WHL participant commits to ASU, difficult NCAA

Braxton Whitehead of the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats has obtained a verbal dedication for the 2025-26 season from Arizona State College’s Div.1 program, regardless of NCAA eligibility guidelines that stop any participant who has appeared in a major-junior hockey recreation from enjoying faculty hockey.

That is the primary NCAA dedication for a Canadian Hockey League participant since a proposed class motion swimsuit was filed in opposition to the NCAA and 10 universities in August, claiming that the eligibility guidelines violate antitrust legal guidelines. The swimsuit seeks to permit gamers to play hockey in each major-juniors and faculty, which might be a dramatic shift within the participant growth panorama.

Whether or not or not that swimsuit is profitable, Whitehead and Arizona State are each assured these restrictions might be lifted earlier than he joins the Solar Devils in 2025.

“[ASU’s] slogan is ‘Be the Custom’ and I believe they love the thought of me being a trailblazer all through all this and paving the way in which with NCAA and CHL relations,” Whitehead informed ESPN on Thursday. “I am very hopeful that [the rules] will flip over earlier than the 2025-26 season.”

The NCAA has deemed anybody who performed within the CHL — comprised of the OHL, WHL and QMJHL — as ineligible as a result of there are gamers who’ve signed skilled contracts with NHL groups enjoying in these leagues. CHL gamers are additionally paid a month-to-month stipend that is capped at $250.

NCAA Bylaw 12.2.3.2 states that “a person shall not be eligible for intercollegiate athletics in a sport if the person ever competed on an expert workforce.”

In August, Ontario Hockey League participant Rylan Masterson challenged that rule. He filed a proposed class-action lawsuit within the U.S. District Court docket of Western New York in opposition to the NCAA and 10 universities for what the swimsuit termed a “group boycott” of Canadian junior gamers. It stated the boycott “prevents competitors between the CHL and NCAA for top-end gamers and thus artificially suppresses compensation for gamers and artificially creates much less aggressive leagues,” which it argued was “unlawful beneath antitrust legal guidelines.”

Whitehead, a 20-year-old ahead, is coming into his fifth and remaining season with the Pats. He is performed 195 video games within the WHL, scoring 52 factors in 52 video games final season.

Arizona State males’s hockey program declined remark, citing NCAA guidelines about discussing gamers earlier than they’re formally signed.

There was elevated debate in faculty hockey about dropping restrictions on CHL gamers, particularly after NCAA Title, Picture, and Likeness (NIL) guidelines have been loosened in 2021. Supporters of adjusting the CHL guidelines pointed to well-compensated athletes in different sports activities — like Olympic swimmers — who had retained their NCAA eligibility; and that some faculty hockey applications welcomed gamers who had performed skilled video games abroad with out the NCAA barring them from enjoying in faculty.

“Anybody who loves hockey and developmental leagues has been watching what’s been taking place within the NIL house and within the switch portal house, attempting to think about if this may have implications on the way forward for how junior hockey gamers develop,” stated WHL commissioner Dan Close to. “I believe this could possibly be the primary domino to fall in that regard.”

For Whitehead, it was the proposed class-action lawsuit that actually laid the groundwork for the Arizona State dedication.

The proposed class-action swimsuit wasn’t surprising by the NCAA. In 2023, throughout a assessment of its insurance policies, the NCAA decided there was a authorized vulnerability in a possible “group boycott” of Canadian junior gamers. However the applications’ coaches by no means took formal motion to drop the rule earlier than the swimsuit was filed.

Whereas dropping the restrictions would deepen the expertise pool for NCAA hockey, there may be worry amongst some coaches that elite skills would choose to not play faculty hockey with out having the present strain level of dropping eligibility in the event that they selected Canadian juniors as a substitute.

“It has compelled children’ fingers at an early age to determine which path they need to take,” stated Close to.

Whitehead stated he is needed to play faculty hockey within the U.S. since rising up in Alaska. The proposed class motion swimsuit “sparked my curiosity,” he stated. Whitehead despatched out a number of letters to NCAA applications — together with Arizona State, his No. 1 alternative.

“I form of hit the lottery with the timing of all that is occurring proper now,” stated Whitehead. “I believe [the suit] gave me that further step simply to place myself on the market and take a look at one thing that is by no means been achieved earlier than.”

Whitehead knowledgeable his teammates in Regina about his dedication on Thursday, after rumors has swirled about it within the dressing room.

“I do know my teammates rather well, they usually’re all the time supportive of pursuing new issues. As soon as I form of acquired the jitters out of the way in which, they have been all simply actually comfortable,” stated Whitehead, including that there is curiosity amongst a few of them to “observe in my footsteps” to NCAA commitments.

Whitehead’s dedication to ASU may open the floodgates for CHL gamers. In response to one NCAA hockey supply, some faculty applications are “already allocating recruiting budgets” to ship scouts to CHL video games this season to recruit gamers.

“We’re thrilled that one of many post-graduation choices for WHL gamers could possibly be the NCAA, if this factor have been to vary,” stated Close to. “The extra choices our gamers have popping out of our league, the higher.”

ESPN’s Kristen Shilton contributed to this report.