Spokane Chiefs GM Matt Bardsley reacts to NCAA opening college hockey eligibility to major junior players

The NCAA voted Thursday to open up college hockey eligibility to Canadian Hockey League players effective Aug. 1, paving the way for major junior players to participate in the 2025-26 men’s college hockey season.

The move allows players in the Ontario Hockey League, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and Western Hockey League, long the NHL’s three biggest development leagues, to become eligible for college hockey. CHL players have until now been excluded from playing NCAA hockey.

The Spokane Chiefs are a member of the WHL, and their post-high school graduate players will become eligible in 2025.

“Today’s announcement that CHL players will now be eligible to compete in NCAA D1 Hockey beginning in the 2025-26 season represents a historic and consequential outcome that will be celebrated by all of those invested in the on- and off-ice development of young players,” WHL Commissioner Dan Near said via release.

“This decision creates opportunity for the brightest elite hockey players in Western Canada and the Western U.S. to now choose the WHL as the preferred destination for their development from the age of 16-20, without fear of compromising their NCAA eligibility,” he said.

“It’s all about the players,” Chiefs General Manager Matt Bardsley said. “I think it’s good as we get to know more of the details. A lot of the players in our league, the post-graduate players, if they wanted to continue on to university … now there’s this option that they could continue to play NCAA hockey. I think it’s outstanding for that.”

Bardsley said regardless of the rule changes, the Chiefs’ organization will proceed with business as usual.

“The one thing that doesn’t change is our philosophy,” he said. “Our No. 1 focus is to develop hockey players and people. We certainly want to win, and I think it goes hand in hand – if we’re developing the right way, it’s gonna help with our wins; if we’re winning, it helps development, as well. That’s doesn’t really change.

“We still want this to be a destination of choice for players, and their families and their representation. That won’t change our focus at all.”

For teenage players entering the CHL, it means they don’t have to immediately decide between playing major junior hockey or playing college hockey.

Previously, the NCAA considered CHL players as “professional” and therefor ineligible for college hockey.

“Ultimately, it’s good that it doesn’t force players to have to make a decision,” Bardsley said. “For so many years now … for young players and families at 15, 16 years old to decide what they’re going to do, how it affects them now and maybe down the road. Now, they don’t have to worry about that because it doesn’t affect you anymore.”

On the other end of the roster, though, it may mean that 19- or 20-year olds leave juniors for college.

“Will there be some players that maybe want to look at this option? Yeah, I think that just probably the nature of it,” Bardsley said. “It’s going to be new. People are going to be interested in it. I’m not going to be naive to think players aren’t going to look into it. But are there going to be a lot of players leaving? That’s hard to say.”

The possibility of NIL money adds a complicating factor in the signing and retention of marquee players.

“It’s for sure a possibility,” Bardsley said. “In the last few years it’s become a very big trend in college sports. … It’s going to be an area that schools are certainly going to use to entice players and I’m sure that’s something that’s intriguing.

While the decision increases options for players, there are still plenty of questions yet to be answered.

“There’s still a lot of unknowns as to how this plays out, but I think it could be really good for everybody,” Bardsley said.