On Nov. 7, 2024, The NCAA Division 1 council made a ground-breaking change for college hockey. The council voted in favor of allowing Canadian Hockey League (CHL) players to be eligible to play for U.S. colleges starting on Aug. 1, 2025. With the expansion of the NCAA, athletes benefit from their name, image and likeness (NIL), the collegiate sports landscape in the U.S. has taken off. With this in mind, it’s time to highlight the benefits of the rule change for Arizona State University’s NCAA D1 hockey team.
Braxton Whitehead Now in the Mix for the Sun Devils
On Sept. 13, 2024, Regina Pats forward Braxton Whitehead announced on his X account that he had committed to Arizona State with the intent of playing at the start of the 2025-26 season. Currently, the 20-year-old has recorded nine points in 16 games in Regina this season. He is coming off a point-per-game pace last season in 52 games for the Pats.
Related: Arizona State Lands Historic Commitment With Braxton Whitehead
“[ASU’s] slogan is ‘Be the Tradition’ and I think they love the idea of me being a trailblazer throughout all this and paving the way with NCAA and CHL relations,” Whitehead said at the time of his commitment to become a Sun Devil. “I’m very hopeful that [the rules] will turn over before the 2025-26 season.”
Whitehead’s hopefulness has panned out for him. Now, the 5-foot-10, 163-pounder is ready to potentially cash in on any NIL deals he can acquire in the desert.
“I assume sometime soon I’ll sign my NIL and go from there,” Whitehead said. “This just happened so this is pretty foreign information to me, too. I don’t know how the whole college commitment thing works because everyone I’ve known here in Canada are always signing AHL and NHL deals… so I’m excited to be going through the process.”
At the team’s first media availability since the news broke, ASU’s head coach Greg Powers shared his thoughts on the rule change.
“It’s good. It’s going to be nice,” Powers said. “I can’t mention names until they’re signed, but I can tell you that the one kid that you just asked about [Whitehead] won’t be the only CHL player on a roster next year.”
The Pats’ franchise has produced a long list of NHL talent including these current players: Seattle Kraken forwards Jordan Eberle and Chandler Stevenson, and Chicago Blackhawks forward Connor Bedard. Having a program that has recently produced this level of skill will certainly benefit Powers’ squad.
True North Origin on Arizona State’s Roster
According to QuantHockey, 64.8% of CHL players are Canadian. The Sun Devils have seven skaters on their roster from Canada. Those are graduate student defenseman Noah Beck, graduate student forwards Ty and Dylan Jackson, sophomore goalie Chase Hamm, freshman defenseman Sam Court, junior forward Ryan Alexander and graduate student forward Lukas Sillinger.
Therefore, since Canada is one of, if not, hockey’s powerhouse country/countries, the addition of CHL players (especially those who are Canadian) to college hockey will foster better competition and level of play for Arizona State.
NCAA Likely to Produce More NHL Talent
Looking at the 2024 NHL Entry Draft alone, 88 CHL players were drafted (the highest margin since 2017). In comparison, 57 NCAA players were selected in last year’s draft. While getting drafted doesn’t guarantee that a prospect will make it to the NHL, it’s a promising sign that the college hockey market can further grow.
For reference, here is a list of ASU players who have been drafted into the NHL.
Drafted as a Sun Devil: forward Josh Doan (Arizona Coyotes’ 2021 second-round pick), defenseman Ty Murchison (Philadelphia Flyers’ 2021 fifth-round pick), goalie Cole Brady (New Jersey Devils’ 2019 fifth-round pick), forward Demetrios Koumontzis (Calgary Flames’ 2018 fourth-round pick), forward Ryan O’Reilly (Detroit Red Wings’ 2018 fourth-round pick) and goalie Joey Daccord (Ottawa Senators’ 2015 seventh-round pick).
Drafted players who transferred to Arizona State: defenseman Noah Beck (St. Louis Blues’ 2020 seventh-round selection), forwards Cruz Lucius (Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2022 fourth-round pick), Artem Shlaine (New Jersey Devils’ 2020 fifth-round pick) Alex Young (San Jose Sharks’ 2020 seventh-round pick), Robert Mastrosimone (Detroit Red Wings’ 2020 second-round pick) and Jack Becker (Boston Bruins’ 2015 fourth-round selection).
Currently, Beck, Murchison, Shlaine and Lucius all are Sun Devils. ASU freshman forward Cullen Potter is projected to join the drafted list at this season’s conclusion as well.
In all, the move to allow CHL players into college hockey will not only benefit Arizona State, but all colleges within the United States.
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