental to a player’s development path by leaving junior early and going to play in the NCAA. It’s just become another step in the path,” Daly said.

“There was some concern that it would diminish or affect CHL club status in the whole infrastructure and ecosystem of elite, hockey player development in North America. I don’t think it really has. It’s changed some of the demographics of it.

“I think the CHL ultimately is going to be a little bit younger than it’s been historically, but they’re going to have access to better players as well.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2026.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press