Braxton Whitehead of the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats has acquired a verbal dedication for the 2025-26 season from Arizona State College’s Div.1 program, regardless of NCAA eligibility guidelines that forestall any participant who has appeared in a major-junior hockey recreation from enjoying faculty hockey.
That is the primary NCAA dedication for a Canadian Hockey League participant since a proposed class motion swimsuit was filed towards the NCAA and 10 universities in August, claiming that the eligibility guidelines violate antitrust legal guidelines. The swimsuit seeks to permit gamers to play hockey in each major-juniors and faculty, which might be a dramatic shift within the participant improvement panorama.
Whether or not or not that swimsuit is profitable, Whitehead and Arizona State are each assured these restrictions might be lifted earlier than he joins the Solar Devils in 2025.
“[ASU’s] slogan is ‘Be the Custom’ and I feel they love the concept of me being a trailblazer all through all this and paving the way in which with NCAA and CHL relations,” Whitehead informed ESPN on Thursday. “I am very hopeful that [the rules] will flip over earlier than the 2025-26 season.”
The NCAA has deemed anybody who performed within the CHL — comprised of the OHL, WHL and QMJHL — as ineligible as a result of there are gamers who’ve signed skilled contracts with NHL groups enjoying in these leagues. CHL gamers are additionally paid a month-to-month stipend that is capped at $250.
NCAA Bylaw 12.2.3.2 states that “a person shall not be eligible for intercollegiate athletics in a sport if the person ever competed on an expert workforce.”
In August, Ontario Hockey League participant Rylan Masterson challenged that rule. He filed a proposed class-action lawsuit within the U.S. District Court docket of Western New York towards the NCAA and 10 universities for what the swimsuit termed a “group boycott” of Canadian junior gamers. It stated the boycott “prevents competitors between the CHL and NCAA for top-end gamers and thus artificially suppresses compensation for gamers and artificially creates much less aggressive leagues,” which it argued was “unlawful below antitrust legal guidelines.”
Whitehead, a 20-year-old ahead, is coming into his fifth and remaining season with the Pats. He is performed 195 video games within the WHL, scoring 52 factors in 52 video games final season.
Arizona State males’s hockey program declined remark, citing NCAA guidelines about discussing gamers earlier than they’re formally signed.
There was elevated debate in faculty hockey about dropping restrictions on CHL gamers, particularly after NCAA Title, Picture, and Likeness (NIL) guidelines had been loosened in 2021. Supporters of adjusting the CHL guidelines pointed to well-compensated athletes in different sports activities — like Olympic swimmers — who had retained their NCAA eligibility; and that some faculty hockey packages welcomed gamers who had performed skilled video games abroad with out the NCAA barring them from enjoying in faculty.
“Anybody who loves hockey and developmental leagues has been watching what’s been occurring within the NIL area and within the switch portal area, attempting to think about if this may have implications on the way forward for how junior hockey gamers develop,” stated WHL commissioner Dan Close to. “I feel this could possibly be the primary domino to fall in that regard.”
For Whitehead, it was the proposed class-action lawsuit that basically laid the groundwork for the Arizona State dedication.
The proposed class-action swimsuit wasn’t surprising by the NCAA. In 2023, throughout a evaluate of its insurance policies, the NCAA decided there was a authorized vulnerability in a possible “group boycott” of Canadian junior gamers. However the packages’ coaches by no means took formal motion to drop the rule earlier than the swimsuit was filed.
Whereas dropping the restrictions would deepen the expertise pool for NCAA hockey, there’s concern amongst some coaches that elite abilities would decide to not play faculty hockey with out having the present stress level of shedding eligibility in the event that they selected Canadian juniors as an alternative.
“It has pressured children’ fingers at an early age to determine which path they need to take,” stated Close to.
Whitehead stated he is needed to play faculty hockey within the U.S. since rising up in Alaska. The proposed class motion swimsuit “sparked my curiosity,” he stated. Whitehead despatched out a number of letters to NCAA packages — together with Arizona State, his No. 1 alternative.
“I type of hit the lottery with the timing of all that is occurring proper now,” stated Whitehead. “I feel [the suit] gave me that further step simply to place myself on the market and take a look at one thing that is by no means been carried out earlier than.”
Whitehead knowledgeable his teammates in Regina about his dedication on Thursday, after rumors has swirled about it within the dressing room.
“I do know my teammates rather well, they usually’re at all times supportive of pursuing new issues. As soon as I type of obtained the jitters out of the way in which, they had been all simply actually completely happy,” stated Whitehead, including that there is curiosity amongst a few of them to “comply with in my footsteps” to NCAA commitments.
Whitehead’s dedication to ASU may open the floodgates for CHL gamers. In keeping with one NCAA hockey supply, some faculty packages are “already allocating recruiting budgets” to ship scouts to CHL video games this season to recruit gamers.
“We’re thrilled that one of many post-graduation choices for WHL gamers could possibly be the NCAA, if this factor had been to vary,” stated Close to. “The extra choices our gamers have popping out of our league, the higher.”
ESPN’s Kristen Shilton contributed to this report.
