Edmonton hockey teams adjust to new recruiting landscape after NCAA rule changes sparks talent exodus to U.S.

The U of A Golden Bears and Edmonton Oil Kings hope they've found ways to be competitive this coming season amid U.S. college hockey rule changes.

Edmonton’s two men’s university hockey teams and its major junior franchise have had to alter the ways they find players this season after the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the U.S. changed rules regarding recruiting.

Before this season, squads from both the University of Alberta and MacEwan University found several new players each year from the graduating ranks of major junior, which includes the Western Hockey League.

Not any more.

The NCAA lifted a long-standing ban in November, allowing players in one of Canada’s three major junior leagues to compete at U.S. colleges starting in the 2025-26 season.

A wave of major junior players nearing the end of their tenures committed to American schools in the following months.

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The biggest name to defect to the NCAA from Canada is Gavin McKenna, the projected top pick in next June’s National Hockey League Draft. He left the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers in July for Penn State of the NCAA.

McKenna had 41 goals and 88 assists in 56 regular-season games for the Tigers last season. He joins the Nittany Lions after helping Medicine Hat win its first WHL title since 2007 and reach the Memorial Cup final.

The 17-year-old from Whitehorse, who also played for Canada at the world junior hockey championship, has an exceptional blend of deceptive playmaking, elite stickhandling and shifty skating.

McKenna said having the chance to go against “older, heavier, stronger guys” in college will help prepare him for the NHL.

While the U of A Golden Bears did attract one new player from the WHL for the upcoming 2025-26 campaign, they’ve had to look further afield for talent, including tier-two junior and junior ‘A’ leagues as well as internationally.

Golden Bears head coach Ian Herbers said Thursday his club has added players from Europe and the U.S.

“It’s wide open, and we’re looking everywhere, keeping our eyes open,” Herbers told CTV News Edmonton. “It’s different backgrounds, different experiences which make us a better team.”

MacEwan Griffins men’s head coach Zack Dailey said his program, too, has had to “look elsewhere,” but that the experience hasn’t changed his team “a whole bunch,” although it has made the process of putting together a roster more challenging.

“What it did is push the timeline back,” Dailey told CTV News Edmonton. “I didn’t have my roster set until about three days before camp started.”

WHL teams, too, have seen an exodus of players head south of the border to NCAA Division 1 schools, including the Edmonton Oil Kings, which lost four players from last year’s team. Three more have already committed to leaving the Oil Kings after this coming season, which starts for them Friday in Red Deer against the Rebels.

But that just opens the door for others to come to the WHL who otherwise wouldn’t get a chance, particularly players from the U.S., says Oil Kings general manager Kirt Hill.

“That influx of American players that is primarily the younger guys coming into the league, they really want to come to the Western League right now,” Hill told CTV News Edmonton. “I think our group did a great job of reaping the benefits and getting some of those guys to commit to come play here.”

Hill said it remains to be seen how the U.S. rule changes will play out over time – “this whole landscape probably is going to need a good couple of years to figure itself out,” he said – and that the Oil Kings will recruit based on their track record as an organization that developed players for pro hockey.

“In my tenure here, and even going back to the days of Bob Green being here, there’s been an ample amount of Edmonton Oil Kings players that have moved on to pro hockey,” Hill said.

“I think just the way the WHL is set up, it’s very much similar to the pro game, like the way the majority of guys are going to have to move on and play in the American Hockey League from here. The odd guy might get to go straight to the NHL, the Dylan Guenthers of the world, but the schedule and the way that we format the WHL is very much a pro schedule. Every year, they’re getting ready for what that grind is going to be like at the next level.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Kenny and The Canadian Press