Paul Kelly of College Hockey Inc. seems to have already made an impact north of the border, and the CHL plans to complain about it this summer. It's an interesting tact taken by the CHL. Last year, for the first time ever, USA Hockey got a bunch of money from the NHL for player development purposes--money that the NCAA, for some dumb reason, turned down--and now the CHL is arguing that money should be taken away because part of it is helping fund Kelly, who keeps saying mean things about the CHL. I'm sure other topics presented at that summit will include Windsor and Kitchener finally rolling out that big defamation lawsuit against Jeff Jackson like they promised they would, David Branch's fairness czar announcing the OHL Draft is as clean as a whistle, and announcing a 50-game suspension for a player you've never heard of, and a 2 game suspension for a player you have heard of.
This didn't get as much attention in the college hockey world this time around since all the high-profile projects have already been funded, but Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty vetoed a bunch of stuff out of the Minnesota state bonding bill that included renovations to the Mankato Civic Center and All Seasons Arena, which are the city's two indoor ice arenas. The plan for renovations came after a plan to build a new ice arena, which would have taken some burden off the aging All Seasons Arena was vetoed by the governor in the bonding bill last year.
It's particularly frustrating to see given that the state had resources to build a state-of-the-art arena for Bemidji State, a state-of-the-art arena for Minnesota-Duluth, an incredibly unnecessary state-of-the-art gift shop for St. Cloud State--if you're charging $25, $30, even $40 for a ticket that the WCHA prices at $12, I think you can buy your own glass doors-- and a new arena for Minnesota-Crookston, which doesn't even have a team anymore. Minnesota State's facilities meanwhile remain the only ones among Minnesota schools in D-I to not receive any sort of funding from the state of Minnesota.
USA Hockey announced the names of the players that will try out for the NTDP. It's a very Chicago-heavy camp this year.
ISS released their March Draft Rankings. I count ten current or future college players on the list, with Derek Forbort again leading the way.