College Hockey Deserves More Attention

While many players go the route of juniors, the college pathway is becoming more popular.

Every player has a different path to get to the NHL, whether it be straight from high school like Connor Bedard, or college first and then being plucked early by the NHL like Brock Faber and Macklin Celebrini, or finally junior hockey and then the NHL like Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, etc.

Many Canadian players go the way of juniors if they don’t go straight to the NHL, while many United States-born players go to a Division One college program. There likely is no right or wrong answer as to which path is better, but a decent number of players in the past few drafts have come from college programs, and it seems to be growing each season. With all respect to the Canadian and U.S. junior programs more attention needs to be put on the importance of NCAA Division One hockey and the talent it produces.

Strong Level of Competition

The intense level of competition is the main reason NCAA hockey can compete with juniors in terms of where players go. It’s physical, fast, and translates well to the NHL game, especially for younger players who need that extra step before joining the big leagues. Some players have stayed in college a year or two longer to fine-tune their game before they enter the NHL, and the NHL teams prefer this in some instances. Jimmy Snuggerud, who’s a St. Louis Blues prospect, is one of those players who stayed back at the University of Minnesota to improve his skills, as well as Zeev Buium, who had a strong freshman season with Denver University and stayed for his sophomore season after being drafted by the Minnesota Wild this past summer.

The NCAA is more competitive as it’s more selective because there are fewer teams, which means fewer spots and nothing against the junior teams, but there are more of those teams than college teams. There are also several junior leagues based on location, and the teams seem endless compared to the lone division one. There are Division Two and Division Three programs, but it’s rare for NHL players to come from those programs. While there are many junior teams, there is only one Boston College, Boston University, University of Wisconsin, Denver University, etc., each with a prestigious history of producing top-level talent.