QMJHL commissioner Mario Cecchini on expansion, relationship with NCAA and USHL, fighting rule, more

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When Cecchini was hired, he succeeded outgoing commissioner Gilles Courteau, who held the post for nearly four decades, after he resigned in the midst of a hazing scandal. In his first year as commissioner, Cecchini made headlines when he changed the league’s name (replacing Major with Maritimes), effectively banned fighting and reduced the schedule from 68 to 64 games. Since then, he has brought on a new streaming rights holder (FloHockey), partnered with PEM Hockey to give all general managers wider access to analytics and overseen the return of junior hockey to Newfoundland. And then there’s the big one: the NCAA’s decision last summer to open eligibility to major junior players. Earlier this season, the Journal de Quebec’s Kevin Dubé reported on talks — since put on the back burner — between the USHL and CHL about a potential merger, and of tensions around the USHL’s exclusion from the NHL’s transfer agreement with the CHL. On Dec. 31, that transfer agreement expired and was extended for the short term as the two sides went back and forth on what it would look like to incorporate the USHL into the agreement and regulate movement between the two leagues. Among the things the CHL would likely want in return in those negotiations is understood to be further expansion rights into the U.S. (the QMJHL is the lone CHL league without an American market). In a wide-ranging conversation with The Athletic on the third anniversary of his tenure as the league’s top executive, Cecchini talked about all of it. Note: The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity. I’ll get to the hot-button topics, but it has been a couple of years now, and I want to start with the decision to reduce your schedule, because the other two leagues have not followed suit. Are you happy with the decision, and what impact has it had on the league’s bottom line? Sometimes, as you know, the QMJHL likes to be different (*smiles*). But nobody has seen a downfall. The teams and the communities knew why we were doing it. I think it alleviates. To a minimum, it gives back some practice time, it gives back some rest, and it gives a little bit of air. And it allows us to get away from those famous midweek games that are sometimes difficult. We went from 75 of those to 48 over the last two years. And our crowds overall are rising. This year, we’re back to 2 million fans, even though we lost a total of 28 games. We’re happy with it. Where does the QMJHL’s relationship with the NCAA and USHL stand in your view? What has the back and forth been since last summer? Well, one thing I’ve learned is that the NCAA and college hockey are two different things. One is the governing body, and the other one sometimes has the same passionate differences — let me call it that — between us and the NCAA. College hockey has the same things that we’re not necessarily happy with. We had meetings recently, and that came to light. College hockey also isn’t sanctioned, and sometimes that can be perceived as an advantage, but it also forces us to rethink our overall relationship with all of the governing bodies. So that’s where we are now, is stepping back. The Memorial Cup is the time for us to get together and think ahead, and all of these questions will be on the table. With the USHL, is there an ongoing dialogue between the two leagues in terms of ways that you could potentially work together or benefit each other? And where does a potential transfer agreement stand? There’s ongoing discussions. There’s lots of agreements and some disagreements. At the end of the day, we would all prefer a world where chaos would not be a part of it, and order would be in it, and there would be an easy transfer agreement in it. Now we’re discussing all of this as we speak, and I remain fairly optimistic that we will get somewhere that is satisfactory to both sides. But communication has been good in the sense that it has been ongoing, nobody is leaving the table, everybody is talking to one another, and trying to find solutions. When I think about the QMJHL and where you’re positioned geographically in terms of attracting talent, I immediately think about Boston, Massachusetts and the Northeast, and attracting more American players into the league. How do you feel about that, and about your teams prioritizing Americans in terms of recruitment, maybe in a different way than they have in the past? And have you considered restricting numbers a la import draft? The genesis of this is always the NCAA rule change. We like to say that we’re a part of the biggest and best league in the world, and now it’s even more true because there’s no more obstacles, because the better Europeans and the better Americans can come to play in one of our three leagues up in Canada, or with some teams, of course, in the U.S. with the OHL and WHL. So that’s where it starts. And it’s hard to guess what will happen with 19-year-olds, so we decided not to make any rules because, at this point, we just wanted to see if the influx of talent and the Q becoming a destination would actually materialize. And it did to your point. We had about 40 Americans in our league this year at any given point, the equivalent of two teams, which I think contributed to elevating the league because you obviously get better players that will come and play here. I think our teams prioritize the best player available, and it just so happens that the new pool of player is American, and so guys who couldn’t have been here before now came and played with us. Right now, we want to see where everything lands over 2-3 years, but we did not want to shy away from that influx of new talent coming