Former NHL player and head coach Bruce Boudreau did not mince words when it comes to the NCAA allowing players from the CHL to play post-secondary hockey in the United States.
"I think it's going to completely ruin everything. College hockey isn't going to be college hockey anymore and it's not junior hockey. If you're good and you don't think you can gain anything by staying, whether it's your draft year or your year after your draft, you're going to go somewhere else," Boudreau said on the SportsCage.
"I think it's going to ruin junior hockey and I hope they find a solution to it soon because the Gavin McKenna's of the world are what put people in the building. I mean to only get to see him for one or two years when he was a 15-16 year old is not right. I think Penn State offered him $700,000, so you can't blame him."
The new rules allow CHL players to play in the NCAA for the 2025-2026 season. McKenna is leaving the Medicine Hat Tigers to attend Penn State University. Another prospect in the same 2026 NHL Draft class as McKenna is Keaton Verhoeff from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. He is leaving the WHL's Victoria Royals to attend the University of North Dakota.
Boudreau's playing career in the NHL lasted seven years, the first six with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1976 to 1982. The next time he played in the NHL was during his stint with the Chicago Blackhawks, where he appeared in seven games during the 1985-1986 season. He continued to play hockey in other leagues until he retired as a player in 1992. His trophy cabinet as a player consists of two Memorial Cup wins, one in 1973 and another in 1975 with the Toronto Marlboros. He also won the J. Ross Robertson Cup in 1975 with the Marlboros and was awarded the John B. Sollenberger Trophy in 1988 when he led the AHL in scoring for the Springfield Indians.
After his playing career was over, Boudreau transitioned into coaching and eventually earned a job in the NHL with the Washington Capitals from 2007 to 2012. Following his time with the Capitals, Boudreau coached the Anaheim Ducks from 2012 to 2016 and then worked for the Minnesota Wild from 2016 to 2020. The last team that Boudreau coached in the NHL was the Vancouver Canucks from 2021 to 2023. His trophy case as a coach contains the 1993-94 IHL Coach of The Year with the Fort Wayne Komets, the 1998-99 ECHL's Kelly Cup with the Mississippi Sea Wolves, the 2005-06 AHL's Calder Cup with the Hershey Bears and 2007-08 Jack Adams award for Coach of The Year with the Capitals.
Besides coaching and playing, Boudreau helped out with the hockey movie Slap Shot.
"The Minnesota Fighting Saints folded and I went back down to Johnstown, which was their farm club, just at the time they were making the movie," Boudreau said.
"George Roy Hill came in and he said: 'Okay, I need a scene today.' There's a big difference between making movies back then and making them now. He says: 'I need a scene today. We need an apartment that's really sloppy and messy and sort of worn down.' Everybody stood up and pointed to me. We used my apartment in the movie, where Paul Newman is lying on the bed with the dog. That's my apartment, I'm pretty proud of it. But for 50 bucks a month, I wasn't getting much more than what you saw, the bed and the kitchen."
