Berg’s involvement in the lawsuit began with a dispute over an education clause that was part of his contract.

The son of Bill Berg, a former N.H.L. player, Sam Berg was drafted by the Niagara Ice Dogs of the O.H.L. and joined the team at 16. He played only eight games, all in 2013-14, before being sent to a lower league. Later that season, as Berg sat out with a shoulder injury, the Ice Dogs contended that he quit.

According to Berg’s lawsuit, under his contract with the Ice Dogs the team agreed “to irrevocably guarantee funding for four years of a bachelor’s degree upon Sam playing at least one exhibition or regular-season game.”

Berg said that he enrolled at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, expecting the Ice Dogs and the O.H.L. to cover four years of tuition. (Undergraduate tuition there is about $7,000 a year in Canadian dollars, or a little more than $6,000 in United States currency.) But soon after he entered the university, he said, he received an email informing him that the team and the league would pay for only one semester.

The Ice Dogs declined to comment on Berg’s version of what happened. But soon after the suit was filed, Marty Williamson, the team’s coach and general manager, told The St. Catharines Standard in Ontario, “He quit, and the league asked us what happened, and we told them he quit, so he’s entitled to his time served, and that’s one year.”

Berg and his father then turned to Ted Charney, a Toronto lawyer.

“Ted took a look at the contract and said there’s a bigger issue here — these teams don’t even give their players minimum wage,” Berg said. “He said if you want to fight this, we’ll fight it. I said, ‘Absolutely.’ ”

The suit has proved divisive in Canada. Those opposed are concerned that if players were paid, many teams would be driven out of business. Those who side with Berg say that junior teams are profitable enterprises.