College Hockey: Paul Kelly's Mission: Save the Game
Former NHLPA Boss Faces Hurdles as He Tries to Save, Grow Division I Hockey
Jan. 26 — He may not hold the same rebel-like aura of a Jimmy Hoffa, but in the world of hockey Paul Kelly holds his own unique power.
So in November, when college hockey tabbed Kelly, the former head of the National Hockey League Players’ Association, to run a newly-formed organization, College Hockey Inc., you knew it meant business.
Kelly, who grew up in the Boston area, has been given the task of expanding the reaches of the college hockey game, exposing more elite hockey players to the U.S. game and helping drive legislation at all levels of the game — most notably in his sweet spot, the NHL — in order to benefit college hockey as a whole.
USCHO had the chance recently to sit down with Kelly for a candid, one-on-one conversation about his visions for the college game.
Battling a ‘Major’ Obstacle
The battle right now is uphill. Major Junior, which has become a super-sized roadblock for college hockey, leveraging big-time budgets and high promises to its players (along with a few shady recruiting tactics), has been beating college hockey up in the recruiting game over the last decade or so.
Colleges haven’t had the power, to this point, to respond. Forget the basics like budgets and manpower. Up until now, there hasn’t been a united voice for college hockey to put forth any sort of effort to combat the recruiting power of Major Junior.
“We’d like to attract more elite players to play college hockey as opposed to drifting north to play Major Junior,” Kelly said during a recent interview. “There are more than 100 talented players playing in Major Junior as opposed to [U.S.] college. That’s troubling to these colleges and universities.
“I think they’ve just been beaten badly by Major Juniors in terms of allocation of resources. Major Juniors has been throwing a lot more money at this.”
It’s not just money, either. Colleges and universities are often times hamstrung by regulations put forth by the NCAA when it comes to when and how a coach can actively recruit a player. That’s never been a problem for Major Junior.
“They’ve been actively recruiting kids that have committed to colleges and universities, in many cases after they’ve enrolled,” said Kelly. “They do it on a continuing basis. They use tactics that in some cases are not permitted by their own league — paying money to the players or their family members, funneling money to youth league coaches who are off their payrolls here in the United States in order to identify talent. And college hockey up to now hasn’t responded in any sort of coordinated fashion.”
That’s where Kelly comes in. The NCAA Division I hockey commissioners came together in November to form an agency focused on the marketing of college hockey, College Hockey Inc. (CHI). The organization was funded by the national governing body, USA Hockey, through a grant from the NHL. CHI’s mission is simple: to serve as the marketing and informational arm for NCAA Division I hockey.
First Focus: ‘Respond’
With marching orders to grow the game throughout the country, Kelly set forth a list of objectives he hopes to accomplish.
“Our first objective is to respond,” said Kelly, referencing the current battle with Major Junior. “We’re going to put together a strategic plan and a talented staff of people to get the word out to talented, elite players on why they should seriously consider the college hockey option as opposed to Major Junior.”
After that, Kelly wants to expand the number, frequency and location of college hockey events, such as the Ice Breaker Tournament, to spread the game’s reach and touch points to potential players.
Kelly says he’d also like to identify ways to add programs in markets that make sense — those that align to current successful NHL cities.
“I think places like Northwestern in Chicago and George Washington in D.C. and out in California and St. Louis, places where you don’t have a strong college hockey presence, we’d like to see that start to change,” he said.
But one of Kelly and CHI’s most important roles will be serving as a central repository for each of the teams and leagues. Currently, there’s little structure for teams to deal with outside organizations such as the NHL, the Canadian Hockey League, the IIHF — even the NCAA.
“We’ll be working with the NCAA on prospective rule changes and the sort,” said Kelly. “Rather than having a helter-skelter basis for teams and conferences, now all that information from those conferences funnels into us and we serve as the point of contact managing those conversations.”
Dispelling Myths
When push comes to shove, Kelly’s day one — maybe even year one — focus is on the battle with Major Junior.
