Ryker Lee posed for a photo with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, walked across the stage at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles and put on a Nashville Predators hat and jersey. The Preds had drafted Lee in the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft, with high hopes for his future.
But instead of immediately joining the roster, as in the NFL or NBA, or awaiting an assignment in the minor leagues like baseball, Lee went on from that big moment to college. He scored 15 goals and helped lead Michigan State to a Big Ten championship and NCAA Tournament run this spring as a freshman. All the while, he remained in contact with the Predators about his future in Nashville.
Men’s ice hockey has long held a unique place in college sports. It’s the one major sport where players can get drafted and remain in school while a team holds their rights, then go pro whenever they choose.
At a time when professional basketball players have tried to return to college and athletes in their mid-20s have sued for more eligibility, hockey has a model that works for everyone involved. Could it work for other sports?
“Players are drafted early and have time to develop on their road to the next level, which is really important for the sustainability of these players’ careers,” said Sean Hogan, executive director of College Hockey Inc. “For hockey players, there’s a bit of control there (compared to other sports).”
Unlike the NFL or NBA, the NHL has a birth year open draft, meaning players don’t declare for the draft or give up college eligibility to be involved. North American players aged 18-20 and internationals aged 18-21 make up the eligible player pool. Teenagers are typically drafted out of high school or junior hockey, and as long as they don’t sign a contract with a professional team, their college eligibility remains. (MLB also has an open draft, but drafted high school players who instead choose college re-enter the draft pool later.)
To leave early for the NFL Draft, players are required by rule to write and notarize a petition for special eligibility, while renouncing their remaining college eligibility, to their athletic director. Whether or not they are drafted, they cannot then return to school.
That structure has been challenged multiple times over the years. In 1990, Notre Dame running back Braxston Banks sued the NCAA to recoup his eligibility after he went undrafted by the NFL, but the lawsuit was unsuccessful. In the mid-2000s, Maurice Clarett and Mike Williams failed in their lawsuits against the NFL’s rule requiring a player to be three years out of high school. Arizona State punter Michael Turk successfully returned to college after going undrafted in 2020, citing the impact of the pandemic in an appeal granted by the NCAA, and played three more seasons, one at ASU and two at Oklahoma. But that loophole has not been attempted in recent years and has likely closed for good.
Almost four decades ago, then-NCAA executive director Richard Schulz wanted all college sports to follow a more open model, to let players test the professional drafts without forfeiting eligibility.
“Let a player find out his worth,” Schultz told the Chicago Tribune in 1990. “Once he finds out, then he can make his decision. This will help deal with the unscrupulous agent who tells the player, ‘You can get big money if you come out this year.’ A lot of people are going to declare for the draft, and they’re not going to make it. They won’t have any eligibility left, and they won’t have any money. Those are the people I’m worried about.”
The NFL opposed that change but that same year officially allowed juniors who forfeited their remaining college eligibility to enter the draft. NCAA member schools didn’t fully back Schultz’s view, but in 1994, they passed a rule to allow basketball players to enter the draft process and return to school if they did not hire an agent. The NBA didn’t like that at the time, either. The NBA had ended its own junior eligibility rule a decade prior after the Boston Celtics drafted Larry Bird before his senior year, exploiting a loophole by not intending to sign him until after the following season, while still holding his rights.
What makes hockey unique, however, is that the college game isn’t the most common path to the NHL. For a long time, it was barely even a path at all.
“College football has always been the No. 1 feeder of the NFL and college basketball for the NBA,” said Ted Donato, the head men’s hockey coach at Harvard. “But major junior hockey has been the preeminent feeder of the NHL.”
In the spring of 1987, Donato was enjoying himself in a friend’s swimming pool when someone came out to tell him he had a phone call. It was the Boston Bruins, who had drafted him in the fifth round. Donato spent four years at Harvard before signing with the Bruins and went on to play almost 800 NHL games.
Back then, most top NHL prospects participated in major junior hockey in Canada because, well, most of them were Canadian, including 38 of the 42 picks over the first two rounds in 1987. But numerous Americans also forfeited their NCAA eligibility to play major junior hockey because it was viewed as the better path to the NHL.
In the ensuing decades, a growing pool of American talent found that the ability to use first-class training facilities, get an education and play fewer games (often against older competition) made college more appealing. New college athlete compensation rules haven’t created dramatic payments in hockey compared to football or basketball, but the money is also growing.
