OHL team sues U of Michigan student newspaper

http://www.guelphmercury.com/sports/article/757933--rangers-sue-michigan-student-newspaper-reporter

Maybe someone that knows more about minor league hockey than I do could explain the details of why a payment like this would be so damning.

 

There are rumors of payments, but I don't think any big payment has been proven, right? Or are there parents who suddenly can afford a new house or a new car?

As for the student newspaper, the EIC did the typical douche student reporter move by hanging up.

 

Agreed. A bit cowardly. How can journalists demand accountability from other public figures if they won't accept having to answer for themselves?

 

Here's the original story.

http://www.michigandaily.com/blog/hot-commodity-trouba-5050-between-michigan-ohl

This is really worth suing over??

 

I worked in hockey operations for an OHL team for 10 years and know many of the people involved at the Kitchener end.

Junior hockey is very much becoming like baseball with the haves - big money teams like Kitchener, London and Windsor and small-money teams like the one I worked for. We all heard rumours about how much team A was paying Player X (either high-end American or European import) but never saw any proof, nobody ever produced the smoking gun. Funny how that figure was always $200,000.

Here was the Rangers' first response to this:

http://tinyurl.com/6sady8s

Now I am not naive enough to think that players like Jack Campbell and Cam Fowler and others left full rides at D-1 schools to come to the OHL for $50 a week and gas money, but I think the dollar figures that get tossed around by the NCAA schools is absurd, even for successful, profitable teams like the Rangers, London and Windsor. Sure they may pay the kid $100 a week, give him a gas card (which he will use to fill up teammates' cars) pay for flights and hotel rooms for mom and dad and sis to come in a few times a year to watch the kid. But to pay a player - short of a mega-star like Crosby - the equivalent of the yearly salary of an OHL coach and GM? No, can't buy that.

Connor Carrick walked away from a full ride at Michigan to play this season for the Plymouth Whalers. Where's the UM paper's outrage at that. Are they saying the Whalers didn't or couldn't afford to pay the big bucks to get an NHL first rounder?

The Rangers are a community-owned team and their financials are subject to review by their board of directors and shareholders. I am not surprised they are fighting back, everyone in the junior hockey end sees the NCAA bitching as whining that they can't get or keep top players. Trouba says he is keeping his word and staying in Ann Arbor and I don't doubt that. For a kid who came up through the NTDP, a chance to play world juniors for the USA would most likely be gone if he bolted to the OHL. That can be big for a kid like that. But if the Jets, who took him in the first round, recommend that he go to the OHL we'll see how quickly he changes his address from Ann Arbor to Kitchener. A kid's NHL team speaks much louder than whatever money he will get form a junior team.

 

The Canadian Hockey League which governs the OHL along with the QMJHL and WHL is consider pro hockey to the NCAA because 1. players with NHL contracts play in these leagues and 2. all players receive weekly stipends ranging from 50-100 dollars a week (20 year olds or known as overagers can receive a little more).

The OHL particularly is fighting rumors that they paying players under the table to forego college hockey and play major junior in Canada. Kitchener, London, Windsor in the OHL, Quebec, Moncton, Halifax, Rimouski in the QMJHL, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Portland in the WHL all are able to get high profiled Americans/Canadians to decommit from a NCAA school or get a high profiled European player.

If you read around people have hinted at teams paying under the table for players http://www.westerncollegehockeyblog.com/2012/7/4/3136101/worst-kept-secret or getting extra benefits http://hfboards.hockeysfuture.com/showpost.php?p=30040957&postcount=19 (Russian Twins and apparently the whole family moved to Quebec City. 90% of the kids in the CHL live with billet families during the season.)

This isn't the first time Kitchener has been accused of paying a player six figures. Jeff Jackson the current Notre Dame coach accused them of offering Cam Fowler (currently with the Anaheim Duck) 500,000 dollars when he was 16. Fowler was committed to Notre Dame before signing with Windsor after Kitchener dropped his OHL rights and Windsor drafted him.

http://www.westerncollegehockeyblog.com/2011/3/16/2053696/happy-youre-not-getting-sued-day-jeff-jackson

The OHL and the QMJHL have hired people to look into their teams paying under the table, but in my opinion it's nothing more than a PR move.

Kitchener is also a community owned team but after they hosted the crowned jewel of major junior hockey the Memorial Cup in 2008 where this viral video took place

the team took a vacation to the Bahamas after the season.

http://catch21.ca/printArticle/360243

For me if theres smoke theres fire

 

I guess what I'm a bit unclear on is why it would be troublesome if these teams pay players to forego college hockey. How is that any different than someone joining the MLB or NBA knowing there is money if they do?

 

Carrick was a fifth round pick, but I think the rumors of Trouba going to Kitchener after he finished with the NTDP have gone back since Kitchener first drafted him. Carrick a great player himself really didn't have those rumors swirling around him since he was originally drafted by Guelph which doesn't have history of getting these high profiled players and he signed with Plymouth under the radar in this Trouba saga.

I don't think Trouba chances for playing for the World Junior Team would have been gone if he plays for Kitchener because he played for the USA at the WJC's this past season.

My question is for Kitchener as a community owned team and you may know the answer, how was there trip to the Bahamas paid for?

 

Because the CHL wants us to believe teams arent paying players under the table and every player is getting allowed allowance.

 

What it comes down to is we are dealing with hockey players ranging from 16 to 20 years old, I don't think there is any doubt some of them are getting extra benefits or payouts under the table -- the same as you would with NCAA programs and some of their extra wealthy boosters. Six figures though? I have a hard time believing that. If the allegations proved true, it would be a PR disaster for the Rangers, and as the CHL I believe is still considered amateur hockey in Canada, there would be major sanctions by the league. In addition to the stipends a team can offer, they also pay to billet the player and every player in the CHL receives scholarship money based on time spent in the league. You play four years in the CHL you get four years of tuition to a Canadian institution paid for.

There are many reasons a player would decommit from a hockey scholarship. If they're drafted, it could be at the insistence of the NHL team. They could also decide school isn't for them. I think most still view the CHL as a better path to the NHL, at least as far as development is concerned, although you see more and more NCAA players getting drafted and going on to successful NHL careers. There's also the profile of the league, it's easier to make a name for yourself playing in the CHL as opposed to the NCAA, largely due to exposure.

 

Major Junior has become big business, I have no problem with these kids getting more money than the BS stipend and allowance they get.

 

Dr. Evil voice: 1 millllion dollars

http://therecord.blogs.com/rangers_report/2012/07/rangers-seek-1m-in-damages.html