Former NHLer Pat Lafontaine has been at the centre of some recent meetings among powerful hockey people, including one that saw the NHL, AHL, CHL, and NCAA represented in New York.
One main subject of conversation was the state of player development in North America.
“A lot of ideas are being [shared],” said Nick Kypreos during Saturday’s Headlines segment on Hockey Night in Canada. “We know about Lafontaine’s feeling about pushing the draft age back to 19 years old. Another thing he’s talking about is having a better system in terms of [player] development throughout North America.
“Of all the major leagues, there are two ways to reach the NHL,” said Kypreos. “The Canadian way, through the junior ranks or the American one, either through the NCAA or the USHL. The idea Pat has is to somehow get some linear thinking among everybody in North America. One of the ideas that’s been thrown out there is somehow getting the USHL in a Memorial Cup.”
The Memorial Cup tournament brings together the champions of the CHL: the WHL, OHL, and QMJHL. The USHL is the United States’ top junior hockey league. Players retain their amateur status and are able to compete in the NCAA afterward.
“Perhaps they have their championship team play [in the tournament],” said Kypreos. “Whether or not that program is strong enough to compete…we don’t know.”
Ron MacLean cited a point made by Gary Bettman recently when the commissioner addressed the impact of money being spent by the International Olympic Committee or IIHF to bring NHLers to the Olympics when that same money could better be spent on grassroots development of young hockey players.
The Russian Hockey Federation has said they will pay for their pro athletes to participate in the hockey tournament at the 2018 Olympic Games. Elliotte Friedman said he reached out to Hockey Canada to ask if they would pay for NHLers to go to South Korea but he received no comment.