New import limits in CHL and CIS a step back

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/06/2013 (4743 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Junior hockey and university volleyball don’t usually have a whole lot in common.

But in a pair of puzzling decisions, both sports have made moves this month to crack down on international players in their respective leagues.

The Canadian Hockey League announced this week that this will be the last year its 61 teams are allowed to draft European goaltenders in the CHL Import Draft on July 3.

Meanwhile, Canadian Interuniversity Sport has announced it is instituting a new crackdown on import players in volleyball, going from an unlimited amount of international players in 2012-13 to just two starting in 2014-15 (with current imports allowed to play out their eligibility).

The CHL and its member leagues, the WHL, OHL, and QMJHL, have taken plenty of criticism for its decision to eliminate import goaltenders.

One would think that a league that bills itself as the best junior hockey league in the world would want to welcome the best players in the world. And in any league, clearly you get better by playing with and against better players.

“Yes, that’s fair comment,” said Brandon Wheat Kings general manager Kelly McCrimmon.

Of course, this decision won’t have a major impact in Brandon, considering that the Wheat Kings — who pick seventh overall in this year’s CHL Import Draft — have never selected an import goaltender in the history of the draft and appear to be set between the pipes for next season with veteran Curtis Honey and promising prospect Jordan Papirny.

“It doesn’t impact the Wheat Kings, we have never selected an import goaltender,” McCrimmon said. “And yet, it’s unfortunate for those players, relative to imports at other positions. It seems it could be unfortunate for some of those players who are goaltenders in other countries.”

So why make the move? Simply put, this was a decision driven by Hockey Canada, concerned with the development of our country’s top junior-aged netminders. Hockey Canada believes eliminating imports from the 122 goaltending spots will help spur development.

“There has been a real challenge with goaltender development in Canada and I think that is really important to Hockey Canada,” McCrimmon said. “… They are a good partner of ours and as a result, it was something that we felt we needed to support them on and that was why the decision was made.”

Like the CHL’s move, the CIS’s decision also seems to miss the mark. Proponents argued that limiting imports in volleyball would increase development of Canadian players by opening up more sports on university rosters. Even if you agree with that rationale, why would you limit it to two imports in volleyball — with six players in the starting lineup — but allow three in CIS basketball — with five players on the floor?

The new rule clearly drew the ire of BU athletic director Russ Paddock.

“Why can’t you have 75 international players in the league, three per team?” Paddock argues. “Wouldn’t that raise the level of play and make the Canadians better? For sure it does. That’s my argument. I wasn’t necessarily opposed to a limit, but certainly I was opposed to a limit of two.”

Any limit on international players also flies in the face of the notion that you develop better by playing against the best. The Brandon University Bobcats men’s volleyball team has clearly made that case by peppering their lineup with imports to raise the level of their team play to the point where they have won one silver and two bronze medals at the national championship in the past five years.

And that may be the real issue at stake. Traditionally, the biggest volleyball schools in the country, the likes of Alberta, Manitoba and UBC, have dominated the sport. Those schools have the history of athletic success and the complete array of academic programs to offer the country’s top recruits who regularly flock to their schools, like Brandon-born national team player Lisa Barclay of UBC. But recruiting a couple key international players has helped smaller schools like BU — which doesn’t have all the recruiting advantages of the big boys — level the playing field. There’s a reason why Alberta, UBC and Manitoba didn’t have a single import last season — they get the cream of the crop in the country already. So it was no surprise that it was the big schools who led the charge on this import crackdown.

“It is a bit hard to take when it is Alberta leading it when they have the same admission standards as we do and they have (more) programs to offer,” said Paddock, who noted that BU’s lower tuition rates for international students was one of the school’s few recruiting advantages it had over larger institutions. “When it’s coming from some of the programs who already have all of the best recruiting advantages, it’s a little bit disingenuous on their part.”

Indeed. The fact is, this protectionist policy is less about development, and more about putting the small schools back in their place. In the end, limiting international recruits is going to weaken the league as a whole, erode the idea of parity, and return the Canada West conference to a collection of have and have-not schools.

LONG SHOT:

I wouldn’t get too excited about professional basketball coming to Brandon anytime soon.

The proposed Canadian Basketball League announced this week they are looking for markets across Western Canada to begin an eight-team league, featuring a salary cap of $150,000. While Brandon was named as a possible location, it should be pointed out that the proposed league is not actively planning to bring a franchise here. They are simply looking for local businessmen with deep pockets in cities across Western Canada who want to step up to the plate with six figure cash commitments at the first owners meeting in Edmonton in July. At this point, nobody has stepped forward here.

“No, not right now,” said Anthony Vella, co-ordinator of business operations at Cosmo Sports, which is heading the initiative. “But (Brandon) would be an interesting market, being the second biggest city in Manitoba and there’s a university there.”

Pro hoops might actually do more harm than good when it comes to fan support for Brandon University Bobcats basketball. And in a city of 50,000, one would have to think it would be a very tough sell in the Wheat City. The big question is, is there anyone in the city with a couple of hundred grand they want to risk?

CALDER CUP CHANCE:

Brandon’s Brett Skinner and Neepawa’s Triston Grant are one win away from hoisting the Calder Cup.

The Grand Rapids Griffins take a 3-0 lead on the Syracuse Crunch into Game 4 of the best-of-seven AHL championship series tonight.

Grant, a 29-year-old left-winger who scored in Game 2 of the series, has two points in 21 playoff games. Skinner, a 29-year-old defenceman, has six assists in 18 playoff games, but has yet to suit up in the final. Word is that Skinner will be back in the lineup tonight.