NAHL Pushes Forward With Annual Draft Despite Continued Changes to College & Junior Hockey
By Scott Lowe – MYHockeyRankings.com
These are crazy times in the world of junior hockey, and no one seems to be immune from the chaos.
Even the most historically stable and highest-level leagues in the United States with long records of advancing players to play at the NCAA and professional levels such as the United States Hockey League (USHL) and North Americah Hockey League (NAHL) have felt the effects and been forced to adapt.
Multiple decisions by the National Collegiate Athletic Association during the past 18 months have created a flurry of activity and sent alternating waves of excitement and panic throughout the North American junior and youth hockey communities.
Despite all the chaos and uncertainty, it’s mostly business as usual this week for the NAHL. The league held its Futures Draft June 9, with each team selecting two 2010 birthyear players, and its annual Entry Draft for players born 2006 and later was slated to get underway at 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday, June 10.
A quick glance at this year’s draft order provides an indication of some of the change and uncertainty the NAHL and other junior leagues are confronting.
Earlier this year it was announced that the North Iowa Bulls franchise was relocating to Houston for the 2026-27 campaign. Houston has the 10th overall pick in the 2026 NAHL Entry Draft. Meanwhile, Fairbanks has the 19th pick, a selection it received as part of a trade with Maine, but the Nordiques are nowhere to be found on the draft board. That’s because the Maine organization recently shut down its operations.
The Rochester Americans also announced recently that they would be pausing operations for a year, while it also has been reported that the league may be expanding by up to six teams very soon. It is expected that a group of teams from the formerly tuition-free National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC) Mountain Division will make the jump to the NAHL, with Idaho Falls, Utah, Ogden, Billings and Grand Junction mentioned as potential additions.
The possibility of NAHL expansion was revealed at about the same time that the USHL formally announced a western expansion to include teams in Arizona, California and Nevada.
The Tier I USHL and Tier II NAHL are the only tuition-free United States junior leagues sanctioned by USA Hockey. They are two of the top producers of NCAA players in North America. The USHL advances close to 200 players to play at the NCAA Division I level annually while also producing numerous National Hockey League draft picks. Nearly 25 percent of all NHL players have USHL experience.
While the NAHL has been a stepping-stone toward professional hockey for many players, the league has become known as the top producer of NCAA talent in North America; more than 400 league players committed at the NCAA Division I or III level during each of the past two seasons. Sixty NAHL players were freshmen on NCAA DI team rosters last fall, while more than 80 are scheduled to matriculate for the 2026-27 academic year, according to CollegeCommitments.com.
By contrast, the USHL placed 150 freshmen on Division I rosters for 2025-26, while teams from the Canadian Hockey League produced 174 first-year players. This year, those numbers are projected to jump to more than 300 CHL prospects and about 175 from the USHL.
The CHL includes the three Major Junior leagues in Canada: the Western Hockey League, the Ontario Hockey League and the Quebec Maritimes Hockey League. Those three leagues have a total of 61 teams, while the USHL concluded the 2025-26 campaign with 16 teams. Broken down by league, the USHL has about 175 players scheduled to matriculate at colleges with Division I hockey programs in the fall of 2026, while the WHL has about 120, the OHL has about 115 and the QMJHL has about 80.
Prior to last season, CHL players were not eligible to play NCAA hockey. The NCAA made them eligible in 2025, with nearly 200 players quickly committing to play for Division I programs, effectively displacing many players who already had committed or who were previously on DI rosters. Prior to that rule change, the NCAA had increased the number of full scholarships available to Division I hockey programs to 26 while also limiting the roster size to the same number of players for the schools that opted in to apply that scholarship increase.
So, as almost 200 previously ineligible players were coming in to take existing Division I roster spots, the number of available overall roster spots was shrinking. Something had to give, and the NAHL, which had about 125 players scheduled to matriculate to DI programs last fall, ended up with about half that number of players on final team rosters. The trickle down benefitted the level of play, which already was at an all-time high, among Division III teams, as players previously committed to Division I programs looked for new homes and those at the bottom of DI rosters entered the transfer portal.
There were about 520 freshmen on Division I team rosters last season, and prior to the roster limitations that number had fluctuated between about 550 and 600. At this time, CollegeCommits.com has about 740 players projected to matriculate for 2026-27, with about 80 of those coming from the NAHL.
