Article by: Tim Turk Hockey
Since the turn of the century, American collegiate hockey has steadily grown in size as well as scope, prompting college coaches to begin exploring talent prospects from outside the US to bolster their expanding squad lists. The first place college coaches turn their attention to is Canada. Every year, Canadian athletes make the short journey in thousands across the US border to try their chances at the highest level of college hockey athletics in the United States.
The reason is simple enough: Funding for athletics in Canada is meager compared to what is obtainable in the US. According to an article published in Maclean, as of 2016, Canadian schools were restricted from offering college athletic scholarships that exceeded tuition fees. In Canada, tuition fees go as high as $5,000 a year, whereas the average Canadian sports scholarship is a comparatively small at $1,060. This figure is minor compared to what’s on offer in the United States. A number of US scholarships offer student athletes a full-package that covers virtually everything so long as certain academic and social benchmarks are met. The average tuition for a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athlete is around $25,000. These scholarships could easily rise as high as $50,000 in some cases.
The result of this is that American schools are the most likely to attract the best athletes in the world, an inviting prospect for a most competitive hockey atmosphere. At present, there are about 163 men’s and 103 women’s college hockey scholarship schemes in the US, the majority of which are located in Northern and North-eastern US. Because of this culture, there is a higher significance of opportunity for college hockey in the US than anywhere else in the world. Recent statistics show that around one-third of the current NHL players started their careers playing the sport at the college level at some point.
This is why most American universities are capable of recruiting and honing talent that will eventually compete in major