“You get more practice and weight room time because you’re only playing two games a week, whereas the CHL is playing close to an NHL season,” said Jeremy Dewar, a senior advisor for Stretch Pass, which advises youth players.
A 2015 study from the NCAA estimated that 7.5 percent of college hockey players made the NHL, compared to less than 1.5 percent of college football/basketball players reaching the NFL or NBA. Data compiled by The Hockey News indicated that more than half of college hockey players over the last four years later played professionally somewhere. That is, partly, because there are many fewer college hockey programs than there are for football or basketball.
But the college hockey path took another leap last summer when the NCAA changed its rules, allowing major junior CHL players to come to college hockey for the first time. That change has begun to reshape the makeup of college hockey, introducing a new pool of eligible NHL-caliber prospects. It has also made college hockey more Canadian. Gavin McKenna, who is projected to be the No. 1 pick in this summer’s NHL Draft, played at Penn State this past season after coming from major junior hockey.
“It’s really hard to play college hockey right now if you’re a young player,” said Michigan State coach Adam Nightingale, whose 2025-26 team had 15 draft picks on the roster. “The depth throughout college hockey had a big step with the rule change.”
Still, dealing with NHL teams and their prospects is nothing new for college coaches. Nightingale said he has weekly or even daily communication with NHL teams about their players’ development. Lee, who has an advisor agent, remains in constant contact with the Predators, too.
“Everyone’s goal is the same, to have a kid reach his potential,” Nightingale said. “We’ve got great relationships with all the teams and don’t build a fence or act like we know everything. They’re another tool to help these guys keep improving.”
Could that relationship be a model for other college sports? It would take buy-in from the pro leagues, and there’s been no need — or interest. The NCAA D-I Cabinet last week approved a new rule requiring prospects to withdraw from opt-in drafts like the NBA before they’ve enrolled in college, as a way to cut down on international players coming to college basketball after getting drafted. Every year, numerous international NBA picks remain overseas to develop, an arrangement not dissimilar to college hockey.
Some industry experts believe that Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith would be the No. 1 pick in this week’s NFL Draft if he were eligible. Why not let a team draft him, hold his rights and wait out what is expected to be his final year at Ohio State? Teams don’t want to open the risk door of drafting players too early, and growing the draft pool would shrink the number of draft spots (and money) for departed seniors.
“NFL owners want to maximize their investment,” said Illinois head football coach Bret Bielema, who spent two years working for the New England Patriots. “So to play the guessing game makes no sense. … When freshmen play for us, a lot might have physical abilities, but very few have the mental ability. To (draft) two or three years in advance is a disservice to the team or the kid.”
When asked before the 2024 national championship game whether Smith should try to test the NFL rule the way he did, Clarett said Smith shouldn’t even entertain it.
“Go enjoy your three years of college,” he said. “Prepare for the NFL and just go continue to live your life. … (NIL) makes it easier to take care of yourself. You can get compensated for your talent. These guys will be cool.”
Meanwhile, the NCAA’s recent push for a new five-year eligibility clock, beginning at either 19 years old or high school graduation, could clean up football eligibility, limit the window for international basketball players, but also impact college hockey, which skews older.
“It’s just common sense,” Bielema said.
The hockey landscape gives players more paths to the pros, and thus more power, than the systems in other sports. A team has a player’s rights for multiple years, but the player can make his own decision based on the options. For Lee, a late-blooming prospect, the plan had always been to return for a sophomore season with Michigan State hockey. Lee and his agent made their plan known to the Predators before the 2025 draft. He’ll be back in East Lansing for the 2026-27 season, looking to improve his leadership and versatility.
“We had a Zoom call with the general manager and player development guy,” Lee said of the Predators. “We talked through how my year went, what the plan is moving forward. They’ve been great staying in touch all year.”
On the flip side, Michigan State knew fellow freshman Porter Martone would go pro after one season. Martone, who came from the CHL, was drafted sixth overall by the Philadelphia Flyers last summer. One week after Michigan State’s season ended, Martone scored his first NHL goal, an overtime winner. He’s already scored twice in their first-round playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Hogan believes this all benefits college hockey in a big way. Around 33 percent of NHL players come from college, but the new eligibility rules could increase that to more than half in the coming years, he said. As college becomes a more common pathway to the NHL, fans can follow those players even closer as they come up the domestic college pipeline.
College hockey is starting to feel a lot like other major college sports. But with a slew of players having their professional landing spot already determined, it remains a unicorn system.
“The best players in the world are now going to play college hockey,” Hogan said.
