The Western Hockey League (WHL) is known for its set of very talented hockey players looking to go to the next level in there hockey careers. However, the league lacks in its depth. This is because of this one rule, that if you sign or play with a team in the WHL you lose your NCAA college eligibility.

There are 22 teams in the WHL, with about 30 players on each team. This becomes a problem because there are so many players good enough to play in this league but dont want to lose their eligibility. Ive had this problem before, I could go play in this league but dont think I’m good enough to be one of the best players in the league and be able to skip past the division 1 level and go to pro. The best way to make the league thrive is to release this rule and make it so the players can play in college if they have the opportunity to do so.

The WHL has a reputation of it being a league for the kids that are not as gifted in school and to those who might not go to college which in that case is a great league. The league doesn’t care about what your grades are or if you attend school or not. It is strictly about hockey, unlike other leagues that check your grades and can decide if you are able to play based off of them. This makes this league perfect for the players that are very good at hockey to have a fair opportunity at going pro even if they are not as naturally gifted in school or might not have a chance to be schooled. But many of the best players are very smart and want to play for their college before they move to pro. Those kids are scared that they might not be good enough to skip passed the Division 1 level so they hedge their bets and play in another junior league and try and take another route.

Over the last 10 years there has been a significant number of people that have gone pro from the WHL but that number could jump very high if they dropped that rule, so many more kids would go to the league because it is very good and would make it better. If more people come to the league than more people would come out of it even better because the opponents would be better, this means that even more people would come out of the WHL and jump to the pro leagues.

Overall I believe that it is best to take the eligibility rule out of the league to strengthen the depth of players, to give players another league to showcase their skill and try and go pro. I think its fair to not look at grades for those kids not as gifted but it would be healthy for the league to get new players involved.