As Bob Dylan has said, the times they are a-changin'.
The NCAA's decision late last year to allow Canadian Hockey League players to play in the U.S. college ranks starting next season resulted in some massive moves over the weekend.
The headliner came Sunday night when Calgary Flames prospect Henry Mews, a member of the OHL's Sudbury Wolves, announced he had committed to play at the University of Michigan next season.
While dozens of other CHL players have announced similar commitments, the large majority have been those entering overage years or aged out of junior hockey. Mews, 19, would be eligible to return to the OHL next season.
A third-round pick (74th overall) by the Flames last season, Mews was third among OHL defencemen with 82 points this past season. The Wolves acquired Mews in a deal with Ottawa prior to the trade deadline in exchange for five guaranteed draft picks within the first rive rounds of OHL drafts.
Sudbury was swept by the Kingston Frontenacs in the first round of the OHL playoffs.
"Really different world," Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman said on the 32 Thoughts podcast on Monday. "We've all expected it. It's always kind of been rumoured and now it's here."
Could Mews be a trend-setter?
There already have been rumours about Medicine Hat Tigers star Gavin McKenna, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, contemplating a similar move.
"There's lots of rumours about him too and what's going to happen," Friedman said. "Mews has shown that this is real. This is a Canadian kid who left the OHL, was traded at the deadline for a lot and now he's left. Everybody's looking at this and saying 'OK, some of Canada's best players. They have options. They're taking the U.S. option.' This is real now to the Canadian Hockey League."
Meanwhile, another intriguing development happened earlier in the weekend in the OHL Draft.
Eighty-seven American-based players were picked in the draft, 50 more than the year before.
On the same weekend as the draft, the USHL announced it has formed an 'elevated partnership' with the NHL and USA Hockey, "built on a shared commitment to elite athlete development through the newly adopted Declaration of Excellence."
The USHL, the top junior league in the U.S. competes for top junior-aged players with the CHL.
Some have speculated all the recent developments could lead to the CHL having the best 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds before elite players go to the NCAA.
"This is the USHL saying 'OK, we realize we have to be different or this flood of players being into the Canadian Hockey League is only going to get worse," Friedman said.
"We see a situation where a top Canadian prospect leaves the OHL for the NCAA and now we also see a league saying 'we drafted 37 Americans last year. Well, now we're drafting 87 because we're betting they want to come play for us because our league is better. The USHL made their initial defence to that, or their initial response to that."
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