Vancouver Giants general manager Barclay Parneta was in Minnesota scouting recently and says he “noticed a huge change with the willingness of people to connect with you.”
The NCAA opening up scholarships to WHL players doesn’t officially take effect until this summer, but the changing system is already evident.
We’re seeing WHLers announcing commitments to NCAA schools at a steady rate. Portland Winterhawks captain Kyle Chyzowski is the latest, with the 20-year-old forward announcing his intentions earlier this week to play at the University of Denver next season.
He joins the likes of Vancouver Giants 20-year-old forwards Connor Levis (Bowling Green State); and Maxim Muranov (Niagara), as well as 19-year-old defenceman Mazden Leslie (Bowling Green State), who all confirmed commitments for next fall over the past few weeks. Forward Ty Halaburda (Colorado College), who’s 19, has announced his plans to go the NCAA route after the 2025-26 campaign.
With all this, there’s also thought that American players who balked at going to the WHL in the past due to losing their NCAA opportunities will be keener on coming to the league now.
Giants general manager Barclay Parneta was in Minnesota last week on a scouting trip and says he saw 10 other GMs from WHL teams, where in the past “you might have seen one or two.” Parneta said, too, that in previous trips you may have felt like an interloper there as a WHL GM and now there’s more of a sense of co-operation.
“I noticed a huge change with the willingness of people to connect with you,” he said. “The agents, who would typically try to shield their players from you, were way more receptive. The NCAA coaches were way better too. It was different. Before you felt like an outsider who was invading a territory. Now, they’re leading you through the gate and taking you to places.”
This whole thing is shiny and new, so just how many American players come to the WHL next season and beyond is difficult to guess just yet. The sport is intensively tribal. There’s bound to be a push by U.S. hockey folk to keep players in leagues like the USHL before going to school.
There’s also the political climate right now. Consider all the comments coming out of U.S. President Donald Trump.
According to the WHL website, there are 20 Americans states in the league’s catchment area, stretching as far east as Minnesota and as far south as Texas.
Elite Prospects lists 27 Americans on current WHL rosters or five per cent of the player pool. The 22-team league is 88.1 per cent Canadian, with 480 players from this country, according to Elite Prospects. Teams are permitted two Europeans as well on their rosters.
Along with looking for new players in Minnesota, Parneta was checking in on two forwards in the high school ranks on the Giants’ protected list in Cooper Simpson, 18, and Mason West, 17. The Giants selected Simpson in the 2022 WHL U.S. Prospects Draft. Vancouver added West to their protected list after he was undrafted.
They both made NHL Central Scouting’s midseason rankings for the upcoming NHL Draft, with the 6-foot-5, 208 pound West of Edina High coming in at No. 50 among North American skaters and the 6-foot-1, 179 pound Simpson of Shakopee High ranked No. 67 in the same category.
“These guys (NCAA players) coming is much more of an option now than it would have been before. But until they’re here, they’re not here,” Parneta said.
The NCAA voted in November to allow players from the WHL, as well as ones from the OHL and the QMJHL, to be eligible for scholarships starting Aug. 1.They hadn’t been eligible in the past because the NCAA considered those players as professionals due to the expense stipends they receive in major junior hockey.
The WHL doesn’t publicize exactly how much the players get — it’s referred to simply as a “very modest monthly stipend” on the league website — but published reports have had it at up to $600 a month. Players looking to go to the NCAA have focused on Junior A leagues such as the BCHL previously.
The change in scholarship rules for hockey comes after the NCAA has scaled back various regulations in recent years. They’ve loosened rules around transferring in all sports, they’ve allowed Name Image Likeness sponsorships for athletes.
The Giants carried a 28-22-7-0 record into a Wednesday night visit to the Spokane Chiefs. Vancouver is in the midst of seven games in 10 days that sees the team visit the Tri-City Americans on Friday and the Everett Silvertips on Saturday before hosting the Wenatchee Wild on Sunday afternoon to finish off the stretch.
The Giants woke up Wednesday with 11 games left in the regular season and sitting in seventh spot in the Western Conference. They were deadlocked in points with the Americans (29-23-4-1), but Tri-City had the tiebreaker with more wins.