by Mike McMahon/Staff Writer (@MikeMcMahonCHN)
Welcome back, college hockey!
The season kicked off last weekend but gets into full swing this weekend. We’ve already had some unbelievable storylines, including a student manager starting Merrimack’s opener, the pending eligibility of CHL players, and a lot more.
The CHL issue is the biggest story in hockey. It will impact the NHL, AHL, multiple junior leagues, and, of course, the NCAA. On Tuesday, the D-I Management Council pushed a vote on the proposal to November.
Pushing the vote to November doesn’t change the likelihood of it passing. Most people in college hockey expect the Council to pass the legislation.
Moving the vote to November seems procedural. The Council proposed the change, and members will have a month to review it before voting on it next month.
“We’re hopeful that the NCAA will do the right thing at the upcoming meetings and vote to end the ban on CHL players from NCAA Division I hockey,” Stephen Lagos, one of the attorneys who filed the Masterson lawsuit, wrote in an email to the AP. “We believe that all players, and hockey more generally, would benefit from this change.”
If a player signs a professional contract, he still relinquishes his NCAA eligibility. The NCAA is saying that a player will not be penalized for playing alongside a professional player as long as that player has not received more money than necessary expenses.
What the NCAA considers “necessary expenses” can be open for interpretation.
Tying this story together with someone I mentioned in my lede, Merrimack goalie Max Lundgren sat out all of last season and has to sit two games this season for dressing one game in HockeyAllsvenskan, a pro league in Sweden. Lundgren was never under a pro deal. He played for an organization’s junior team and was loaned to the pro team, likely due to injury.
Lundgren’s absence is part of the reason Merrimack student manager Spencer Marquis started the Warriors’ opener.
Lundgren has had to sit a whole season plus two games to make up for that one appearance. Under the rule change, he would be eligible immediately.
UMD goalie Adam Gajan was in the situation when he missed his team’s opener against Bemidji State this past weekend because he dressed in an exhibition game for a Slovakian pro team.
It’s bizarre to me that…
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