The transfer portal is here, so learn to love it 

For the first time, the individuals primarily responsible for the wild popularity of collegiate athletics now wield the same rights that were once only afforded to the people who convinced them to pack up and move thousands of miles away from home to East Podunk State. 

For too long, college athletes have been hamstrung by miles of red tape and a never-ending army of administrators, who guffawed and dismissed the very notion that those who do the playing are also those doing the heavy lifting when it comes to skyrocketing revenues for the NCAA. 

Now, the power has shifted to the players. Athletes in all sports, including hockey, are entering the transfer portal en masse. Some of these players are leaving current situations in search of more playing time. Some are out of runway with current coaching staffs. And, yes, some are looking for a payday, cloaked in the AUDACITY to seek commensurate compensation for their work. 

There are athletes in the portal because of bad advice. Absolutely. Some bad actors in the advisor or handler space are looking for a cut of the loot that comes with a new set of windbreakers and track pants. Some players would probably be better served by getting a key to the weight room, or badgering a zamboni driver for some extra ice time instead of signing up for a new dorm room on a new campus. 

But, for now, those are not legal reasons to restrict athlete movement. 

The portal is here. Enjoy it for what it is. 

The altar of the almighty dollar

Along with the transfer portal come the moans of money’s new (eternal) role in player movement. 

Jeers from fans (who regularly update their LinkedIn profiles in search of better opportunities) of programs losing several standouts to the portal make comments (some lighthearted, some bitter) about how the player’s new team purchased the forward, defender, or goaltender, or how a rival stole a budding star. Some diehards will wonder how that program “that doesn’t even care about hockey” wrote checks to buy a championship. 

Uh, yeah. That’s how it works now. Talent gets recognized, and talent gets rewarded. Talent gets paid. This mechanism allows programs with next-to-zero tradition to become major players within one offseason cycle. Find one or two alums with deep pockets and a love for hockey. Monitor which programs could be firing coaches. Wait for the blood in the water, then strike with a fist full of cash and the sweet whisper of opportunity.

Do you think your team didn't perform up to scratch this season? Give your program's benefactors 60 text messages, 48 hours, a half-dozen wire transfers, and BOOM. You've just added fresh blood to the top six, a brand new right-shot defender, a shutdown goaltender...or maybe all three. 

AND ANOTHER THING…

In a brave new digital world, sports and leagues are no longer bound to a specific part of the calendar. Internet traffic and attention, the new metrics of cultural currency, are cultivated by making your sport or league must-follow content. What do humans love more than free samples? NEW INFORMATION TO DIGEST AND THEN VERBALLY REGURGITATE WITH LIKE-MINDED PEERS IN PERSON OR ON DISCORD (but not Signal, for obvious reasons). 

In hockey’s case, the transfer portal provides a sport that desperately needs an all-season identity with a perpetual content machine. Instead of 95% of college hockey fanbases moving on to baseball or the NBA and NHL postseason, fans are scouring the internet for the latest news and nuggets regarding player movement. 

Hockey is a line item for the NCAA 

A significant amount of “the discourse” following last week’s Regional play centered around one, nearly universal opinion - Regional games should be played at more appealing facilities.  God bless the folks in Manchester for all they did to get the Southern New Hampshire University Arena ready for hockey the week after hosting Jeff Dunham and his puppets. To my knowledge, Jeff Dunham and his puppets do not perform on ice. Jeff Dunham and his puppets perform on a stage. According to sources, two of Jeff Dunham’s puppets are now in the transfer portal. 

Assumedly, the NCAA wants to hold these games at neutral sites to offset any advantage for a game’s higher seed. On-paper fairness is the priority for the sport’s governing body, not atmosphere, marketability or TV appeal. A happy coincidence is that the combined seating capacity for this year’s host sites is approximately 32,519, while the combined capacity for the home arenas of this year’s host schools (New Hampshire, North Dakota, Bowling Green, and Penn State) is 30,082. Without UND’s outlier of Ralph Engelstad Arena (capacity: 11,568), the gap would be significantly larger. 

For the NCAA’s upper-upper management - and not necessarily those in the association's hockey-specific leadership - hockey is a box to be checked, not a spectacle to nurture.