OHL in the Big House

According to the Daily, Dave Ablauf says no way to the OHL, OHL "source" says a doubleheader is planned, but not necessarily at the Big House, could be Comerica.

LINK

When is Yuri Wright's official?

Once the NHL has made arrangements with the hosting venue, they run EVERYTHING.  Meaning, they put up the rink and no one else gets to use it. 

Also, the NHL buys out a home game's worth of tickets for each team and keeps all the profits for the outdoor game.  They would reimburse the Wings and Leafs for 20,000 tickets each and then keep the money for the much more expensive tickets at the Winter Classic.

The Winter Classic is solely an NHL production, and no one else will be able to piggyback on that.

it all depends on where you're drafted and what organization has your rights. Some of them want to see you tested as soon as they can to determine what value you have to the organization and others are content with drafting kids and letting them grow and develop. There are a lot of organizations who look favorably upon college hockey because it gives their prospects a lot of opportunity to mature both on and off the ice...these things can be a great benefit in the long run for an organization. New Jersey, Detroit, NYR and many others have all shown their desire to draft college kids and let them stay in college for three or four years. 

While the OHL is (currently) the better pipeline for the NHL, it isn't usually the better pipeline for a person's life after their very, very short professional hockey careers.

No one says you have to keep f*cking curly fries if they piss you off. Some people have wives or girlfriends in part for that purpose.

I can deal with some competition. What I can't deal with is an oranization of snakes that keep going after our players after they've committed to us, signed with us, and in some cases, ALREADY PLAYED FOR US. We've lost two goalies, one in the 10th hour, and the other at 11:59 because of it, and I recall losing at least one player mid-season of their sophomore year.

Because of the way the NCAA works, we're at a massive recruiting disadvantage. Plenty of these teams have been known to pay players under the table to get them to come, in addition to the fact they have no restrictions on contact, even after kids are in college. I would also like to point out that a couple of the teams mentioned in the tweets have the OHL rights to some of our current players, and you better believe they will be in contact with them while they're in town.

I cannot stress enough how rediculous having an OHL game at the Big House is. Red will have somebody's head mounted on his wall if this happens. I don't think it'd be unlikely to see a good number of students protest the game, either. I'd be pissed enough of the OHL played any games at Comerica, but I can live with it. Letting them come play in OUR stadium after all they've done to #(*&% us and every other college program in the country over though? HELL NO.

Besides, it isn't like they could sell out the seating at Comerica and justify needing Michigan Stadium. Only Michigan and paticular pairings of NHL teams can do something like that.

Deciding to go to the OHL during your recruitment is a perfectly valid thing to do, even if you have verbally committed to a school. It's a terribly unfortunate thing to sacrifice a free education from a world-class university for an illusion of having a better shot at the NHL, but it is their choice to make, and the school then knows to pursue other recruits.

Once a LOI is signed and/or a player is on campus though, that's frankly a binding commitment. The fact that these sleezes still recruit kids after that point is dirty, backhanded, and unprofessional. How would you feel about your wife jumping spouses on you after signing a marriage charter? When your girlfriend dumps you, it sucks, but you get over it. At some point though, there's a firm commitment, and if that's broken, you've been legitimately cheated.

They like to put on a show about how they're a better path to the NHL, but that simply isn't true. If you're good enough to play in the NHL, you will play in the NHL. If you're not, you will spend your career in the AHL or lower, just like any other college or OHL player who didn't turn out to be NHL material. To be fair, there are a handful of players (like one of our very own users here) who take full advantage of the OHL's college program, but regardless of what you think about the concept of a student-athlete in the NCAA, that is non-existent in the OHL. You have to do school completely on your own and if you want them to pay for it, I believe you have to do far better than most average students would do as well.

They get a package based on their years of service in the OHL. If they sign an AHL or an NHL contract, that goes out the window. Don't think they don't screw every player they can, either, especially those who don't produce for the club. There has been plenty written about that., and many more in-depth than the following, but here's one that focuses on tuition payout:

http://www.totalwomanshow.com/printArticle/645999

But regardless, the point here isn't about which is better for getting to the NHL, nor is it about the right of the OHL to recruit the same players. This is completely about the fact they don't back off when a player has made a solid commitment to a school, which I will define as signing a letter of intent.

But if only it were as simple as getting them on campus in September of their freshman year. We have to worry about them recruiting every single one of the players that are currently on our roster. They can call them up any time and offer them a sack of cash to ditch us, and there isn't jack we can do about it. The fact they would do such a thing shows the very nature of that organization. Defending that conduct is inexcusable, and as such, they have no place playing a hockey game in OUR football stadium. Hell, even if they were perfect gentlemen they have no business playing a hockey game in our stadium; we DO compete with them after all. They aren't though, so all the more reason they can buzz off.

Yes, that's right.  Approximately 10 percent of Major Junior players end up in the NHL.  The percentage is higher for any Michigan team of the last 25 years.  Sometimes much higher.  The scholarship money is also pretty much an exaggeration--less than a third of Major Junior players ever receive scholarship money.  That's over half of Major Junior players who never play in the NHL and never see a dime of scholarship money.

But, as stated earlier, that's not the point.  Michigan is not asking to play in Plymouth's rink.  Michigan Stadium is ours.  If Ohio State and Notre Dame wanted to play each other in Michigan Stadium, we would (rightly) tell them to get lost.  The same should be true of the Plymouth Whalers and the Saginaw Somethings.  An OHL game in Michigan Stadium would be a slap in the face to every player on the Michigan hockey team who is working his ass off to get a degree while playing at the highest level of amateur hockey.

Guys don't get drafted by the NHL until they're 18 though, which for the most part is after a player has chosen either NCAA or CHL. And excepting the rare cases like you mentioned, the NHL teams don't really get involved in the College scene since they don't lose their signing rights until the summer after their senior year

Also, the Domi family fiasco is bullshit and they can fuck off

...surprise. A2 Torch & Pitchfork just made a mint because of some CTV reporter's tweet.

If this happens, Comerica Park is the logical place anyhow (size, geography, Comerica needs events, Red would have a cow).