in. Now, if some people leave earlier than they should, at least we have this influx of talent coming in at the younger end. And everybody becomes better when the caliber goes up. But that’s how we look at it. It’s year to year. Very attentive to all the movements and all of the rule changes. It seems like there’s a rule changing every month in the NCAA right now. So all of these things are under scrutiny, but that’s where we stand right now. And we always said it was going to take 2-3 years for the dust to settle. People forget, but it has only been one year. You mentioned the other leagues having American teams. Is expansion something that the Q is focused on, and what barriers does USA Hockey or the USHL potentially present in that? We have started to look at it actively, but we slowed down because we’re in the middle of that negotiation, and we want to make sure that everybody is happy with the system if we go there. So we are discussing all of these things. But we’ve slowed down because we’re talking, and exchanging ideas, and negotiating. But one thing that I will say is geographically, we are at an advantage, where I don’t think we would ever disturb the USHL. They’re still a bus league as far as I know, so it would be very difficult for them to come to Maine and play in Maine. It would be too long a trip. So those are the discussions that we’re having right now. And while we’ve slowed it down a bit, if you look over the next five years, it’s certainly something that we want to see happen. You talked about rules constantly changing. Now there’s the prospect of the NHL implementing new eligibility allowing for a limited number of 19-year-old first-round picks to play in the AHL beginning next season. What impact do you think that might have on your league? In theory, if you have 2-3 first-rounders out of Q this year, those players could become eligible to play in the AHL at an earlier age. First of all, any impact is not necessarily good news. At the same time, we view this as: we prep our guys for the NHL ultimately, and that’s the next step. And sometimes the AHL is the doorstep between us to the NHL and the logical next step. We have to keep that in mind, and if we prepare them for that, then we have to accept that some of them might leave us earlier. Just like Alexis Lafrenière was ready to leave at 18. We would have loved to keep him for that extra two years, but he probably deserved to be upstairs. So I try to look at it from that point of view. It’s part of our job and mandate to get them up there. And at the same time, I’m a bit encouraged. We’ve had very good conversations with the NHL GMs and everybody, I think, realizes that the AHL is not necessarily a league for teenagers. And it’s going to be rare. A lot of GMs will tell us, “If I go back, I can maybe only think of one or two guys that would have been acceptable.” Everybody likes the flexibility in the rules, but I don’t see NHL teams going crazy. I think more than anybody, when they have an asset, they want to protect it and make sure that that asset grows where it should. So I think it’s going to be prudent decisions, and they’re the experts. So we’ll really have to see, but I don’t suddenly expect 32 players to be in the NHL. With the increased emphasis on recruiting and facilities, do you worry at all about competitive balance for some of your smaller markets? I’ve been in those rinks in Moncton and Quebec; they’re impressive. Do you worry about some of those markets falling behind? And how important is it going to be for those markets to work with their municipalities on upgrades to the rinks? It’s going to be very important. In my first PowerPoint presentation, I had infrastructure as one of my first topics. I’m actually meeting with the minister in Quebec at the end of June because it’s a Quebec challenge more than a Maritimes challenge at this point, just from a numbers perspective. I will always be very respectful of schools and hospitals, and if you need those, you should get those. We get that. But sports can not always be at the bottom of the pile also for the last 50 years. Sometimes it can be easy to say, “Well, sports can wait.” And yes, it can, but maybe not 50 years in a row. Because we have rinks that really need love. It’s very important for us. Challenging but important. How has the fighting rule played out on the ice in your estimation? I think it has played out pretty well. Everybody has an opinion, and I respect everybody’s opinion, but for us, and it’s a very sensitive subject, as you can imagine, first of all, I always answer people with facts because it’s the only way I can get away from people’s opinions. And a lot of what people told me has not materialized. First of all, our draft picks. I got here in 2023 with 12 draft picks. We’ve had 15 and 19 with that rule. This year, we have 41 players on NHL Central Scouting’s list, and we should probably expect about the same. During the years with the fight rule, we have not slowed down at the draft. We grew our crowds the first year by 5 percent, then 4.7, then this year 2.8. Even on the business side, sponsorship has been going up. So our crowds have not gone down. A lot of people talk about the sticks and cheap shots, and you watch more OHL and WHL games than I do, but I don’t see a major difference in that part of the game between their game and our game. Would I like us to be more within the rules? Could we be more tough? I don’t know, I’ll leave that up to the specialists. But the coaches are responsible for that (discipline) and make sure that it’s in their game plan, and we’re fully supportive of that. You can imagine all the things that people told me. … And none of that has actually happened. Certainly, it has not hurt us. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms