For most people, the drive home from the NEPSAC boys championships in early March is either full of glee or despair. The players, coaches and families on the winning side are pumped; the same group on the other side is not.
It’s a bit different for me. On the drive home from UConn in March, I thought a lot about the state of boys prep and what the cover of the November-December edition of New England Hockey Journal magazine might be.
The prior two years, it was trying to forecast teams and talent for the next year, which is borderline impossible.
But in March, the CHL ruling was only a few months old, and the rumors around the rinks were flying. This player was leaving, and that player was leaving. So-and-so is planning on going to this QMJHL team.
It felt like the alarm bells were going off.
Our January-February magazine’s cover was all about the impacts of the CHL ruling, and a large section of the story focused on the likely trickle-down effect on prep. In March, I figured the November-December magazine, which previews the prep season, would be about how prep was getting wrecked by players leaving for north of the border.
That doesn’t seem to be the case.
“It’s been a pleasant surprise, the state of prep,” Berkshire head coach Kevin Czepiel said. “It’s been a pleasant surprise to see the retention of kids and incoming kids.”
Make no mistake: Players still left prep for junior hockey before graduating this offseason. Some teams were hit harder than others. Brunswick lost its top forward (Joe Salandra), its top defenseman (Cam Minella) and its starting goalie (Dylan Lee-Stack). Teams across the region lost star players early.
Kent lost top defenseman Ryan Poirier (Salem, N.H.) and goalie Jacoby Weiner (Riverside, Conn.), both Harvard commits.
PREP PREVIEWS: Frederick Gunn | St. Sebastian’s | Cushing | Belmont Hill | Milton | Tilton | Berkshire | Deerfield | St. George’s | Brunswick | Winchendon | Salisbury | Choate | Nobles | Kent | Holderness | Dexter Southfield
“I don’t think either of the guys that we lost are guys that we wouldn’t have lost in years past,” Kent head coach Dale Reinhardt said.
And that tracks for the large majority of the players who left early for junior hockey. Most of them would have left for the USHL or BCHL regardless of the CHL ruling. Having the option of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League or Western Hockey League just gave them more choices.
“Obviously, it’s another option,” St. George’s head coach Allie Skelley said. “This could happen, that could happen. But I really think that things are settling and going to continue to settle. There’s probably going to be a new norm, but I don’t think it’s going to be that much different than the way things have been in the past.”
Of the top 15 point-getters from last prep season who weren’t seniors, eight stayed in prep. The other seven were Salandra, Carter Meyer (Winchester, Mass.), Justin Graf (Lincoln, Mass.), Finn Sears (Medford, Mass.), Rian Chudzinski (Needham, Mass.), David Bosco (Winchester, Mass.) and Indiana Grossbard (Wilton, Conn.). Outside of Grossbard, the other six were always likely to leave.
“I don’t see a rush,” Choate head coach Mike Pereira said. “The average age of a freshman (in college) is going up. I just think you have to map this out that if you can be in a structured environment and playing prep school and graduating and having a high school experience … you’re still allowing them the development and the puck touches, the playing in all situations that I think is important for them.”
The other side of the CHL ruling impacting prep is in recruiting. One of the assumptions was that because CHL players became eligible for NCAA Division 1 hockey, there wouldn’t be as much of a need to go the prep route.
According to coaches, that wasn’t the case this offseason.
“I still, every day, have kids from Canada reaching out to me that are interested in prep hockey,” Cushing head coach Dan Fontas said.
Players from up north still want to come to prep school. It’s just a bit of a different message right now.
“In recruiting kids from Quebec, you’re not just selling prep school,” Deerfield head coach Tim McVaugh said. “You’re selling prep school as a potential route to return home to the QMJHL. Or if you’re recruiting a kid out of Toronto, maybe going back to the OHL.”
A big reason for that is the lack of leagues for Canadian players who are drafted into the CHL but not quite ready for it. That’s where prep comes in.
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“The fact that they don’t have a real league for the in-between is really going to push kids to prep,” Frederick Gunn head coach Craig Badger said. “A lot of those kids, even kids who are drafted, they’re not going to play in the CHL right away. They need a place to play and a place to develop. Now that they can go OHL to the NCAA, the education piece comes into focus for them as well.”
Salisbury is one of those schools that has heavily benefited from recruiting from Canada in the past. Head coach Andrew Will is from Ontario, coached for four years at Upper Canada College and has done a phenomenal job at maintaining connections up there.
Things were a bit different for him this year. Salisbury was more active in the United States market than in years past, while still bringing in high-end Canadian players. There was another big difference, too.
“The process was slower, as they were kind of working through their options,” Will said of recruiting Canadian players.
That’s expected. But Will also has a unique perspective on how things might develop post-CHL ruling over the next five to 10 years.
“Families that may have looked at prep because they felt that was the best route to get to the NCAA, now they obviously don’t need to do that,” Will said. “But I think while they don’t need to, there still are families that want to and recognize and appreciate the benefits of it.
“How does prep school stay relevant? How do we evolve and change? And there’s always been a contingent that says, ‘Well, there are always families that are going to value and appreciate what prep school offers.’ I think that is true, but I think that group is shrinking and we need to continue to evolve and grow as programs.”
Teams have taken steps to combat this. Milton Academy head coach Jim Gaudet pointed to trying to give the best advice possible to players on making junior hockey decisions. Coaches like Fontas and Winchendon boss Mike Busconi have advocated for being excited when players they coached are ready for juniors earlier than graduation.
“We’re carrying one or two extra players this year than I normally carry, and a lot of that was just anticipating some of our kids leaving for juniors,” Czepiel said. “We were fortunate enough to not lose any of our players, but I was anticipating it.”
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Should prep get complacent and be happy with how it is? Absolutely not. As Will alluded to, evolution should be embraced, not pushed away.
But as for this season, prep is in a much better spot one year out from the CHL ruling than what was initially forecast in November 2024. That’s a very good thing.
