With just a couple of games left in the first full junior-hockey season following the NCAA’s landmark rule change, it’s a good time to examine how the CHL has been impacted.
It has been a busy year for CHL president Dan MacKenzie, who has been dealing with the new landscape while trying to hammer out deals with the NHL and others for player transfers and 19-year-olds, along with the usual challenges that come with a season.
The 61 teams in the WHL, OHL and QMJHL have gained hundreds of players who wouldn’t have reported under old rules where NCAA eligibility was revoked, but also have lost some elite players to the U.S. college ranks before aging out of the junior level. As a result, the CHL seems to be trending younger.
MacKenzie is in Kelowna, B.C., for the Memorial Cup, where the Everett Silvertips meet the Chicoutimi Saguenéens in the semifinal on Friday. The winner faces the Kitchener Rangers in Sunday’s final.
MacKenzie took some time to chat with Sportsnet this week about the year that was and some of the main issues affecting junior hockey:
This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Sportsnet: We’re now basically at the end of a full season with the new world order here with the NCAA. How do you feel about how things have gone and where you’re at at this stage?
Dan MacKenzie: I think overall we feel good. The landscape has changed, but we see this as a real opportunity. In the new landscape, there’s a choice that parents and players and agents and everyone has. That’s not a bad thing; we’ve really sort of said that from the beginning.
I think we’re seeing more players choose the CHL than ever before. We’re becoming a destination for a lot of these players. It speaks to the strength of our development system and what we offer, and that’s what we’re really going to continue to double down on is how we can continue to be a place where players can develop in a variety of ways.
SN: There’s no doubt kids like say JP Hurlbert and Caleb Malhotra probably wouldn’t have been in the CHL before this rule, but at the same time, you’re losing some elite guys (after the draft), guys like Ryan Lin, perhaps Malhotra, there’s talk about Daxon Rudolph. It seems like a good chunk of the elite 2026 draft kids are going to go to the NCAA. Does that concern you? Do you have more work to do there?
DM: I think it’s going to take some time to see where it all ultimately lands. Every player’s going to make decisions, what they believe is in their best interest. We still need a bit more time to determine what is the right next step for that player. I think for a lot of 18- and 19-year-olds, we’re still a great place to develop. Being able to do things like be captain, play a lot of minutes, play in all situations … those are the kind of things that we hear every day from NHL scouts and personnel people that it’s like ‘Hey, that’s what the CHL is.’
Our environment, we play more games, we play four rounds of playoffs, there’s the Memorial Cup. It’s a different environment than what the alternative is, and that’s fine.
SN: The 19-year-old rule with the NHL, are you of the belief that that’s happening next season, one first-round pick per team?
DM: We’re still in discussions in the NHL on that, so I don’t have a lot of report … The NHL is our biggest partner and we want to make sure the pathway changes we’re dealing with are thoughtful and responsible and player focused and all those kinds of things … For the vast majority of players that we’re talking about that could potentially qualify for this, we think we’re still going to be the right combination of coaching, development, etcetera to help these guys continue to develop.
SN: Wanted to ask about this transfer agreement with USA Hockey and Hockey Canada, and I know the USHL has wanted to get involved. Are you still in talks about that?
DM: We’re still in talks. Again, not a lot to report in terms of coming to a conclusion, but it is something we’re focused on. I don’t really have a lot to say on that, and I also don’t know where it’s all going to land. There’s a variety of options at play. We’d love to have a transfer agreement with USA Hockey that allows for an orderly movement of players back and forth, but we still have some work to do.
SN: Have there been any more talks about, not a merger with the USHL per se, but anything about possibly working together, or is that really on the back burner right now?
DM: We met in the fall and we had some preliminary discussions, kind of blue-sky discussions on what things could look like. There hasn’t been a lot since then, but that’s not to say that the topic is off the table … Nothing imminent and definitely nothing concrete.
SN: The Memorial Cup format, it feels like this has been talked about forever and we’re still in the same one, which maybe is good, maybe is not so good. Are you contemplating changes?
DM: We’re always looking at it. We changed the format of our prospects event a couple years ago, so we’re not afraid to make changes. You’re always searching for what the right format is for fans, for players and for teams. It is something we’re talking about. Nothing to report at this point. There are a few different options we can consider. A lot of it is looking around at what other events do. You look at events (like) world juniors where you play two games (in an arena) in one day.
Is that something we can look at? That might help shorten the event. I think shortening the Memorial Cup is something we would definitely like to try and see. We’re evaluating a variety of options, but we’re not quite there yet.
At the end of the day, this format has been around for a significant amount of time. For the teams that are in it, it’s a very fair process where you get to do the round-robin and then move on. It’s working, but we’re always looking at ways to make things more exciting.
SN: The OHL has put out a minimum-standards document for teams. Have you discussed doing that across the CHL?
DM: Yes … Each league has responsibility for hockey operations and the standards of our leagues which they operate, which I think is a strength of ours. North America’s a pretty big place and not everything applies nationally. The leagues do that. Each league has really, in the last few years, stepped up and made sure their standards for player development and player experience are as high as possible.
Part of that is driven by the new world we’re in. We have to compete for players and our markets are very competitive. They’re stepping up. You’re seeing it with us in a bunch of the new builds and renovations that are happening. Last summer, there were about 10. This summer we have a similar number. That’s a significant amount of our league upgrading the facilities or building new dressing rooms or putting in new scoreboards or working with their cities to make sure the environments are the best they can be for both players and fans. That’s what we have to be doing.
SN: Is expansion something you can see for all three leagues? Is that a priority?
DM: It is a priority. We’re seeing more demand amongst players to want to play in our league and that gives us some more opportunity to expand. Expansion is managed and driven at the league level. Each of them are in a bit of a different place in terms of where their priority markets are and where their owners are on it. But I would say expansion is definitely something we have our eye on and we will look forward to when the conditions are right.