The chaos

It is impossible to preview the Portland Winterhawks’ 50th season, which starts Friday in Prince George, without starting with the upheaval that has gone on in major junior hockey.

The NCAA in the middle of last season changed their eligibility rules so that players who play major junior were no longer ineligible to play college hockey. Previously the flow went all in one direction–you could start in college and move to juniors, but not in the other direction.

This was a proper and long-overdue move. But when combined with the NCAA’s introduction of NIL money, it has projected some of the chaos of college sports the last few years onto junior hockey. Now the dynamic is that the NCAA is paying players and the Western Hockey League isn’t, so which way are players going to go

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