Once again, the math isn’t adding up and players who are expecting to play for NCAA DI programs likely are going to be forced to seek other options.
From an outsider’s perspective, it’s been pretty obvious that more NAHL players than usual committed to Division III programs earlier in the recruiting process this year instead of potentially getting shut out at the DI level and having to scramble late in the game to find a place to play at a school that otherwise might not interest them.
“We already are hearing from NAHL players who are contacting us instead of us reaching out to them,” one Division III coach said last November. “Usually, most of those players don’t want to talk to us until they’ve exhausted all their possible options at the Division I level. Even then it has traditionally been hard to get them to respond to us. That has changed completely this year. A lot more players seem to want to be sure they have something concrete at this level first.”
The misconception among players and their families amid all these changes has been that the level of play in the NAHL has suffered. That hast not been the case at all; there simply are way fewer opportunities to play at the Division I level with hundreds of new prospects thrown into to the recruiting bowl and only 65 colleges offering DI hockey.
“It’s definitely harder for us to get Division I commitments now,” one NAHL coach said, “but the quality of play has gotten better I think.”
The sentiment among other coaches around the league seems to be similar.
“We are getting even better kids than ever before looking at the NAHL,” another coach added. “And the Division III coaches who really want our players aren’t fearful of losing them now and push them to play through their age-out years. That pushes the level of play higher, too.”
Further complicating the lives of those working for junior hockey organizations, as well as for families of players currently considering pursuing that pathway to college, was an abrupt recent announcement by the NCAA that a rule limiting eligibility for all Division I student-athletes to five seasons over a five-year period was being considered. It was stated that the eligibility clock for the rule as proposed would begin with a student-athlete’s high school graduation date or 19th birthday, whichever would occur first.
While this plan likely would be welcomed and applauded for almost every other sport, it would be extremely problematic for men’s hockey. Almost 90 percent of NCAA hockey players at all levels traditionally play up to three years of junior hockey after they graduate from high school, with many not matriculating until after their 20th birthday.
Most of us would argue that something needs to be done to clean up and simplify the current process and pathways for players hoping to play NCAA hockey. But unilaterally imposing a rule that would take effect immediately and impact so many players who already had chosen to go down the junior path – with many of them likely to lose at least a year or two of eligibility – seems patently unfair.
The proposed rule change created quite an uproar among the North American hockey community, and the latest reports indicate that some sort of compromise ultimately will be reached.
In the meantime, despite the chaos and uncertainty, young players with NCAA hockey dreams will be sitting on the edge of their seats as the 2026 NAHL Entry Draft unfolds.
Each NAHL team enters the draft with the players they have from their final 2025-26 roster on a protected list. In addition, each team can “tender” up to 10 players. A tender is an agreement between a player and a team that makes the player that team’s property in the NAHL only. No other NAHL team can recruit, draft or tender a player who has signed a tender agreement, and those players are added to the team’s protected list.
The number of draft picks a team receives is determined by starting with the number 30 and subtracting the number of returning players and tenders who are on the team’s protected list. Thus, a team with 10 returning players and 10 signed tenders would be able to draft 10 more players.
Players born between 2006 and 2010 are eligible to play in the NAHL for the 2026-27 season per USA Hockey rules. Eligible players must be under 21 on December 31, 2026, and must not have accepted a tender from an NAHL team prior to the draft. To be eligible, a player can’t be listed on an NAHL team’s current roster and must have played fewer than 10 NAHL regular-season and/or playoff games during the 2025-26 season.
Teams draft in reverse order of where they finished in the 2025-26 regular-season standings. Drafted and tendered players are not allowed to try out for other NAHL teams unless released by the team that owns their rights.
Those interested can follow along with the draft at NAHLDraft.com or by watching the proceedings on NAHLTV.com.
Drafted and tendered players are not guaranteed to make an NAHL team’s final roster. They usually are required to attend a team’s main tryout camp during the summer in hopes of making roster for training camp. Between 30-35 players generally attend preseason training camps each September in hopes of making the final 23-man roster. NAHL team’s must declare their final rosters by Sept. 30.
It is possible for players who are cut during training camp to catch on with other NAHL teams or play in different junior leagues. If they still have youth hockey eligibility remaining, players may be offered the opportunity to affiliate with the NAHL team that cut them or owns their rights while playing for an 18U or 16U team fulltime. Affiliate players often get called up to practice and play a limited number of games with the team that affiliates them.
