College hockey coaches to meet with NHL officials over player raids

It will be interesting to see how this story shakes out. I think this is a work in progress. Division I college hockey took a pounding this summer as a lot of great players fled for the CHL and or NHL.

Twincities.com --- Don Lucia didn't garner a ton of sympathy when he started losing his best players to the NHL. The Gophers men's hockey coach already had won two NCAA titles, and seemed to have his pick of talent, anyway.

But now it's not just the Gophers' cupboard being raided of underclassmen, and college hockey hopes to do something about it.

Lucia and a handful of other Division I coaches, including Wisconsin's Mike Eaves, Boston University's Jack Parker and Harvard's Ted Donato, will meet with NHL representatives next month in Toronto to exchange ideas on the subject.

Among the NHL representatives will be Commissioner Gary Bettman.

"There are things we want to talk about that hopefully we can do with a new (collective bargaining agreement) that can help college hockey," said Lucia, who lost Nick Leddy (to Chicago) and Jordan Schroeder (Vancouver) last spring before either had turned 20.

Before that it was Kyle Okposo, who left in the middle of his sophomore season to join the New York Islanders, and Phil Kessel (Boston) and Erik Johnson (St. Louis), each of whom played one season for the Gophers.

"College hockey has been under assault," said Paul Kelly, executive director of College Hockey Inc., a newly created organization charged with promoting college hockey. "It used to be hard to keep your highly skilled players for three years; now it's two years, and sometimes one. You're constantly recruiting; you have to re-create your team."

When I read this article; my first question is; when is reality is also going to set in. What are the division one hockey coaches going to use as bargaining chips to convince the NHL to stop talking their top players after being college hockey for only a year or two? Seriously! While this is an interesting story, these coaches don't anything to bargain with. I am not sure what they think they can do to stop GM’s and NHL hockey teams from raiding division one hockey teams. That is one of the negatives about recruiting blue chip hockey players to play for their teams, if they are successful their NHL teams are going to want them to play for them. Phil Kessel and Erik Johnson were ready to play in the NHL after only one season in college.