John Haeussler writes:
> John Edwards writes (on Info-Hockey-L)...
> >Two college players, LW Jason Botterill of Michigan, and RW Mike Watt of
>
> Very interesting.  It's often been proposed that Canada resents
> its native sons who dip south of the border to play college hockey
> in the states.  Whether this is true or not, I have to believe that more
> than 2/32 of the young, Canadian talent is playing in the NCAA.
> It's a shame that more collegians aren't invited, but that's the
> way it is.  (Note: No value judgment on my part.)
 
There are two things there that I'll try to address. First, the low number
of collegians at the WJC camp. I'm sure there is probably some Major Junior
bias on the team, if only because the coaching staff is normally all Major
Junior coaches. This year, the head coach is from Kelowna of the WHL and an
assistant is from Drummondville of the QMJHL (the other assistant is from
McGill U.). I don't know how players are chosen for the pre-selection camp
that's held each August (and from which the players for the main camp are
chosen). But even if there is no active bias, the coaches are going to see
a Major player more than they would a NCAA player. There is also a very
low number of OHL players at the camp (7, I think), and I think that has
a lot to do with the fact that there are no OHL coaches on the staff.
 
The other thing to consider is that NCAA players (Clarkson's 16-year-old
aside) tend to be older than Major Junior players. Only 1976 birthdates
(19-year-olds) and younger are eligible for the WJC, so that eliminates
most of the best Canadian collegians already, I would suspect.
 
I also noticed a rather low number of CHL players on the US Jr. team, so
whatever bias there is looks to be working both ways.
 
The other thing is resentment of players crossing borders. I know the
QMJHL tries very hard to keep Quebec players in Quebec. They actually have
a fund set up for that purpose. Hull dipped into that fund to sign one of
our players (Martin Menard) a couple of years ago. Had he stayed with us,
he probably would be a sophomore for the Larries^H^H^H^H^H^H^HSkating
Saints now. Daniel Briere of Drummondville also got some money out of that
fund, otherwise I had heard he would have played with us and gone south.
Jason Doig (now with Winnipeg, formerly of St-Jean & Laval) also
apparently got a car from that fund, because after he was traded from
St-Jean to Laval, the teams argued over who was supposed to make the
payments on the car. :-)
 
I don't know of any funds in the OHL and the WHL, and I suspect no such thing
exists, since there isn't the same scarcity of players in the OHL or the WHL.
I wouldn't be surprised if some resentment of college players exists,
but I'm not in a position to be aware of it.
 
While I'm here, is there a box score of last Saturday's UVM-Ottawa
game floating around somewhere? All I saw was that Ottawa got destroyed, I
want exact details of the carnage. :-)
 
And, I heard that Clarkson's 16-year-old, Gregori Baumgartner, had left
the team and is now playing with the Gatineau (Que.) Intrepide Midget AAA
club. Is there any truth to this?
 
See you later,
John
 
--
John Edwards       Stats Geek, Ottawa Senators Jr. A Hockey Club (17-8-1)
Email: [log in to unmask]    URL: http://chat.carleton.ca/~jedwards
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