Let's find a way to speed up the offseason

Also, let's talk about some potential groundbreaking news in the hockey world.

August is the absolute worst-time to run a hockey-only publication.

Any player of consequence has been signed, any real “excitement” is glorified paperwork — signing RFAs, arbitration, etc…

I also hate doing prospect rankings, the typical August filler for SEO purposes, because I’m an old curmudgeon about prospects. I covered the AHL for a long time, watched lots of players I thought were pretty damn good at hockey never amount to much in the NHL beyond a cup of coffee or a fourth-line role.

It’s not exciting or sexy to read a story that your sixth or seventh-best prospect could be a Joel Hanley or Christian Fischer someday.

All that being said, people have continued to put their faith that this is a site worth paying for, and I’m so thankful for that.

So, to help us fill the 52 days until NHL opening day — the season starts in Czechia on Oct. 5 between the New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres — I’m going to write something each weekday here at Shap Shots.

Some days it’ll be more defined, other days, like today, it’ll be me rambling about a hockey topic I find interesting. There will admittedly be some short posts, but the point is consistency, and if we are going to deliver on something consistently during the regular season, we might as well start now — consider this my self-imposed writing training camp.

And today, we actually have some news to discuss.

Ryan Masterson, a 19-year-old, has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the NCAA and 10 universities alleging they are violating anti-trust laws by preventing anyone who has played a game in a Canadian Major Junior League from playing in the NCAA.

Masterson played two preseason games with the Windsor Spitfires during the 2022 season, but never appeared in a regular season game. He has been disqualified from playing NCAA hockey because of this.

To take a step back, let’s explain why the NCAA views the CHL as a non-starter, especially in an era of college athletics where players can now get paid through NIL and revenue sharing.

As one college hockey coach told me, and another NHL executive verified, the NCAA views the CHL as a professional league because NHL teams can assign players there. If one player is a professional, even while playing junior, they all are in the eyes of the NCAA.

It’s a slippery slope, but that’s the current line of thinking.

People I’ve talked to also have always said it would take a player like Masterson to get the ball rolling for change.

As one agent told, everyone thinks about the top prospects having the options to play in both the CHL and the NCAA, but in reality those players don’t have the time/bandwith to really concern themselves with this issue.

But the players who have played in the CHL until they are 21, and now have nowhere else to go other than Canadian college, they have the time and bandwidth to push for four more years of higher level hockey.

One agent I spoke to in the past I always predicted it would be a goalie, someone who at 22 wanted to jump from the CHL to NCAA and would instantly be a starter. But Masterson still fits a similar profile, a mid-tier player that doesn’t have much of a professional future, but still would likely find a depth role on an NCAA team.

It’s something that will be really interesting to watch moving forward for a couple reasons.

On a positive level, college hockey would get better on the ice, there would be more depth and competition. It would also likely raise the average age of college players and start to limit some opportunities for younger players, with CHL ex-pats taking college roles.

The other thing is that it would greatly hurt the USHL. Macklin Celebrini, for example, played in the USHL for a season to retain his NCAA eligibility. In the future a player like that, a No. 1 overall pick, could play in the CHL for a season as a 17-year-old and then still keep college options open.

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Today we had something slightly newsworthy to talk about. Tomorrow we might not. Either way, they’ll be something in this space. If you have any ideas/story pitches leave a comment or reply the an email.

Thanks for reading, we are only one month away from the prospects tournaments starting and “real” hockey to actually talk about.