> According to CSB scouts Major Junior is deteriorating.
>
> Take a look at THN this month. As usual every first rounder, not counting
> Europe is from where?....MAJOR JUNIOR! Tim Connolly is the only American
> exception who might crack the top 20, and throw in one IHL player.
 
Yeah - but most of the list was Europeans -- Canadians aren't happy about that
either.
 
 
> The fact is: 16 year old players are given tons of ice in MAJOR JUNIOR and
> that's the only way players really develop. Major Junior has more games and
> higher caliber competition than the USHL. Even though they've been chided as
> being the "slug em" league they're still "cracking" the NHL "top ten" list!
> Granted not every kid that skates MAJOR JUNIOR makes it either.
 
I don't think you are correct in either assertion:  That 16-year olds get a ton
of ice time (good 16-year olds do, just like they would in USHL) - major juniors
have been chided for "win at all costs" mentality for years. And, I don't agree
that playing them up the wazoo at age 16 helps development.
 
For every example you state, I can give you numerous counter-examples of 16-year
olds lured to major junior in the hope they are going to get drafted by the NHL.
Kids who were borderline and could've, in my opinion, better developed at the US
College system, both as a person and player.  These kids wind up never getting
drafted, then just finish up juniors and go play in the low minors, hoping above
hope maybe one day they'll get called up and impress someone, and in 99% of the
cases it never happens.
 
This fact is clear (and I've had the discussion for years): There are no more
players of the caliber of Amonte, Leetch, Tkachuk, Leclair, etc... playing in US
Colleges.  Every team in the ECAC, good or bad, had an NHL player and then some
in the 80's and into the early 90's.  Why isn't St. Lawrence churning out
players like Jamie Baker, or Cornell with Nieuwendyk, or Yale with Kudelski, or
even Princeton with Andre Faust?  They aren't there anymore.
 
These players aren't necessarily Americans either.
 
So that is obvious.  It's also clear many top-level US players are deserting to
Canadian major juniors - but is it A LOT more so? I don't know.
 
The fact is, however, that Canadians are lamenting all the same things.
 
There were 5 Americans on the All-Star team yesterday, and 19 Canadians.
Modano, Amonte, Tkachuk, Roenick and Leclair. Is this a bad sign?  I'm not sure
I would say so.  It's a 3-1 ratio of players in the NHL that are Canadian to
American -- and probably a 3-1 ratio of kids who play growing up. So the numbers
seems to make sense.  I wouldn't expect the US to be out-producing Canada, and
I'm not sure we should be in a tizzy over the fact that we're not.
 
How many Canadians in the '96 World Cup played US college hockey?  Brind'Amour,
Joseph, Kariya (was injured) - there were others.
 
The influx of incredibly gifted Europeans has a major affect on all of North
America.  Is this a bad thing?  I don't think so.  It hurts our pride, but we'll
adjust.  I do think there are problems and I'd like to see the US do better at
various things, and there may be some ideas to do that -- but I don't perceive
the problem as being as drastic as others do.
 
 
> So what's happening to player development USA style! USA hockey is  on the
> band wagon, making sure that those few "elite" players get siphoned off to
> USA
> training facilities, away from their homes, schools and friends. Thus, the
> dissolution of high school talent pools.
 
Please -- dissolution of high school talent pools?  Many of these kids are
coming from places where their high schools could never sufficiently compete at
a decent level.
 
 
> THN said Gionta was the "best player on a bad team," and, that player
> chemistry still plagues the Americans. So what gives!? (-:
 
No they didn't.  They said that the was NO chemistry problem this year, and they
still were only 8th.
 
I don't think the World Junior results can be sufficiently judged until next
year or the year after.
 
If you want kids staying home at their local high schools to play -- then go out
and pay billions upon billions across the country to build rinks and train
coaches.  Then, no one would have to leave home.  But that's unrealistic for the
next 100 years.
 
AW
 
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