Q+A: CHL boss Dan MacKenzie on big NCAA changes, Canada vs. U.S. prospects

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The first game in the new CHL USA Prospects Challenge will be played in London Tuesday night. LFP sportswriter Ryan Pyette spoke with Canadian Hockey League president Dan MacKenzie about the innovative two-game series, the recent NCAA decision to let major junior players join U.S. college teams without penalty and the state of the game nationwide.

Q: What impact has there been on the CHL from the NCAA’s decision to grant major junior hockey players the right to play U.S. college hockey?

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A: “It’s still early days. Overall, I think we felt it was probably a pretty good thing for players not having to make that monumental decision so early in life as to whether or not you will go to another league and play NCAA or go to the CHL. We think for families, it’s a good thing. We’ve seen a fair amount of players come back to the CHL and leaving other leagues. We figured that would happen and the numbers are what we expected. The big thing will be going forward and for (the 2025 NHL) draft across all three of our leagues what the impacts might look like.”

Q: Are you worried a transformational change like the NCAA ruling will affect competitive balance in the CHL and smaller markets might suffer long-term for it?

A: “I’ve been in this role for five years and have done three Memorial Cups. We’ve had different teams at it every year – big markets, small markets. If you do the right things on the business and hockey sides, you can be competitive. The way it’s set up right now, you can do it. I don’t have huge concerns on that front. This is a pretty big change and some people will adapt more than others. That adaptation doesn’t necessarily apply to big-market teams. I think we’ll be fine.”

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Q: How did this new CHL USA Prospects Challenge come into being?

A: “About a year ago at a CHL board meeting, we were talking about ways to add some energy to our event portfolio. We used to have three – the Canada-Russia series, the Top Prospects game and the Memorial Cup. We’re currently in a world where we have two (the Challenge and the Cup). As we were going to the drawing board to think of ways to improve our Top Prospects event, someone had the idea of playing the U.S. national team as a way to create higher stakes and provide in-venue an opportunity to cheer for someone. When you go to a prospects game, there are players from your league on both teams so there’s not really a home favourite. We felt this would be something compelling and something people would want to watch. USA Hockey was interested in partnering with us – a three-year deal that will rotate among the three CHL leagues – (the) best NHL draft-eligible players from across the CHL playing against the best in the U.S. on their development team program. They have the ability to have a game played in Plymouth (Mich.) in Year 4.”

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Q: You went to two of the bigger and more historic OHL markets straight away (London and Oshawa) and ticket sales were slow out of the gate. Has there been enough buzz created for this series?

A: We’re pretty comfortable we’ll have good crowds in both places. Whenever you do a first-year event, there will be key learnings. We’ll deal with that after the fact. I’m not sure if the NTDP (national team development program) is as well known in Canada as it would be in the U.S. We think the game is going to be great and the talent level will be phenomenal. There are going to be some stakes on the line. Both will want to win to support their own systems and if you care about junior hockey and the future stars, you won’t get a better game to watch all year. Will we learn and do some things different in Year 2? Of course, you always do but that’s just (the process of) running events.”

Q: How can Team CHL build enough chemistry in time to beat a U.S. roster that plays together all season?

A: “One of the things we tried to do there is use some of the (Canadian) coaching staff from the Hlinka Gretzky tournament. Kris Mallette (of the Kelowna Rockets) will coach the team and he was coach when the under-18s won a gold medal in August and having continuity should help Team CHL overcome the fact that the U.S. team plays together. This is being played at a similar time to the (old) Canada Russia series, which was a chance for players to get looked at for the world junior teams. The Top Prospects Game was after the world juniors. We’ll see how this plays out as to what the right time is and what the right time would be if we bring back a third national event. All of it plays into the timing here.”

rpyette@postmedia.com

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