Team Me: The Off-Ice Team Every NHL Prospect Needs
The NHL Entry Draft recently wrapped up in Buffalo, and as usual it gave armchair captains a lot to jaw about: “generational talents” at the top, a few surprises down the draft ranks, some blockbuster trades in the background, and, of course, Justin Bieber (!). But amid the hoopla and the manoeuvring and what it […]
An Open Letter to OHL Draft-Eligible Players
May was Mental Health Awareness Month. There is a virtually limitless number of forces that can impact your mental health as a hockey player. But if you are a 15-year-old elite-level player, there is one that looms far larger than all the rest: the OHL Draft. Many players (and parents!) spend YEARS positioning for a […]
Hockey In Canada – Where Are We At?
Olympic Gold Medal – Men’s Ice Hockey: Team USA Olympic Gold Medal – Women’s Ice Hockey: Team USA World Junior Hockey Championship Winner: Team Sweden The three biggest “best-on-best” hockey events over the last three months have all gone the way of Team USA. This has sparked a conversation across the hockey landscape: Has […]
An Update for Year End
As we come into the final month of 2025, we felt as though the time has come to update SkateGuard. Three years ago, Mike Jaczko and I set out to put a passion project in motion. Through his work with NHL alumni members and a professional relationship with a handful of current and former NHL […]
The Main Event: The CHL, the NCAA, NIL Legislation, and the Changing Face of Hockey – October 2025 Update
The face of hockey changed in November of 2024. This we now know. The decision by the NCAA allowing major junior players to play Division 1 hockey is a little over a year old. The repercussions have come in waves. The initial wave saw a number of players immediately jump around junior leagues. Major junior […]
House vs. NCAA
The House v. NCAA case, which took effect on July 1, has changed how college athletes can be paid. It wrapped up three anti-trust lawsuits that claimed the NCAA unfairly blocked players from making money off their name, image and likeness (NIL). Two big changes came out of this: 1. Schools can now pay athletes […]
The Biggest 10
Bang! That was the sound of the shot across the bow of the entire hockey world when 2026 NHL draft top prospect Gavin McKenna announced that he would be playing the 2025-26 season for the Penn State Nittany Lions of the Big Ten, the highest-profile hockey conference in the NCAA. And with all due respect […]
Confronting CTE in the Game We Love
There was a story that caught my eye recently. Early last year—March 18, 2024, to be exact—former NHL enforcer Chris Simon took his own life. This has been a far too common occurrence in the last handful of years. Whether it is Steve Montador (whose story was behind the initial founding of SkateGuard), Wade Belak, […]
The Rapid Ascent of Women’s Hockey
We need to talk about women’s hockey again. The momentum that the sport is experiencing right now cannot and should not go unnoticed. At SkateGuard, we wrote a two-part series back in 2023 chronicling how after years—decades, if we’re being fair to many of the early ambassadors of the women’s game—of very well-intentioned efforts to […]
What to Look for in a Hockey Coach
Whether you are a big-name NHL free agent trying to decide where to sign on July 1, or a junior hockey player trying to decide which NCAA program to commit to, or a 13-year-old trying to decide where to play AAA hockey next season, there is one common factor underlying all of these decisions: the […]