As part of that, he’d like to break down one of the newest marketing efforts of Major Junior, one that promotes the ability of a player to play for a Major Junior team while also continuing education.
Each of the leagues that form the Canadian Hockey League (the Ontario Hockey League, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and the Western Hockey League) have adopted educational policies and lured players by offering scholarships to schools in and around each team’s area. According to Kelly, these programs can be somewhat misleading and have significant holes compared to the comprehensive scholarships offered by U.S. colleges.
“It’s not the equivalent of getting a world-class education at these NCAA institutions,” said Kelly. He also said that it’s his belief that many of the players in each of the leagues aren’t even benefiting from the educational offerings.
“[The leagues] throw [the educational program] out there in hopes that people will just pass over it. We want to do some serious research to determine how many kids have availed themselves to [the educational packages] . We’d like to know the real statistics.
“What we’re hearing is that there are significant holes in these programs. We’re think we’re going to find that very few kids avail themselves of that educational program to the maximum degree that is allowed.”
Kelly also is concerned that for Canadian players who opt for college over Major Junior, they’re stuck in what he called a “vacuum.”
“For Canadian kids who want to come down and play NCAA hockey, if they commit to a program when they’re 15 or 16, there currently isn’t an elite league for them to play in that’s not Major Junior. The Canadian system has been set up in such a way to discourage kids from coming [to U.S. college] . That’s a bit of an issue and we need to figure out in this complicated landscape is there a solution.”
Battling the NHL: Stemming the Tide of Early Departures
Beyond recruiting, Kelly also hopes to leverage his background with the NHLPA to help build retention among college athletes. Over the past decade, and in particular since the NHL signed its last Collective Bargaining Agreement, players leaving early from college has increased significantly. Most of that is due to what Kelly referred to as a concerted effort by the NHL to build a level playing field.
In an attempt to keep salaries consistent based on years in the league, the NHL and its players’ association agreed to a rookie salary cap that has done massive damage to the college game. Since returning from the lockout in 2005, players entering the NHL have an individually-capped salary for the first three years of their playing career. For college players who play a full college career, that three-year clock might not start until age 21, 22 or later, reducing the amount that a player can make in his career. More so, though, it reduces the amount of money that player agents can make off of their college clients.
“The quicker a kid gets into the NHL and gets through those three years, he can get to that second NHL contract,” said Kelly. “There’s a lot of pressure on these kids coming from the agents, in particular, and coming from the general managers and scouts that identified them to come out of these college programs, go play a year in the AHL and then try to make it in the NHL.”
Having been on the other side of the fence, Kelly is empathetic to the wants and needs of both the NHL teams and the players themselves. But he’s also extremely aware that the increased pressure on top NHL prospects to abbreviate their college careers is damaging to NCAA ice hockey as a whole.
“I’m all about what’s good for hockey as a sport and what’s good for the players,” Kelly said. “If it’s good for the sport for a guy to stay in college for four years and become more mature mentally and physically, then go and have a good 12-to-15 year career in the NHL, that to me makes a lot of sense.
“But again, these players are constantly battered by pro GMs and pro scouts to come out — if you’re highly talented after one year, if you’re moderately talented after two, if you’re mildly talented after three — I don’t know that there’s an easy solution to this.”
If there is, though, Kelly is in the position to find it. His hockey Rolodex may be deeper than almost anyone who has ever involved themselves in the college game. And it’s something he plans to use.
“We have better access to the key constituents to the issue,” said Kelly. “My plan is to be involved in that discussion early on. We’re going to formulate our strategic plan for the CBA in the next couple of months and we’re going to try planting the seeds with the parties involved. We want them to make changes to the CBA that are going to benefit the players but protect colleges and universities.”
So at the end of the day, don’t expect any Teamster-like speeches from this former union boss. But do expect change that has a strong potential to preserve and build the game of college hockey as we know it today.
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