As more and more players move from the CHL to college hockey, you're going to hear a lot of junior operators talking about how great their facilities are, how well the players are treated and how the CHL is the best development league in the world.
All that is true, but it's also avoiding another very fundamental truth. Money played a huge factor in Gavin McKenna leaving the Medicine Hat Tigers for Penn State, plain and simple.
He's reportedly getting $700,000 to play for Penn State, while the Tigers were paying him somewhere between $50 and $150 a week as a stipend. McKenna won't even have to be a math major at Penn State to make that decision.
There is a lot of unrest in this situation at the moment, and for every player the CHL loses at one end, it seems to be picking up at the other end with talented 16-year-olds who are now opting for major junior hockey before playing college hockey.
But if the CHL teams are going to keep those players, and other stars, from migrating, they're simply going to have to change their business model to start compensating the players with a fair wage. They can talk about facilities all they want because if they build it, the players will come.
They just won't stay.
Watch today's video column for the full take, and share your thoughts.
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