This afternoon a post on X brought to light a situation involving Oilers prospect Matt Savoie and Hockey Canada that once again exposes the organization for questionable decisions. Throughout the week Hockey Canada has faced a ton of backlash from fans due to the lack of success during the World Junior Championships. All of the frustration with Hockey Canada has now brought to light a situation involving current Edmonton Oilers prospect and former WHL star Matt Savoie. When Savoie was first beginning his junior hockey career he was granted exceptional status by Hockey Canada to begin playing in the Western Hockey League (WHL) at a younger age. The problem for Savoie was that he was still exploring his options as any young hockey player does and was considering going the NCAA route. As a result, to keep his options open Matt Savoie was hoping to join his brother Carter in the AJHL for at least a year before committing to the WHL. However, according to an interview done with Scott Savoie the father of Matt and Carter, this was a move that was blocked by Hockey Canada as they forced Matt to play in the WHL. Hockey Canada's reasoning at the time for forcing Savoie to the WHL was that a player who is granted exceptional status should play at the highest level possible which they deemed to be the WHL. <div align='center' class='pl20 pr20'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/EksHome/status/1875317730620191154'> </a></blockquote></div> However, in reaction to recent events with the NCAA and CHL agreement leading to reports of many young stars leaving the CHL for the NCAA many now believe that Hockey Canada had more sinister motives. <h3>Did Hockey Canada force Matt Savoie to the WHL to keep him away from the NCAA?</h3> With the CHL/NCAA agreement now in place we are constantly seeing players that are currently playing in major junior commit to NCAA schools to play in after their time in the CHL. Some players have decided to abandon playing in the CHL altogether and have made the jump to the NCAA in the middle of the season. Now there is speculation that top CHL stars like Gavin McKenna could leave the CHL early to head to the NCAA. These discussions bring up the question did Hockey Canada and the WHL make Matt Savoie play in the CHL specifically to keep him away from the NCAA? While we cannot know for sure there are not many other reasons to keep Savoie from playing with his brother for a year in another Hockey Canada-affiliated league like the AJHL. It seems fairly likely that Hockey Canada and the WHL were afraid of losing a top talent like Matt Savoie to the NCAA as they have since then with players like Adam Fantilli, Owen Power, and even Macklin Celebrini. With Hockey Canada receiving so much backlash over the last week all eyes will be on the organization to see how they respond and adapt moving forward into unprecedented times in junior hockey.