The Canadian Hockey League (CHL) and USA Hockey announced Wednesday the creation of the CHL / USA Prospects Challenge, a new annual two-game series which will see the top first-year NHL draft-eligible prospects in the CHL face off against the USA Hockey National Team Development Program (NTDP).
Signed initially as a three-year partnership, the CHL’s three member leagues — the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), and the Western Hockey League (WHL) — will take turns hosting the series to start.
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On a phone call on Tuesday afternoon in advance of the announcement, USA Hockey’s assistant executive director of hockey operations John Vanbiesbrouck told The Athletic that USA Hockey could potentially host a game at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Mich., in the fourth year of the event.
“One game in each country is potentially what we’re looking at (long term) but we want them to have a tremendous amount of success with the games to start,” Vanbiesbrouck said.
On a separate phone call Tuesday evening with The Athletic, CHL president Dan MacKenzie confirmed that the deal is structured as a “three plus one” that would allow USA Hockey to trigger a fourth year where they host at least one of the two games. In that scenario, MacKenzie said a second game could potentially be hosted in one of the CHL’s nine American markets as well.
“Coming off the Memorial Cup in Saginaw, US markets can do a really good job. In Year 4, we did talk about that. We want to see how it goes but that is a possibility for sure,” MacKenzie said.
The first edition of the series is slated for November 2024 and will feature the top prospects in the 2025 NHL Draft class.
Vanbiesbrouck said the plan is for the American team to be “primarily NTDP” because the event is in November “and it’s short on the evaluation side of it.”
The CHL / USA Prospects Challenge isnotreplacing the Chipotle All-American Game, which is typically played in January on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and showcases the top draft-eligible prospects playing in both the USHL and with the NTDP.
“We’re going to have the (All-American) game, that’s for sure,” Vanbiesbrouck reiterated. “The more times we can have these types of events that celebrate our players, the better it is. This is a celebration of the players. You always want to do things for players that helps them and I think this is a mutual benefit there.”
Vanbiesbrouck hopes the new series will serve as an entrance into the Canada-USA rivalry for many of the players in a time when best-on-best hockey between the two countries is entering a revival. (Rena Laverty / U.S. NTDP)
The series will, however, replace the CHL / NHL Top Prospects Game for now. Though MacKenzie said the new event could potentially someday return to its old top prospect game’s slot in late-January, hosting the first edition of the series in November made more sense in the calendar, re-slotting the new event where the now-cancelled Canada-Russia Series once landed.
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“We wanted to keep thinking about the rivalries that fans want to see. And it’s really Canada-USA, the biggest rivalry in hockey,” MacKenzie said. “And given the fact that from a prospects perspective, that’s an age group that a lot of folks want to see, whether it be fans, whether it be scouts, we really felt that this was going to be an opportunity to create an event that would generate a fair amount of interest from fans and everybody else. So we’re pretty excited about it.”
The CHL also felt the event could fill a void at the U18 level.
“When you think about the prospects level age at under-18, it’s an age group where the current situation is that the best never play the best,” MacKenzie said. “At the world championships the US sends their best but Canada doesn’t because our playoffs are going on and then in the summer, Canada sends their best to the Hlinka Gretzky but the US doesn’t because they’re out of cycle. So this really sort of meets the need of really seeing best-on-best.”
Though the roster size is still to be determined, MacKenzie said he expects the number to be around 22 from the CHL. The CHL roster will be “selected by the NHL’s 32 clubs,” according to MacKenzie, similar to how the CHL / NHL Top Prospects Game teams were decided. Though NHL Central Scouting will continue to provide an “administrative function” as part of the process, MacKenzie insisted that NHL teams will actually pick the players themselves.
The CHL roster, however, will not be exclusive to Canadians, MacKenzie clarified. Though the league expects that “the vast majority of the players will be Canadian,” the selection process “won’t be based on nationality,” according to MacKenzie.
“It’ll be the best players in the Canadian Hockey League,” he said, leaving the door open for import players from Europe to make the CHL roster, as well as the potential for Americans to play on both sides of the game.
The CHL roster for the new CHL / USA Prospects Challenge will not be exclusively Canadian. (Daniel St. Louis / CHL)
According to MacKenzie, the CHL is also already having conversations about a potential third marquee event for their calendar (along with the CHL / USA Prospects Challenge and the Memorial Cup).
Some of their three member leagues may also decide to look into other exposure opportunities for their players within the new calendar, MacKenzie said.
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Vanbiesbrouck hopes the new series will serve as an entrance into the Canada-USA rivalry for many of the players in a time when best-on-best hockey between the two countries is entering a revival.
“It’s being heightened at the highest level. We’re seeing Olympics, we’re seeing 4 Nations,” Vanbiesbrouck said. “Canada-USA has been a great rivalry and a healthy one. Even though we can compete hard against each other we still root for each other.”
The first two host cities and game dates will be announced later this summer. MacKenzie expects that as part of the annual rotation from one league to the next (similar to the Memorial Cup’s rotation), the two host cities will be “fairly close to each other” each year, a cost-saving departure from the Canada-Russia format that often saw the teams fly from one market to another.
“The game will have a very different vibe than a traditional prospects game so I think that’s a positive,” MacKenzie said.
What do scouts think?
One amateur scouting director with an NHL club surveyed earlier this week about the forthcoming announcement said via text: “I actually don’t like either (format).”
“Players end up being overvalued or undervalued based on that game, especially if GMs are in there and it’s their only viewings,” he said.
Another scouting director said he felt there was a way for the CHL to keep its own game and still create this new Canada-USA series. That director still likes the new format, though.
“I love the idea, although the CHL Top Prospects Game was well run,” the second director said. “USA has struggled to create the same environment despite the collection of talent. These games should be highly contested which will allow players to truly showcase their individual skill sets. No one wants to watch the free wheeling, non-check All-Star games.”
(Top photo: Daniel St. Louis / CHL)
Scott Wheeler covers the NHL draft and prospects nationally for The Athletic. Scott has written for the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, The Toronto Sun, the National Post, SB Nation and several other outlets in the past. Follow Scott on Twitter @scottcwheeler
