-- [ From: Kepler * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] --
 
I'd like to hear some other voices of people who have seen a bunch of WHL,
OHL, and QMJHL games.  Here are my general thoughts comparing the quality of
play in the two primary routes available for 17-20 year old hockey players.
This is quite long, but I haven't seen any such comparison on hockey-l in my
many years of reading it, so I hope it makes for an interesting topic.  This
is also the first draft of an article which will appear on TBRW? someday
soon.
 
Background for people who don't know much about major junior (I knew nothing
about it until a few months ago).  There is one overarching structure, the
Canadian Hockey League, with three member leagues: the Quebec Major Junior
Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League, and Western Hockey League.  Each
league has its own championship tournament, and the three winners meet for
the Memorial Cup tournament at the home of the host team, which has an
automatic bye into the tournament (to bump up attendance).
 
The rosters of the major junior teams are composed of players aged 16-20.
There is a limit of three 20 year olds, and three Europeans, per team.  Each
team has a list of 50 available players who have been drafted in the Bantam
draft, when they are 15.  In the WHL, these players are almost all Canadian
(Spokane, Seattle, Portland and Tri-Cities are the only US teams in the WHL)
.  The players are placed in schools local to their home city, and the team
provides academic assistance (and motivation), including tuition assistance
when they attend local colleges.  The players are placed in family billets -
- usually a couple who have raised hockey players and have been billeting
other players for a long time.  It is a very tight, very positive hockey
community with a lot of tradition and a lot of peer interraction.
 
CHL players can be drafted, just like the NCAA.  They can attend the camp of
their drafting team (or, if undrafted, can attend any NHL camp as a free
agent).  They can even join a team, as Portland's Marion Hossa did in
starting the season with the Ottawa Senators, and still retain their major
junior eligibility until their 11th NHL game.  Sometimes an NHL team returns
a prospect for one more year to the CHL for seasoning, more playing time,
and generally to support a system which is independent but still the primary
feeder of the NHL.  22% of the NHL are WHL alumni, and the numbers are
comparable for the OHL and QMJHL.  Players can also be traded between major
junior teams, for each other, for future Bantam draft picks, or money,
though because of alleged abuses in the QMJHL the latter policy has
restrictions now.
 
OK, one man's comparison between NCAA and WHL hockey:
 
Fighting:
 
Most obvious difference.  Fighting occurs with somewhat higher frequency in
the WHL than in the NHL.  WHL players are bigger than their NCAA brethren,
despite the lower median age -- size is being selected for because the NHL
is obsessed with size (even in goalies), and the WHL attempts to mimic NHL
rules and playing style.  Fighting does not often break out by suprise... it
is the result either of a game-long escalation between any random two
players, an old grudge, or as retaliation for an act perceived as a cheap
shot, a late hit, screwing with the goalie, roughing up a much smaller
player.  In the last case, there are a few usual suspects who get the job of
deterring the other team from these actions.
 
The fights are every bit as brutal as the worst Don Cherry highlight reel
you'll see, often with blood, sometimes with bad injuries.  For 70% of the
crowd this is the high point of the evening, the other 30% of us don't watch
.
 
In general, players are expected to demonstrate the ability to take care of
themselves, and my impression is that the coaching staff views toughness and
aggressiveness positively without making a distinction with fighting.
 
At the same time, when a player just stands there and takes a punch and
draws a unilateral penalty for the other guy, his teammates are all over him
congratulating him for his restraint.  And the league enforces a third man
in penalty.  Also, an instigation penalty in the final period of a game with
a margin of 3+ goals draws an automatic game misconduct, and all game
misconducts are reviewed by the league office.  Long suspensions have
occurred in the past.  I have yet to see a game in which the possibility of
fighting made any difference to the atmosphere or style of play, except to
curtail other types of in-play goonery like high sticks.  I do not think
most of the players view fighting as a good or bad thing -- it is simply
part of the way hockey is played here.
 
Hitting:
 
Much less difference than I thought there would be.  The officials get
between players quickly (unless the players are already fighting -- then the
officials first clear everyone out of the vicinity, and then step in only
when one player goes down or the pair is dangerously close to the boards) so
there isn't anything like after-the-whistle stick jousting or Slap Shot
antics.  During play, woe to any puck-handler with his head down -- it seems
that every player is capable of those spectacular shoulder and hip checks
that send the unfortunate victim spinning skyward, maybe because body
control is better with these players, and clearly because they are more
motivated to be physical.
 
High sticks and cross-checks are not appreciated and often rewarded by a
visit from the other team's enforcer on the next shift, with the result they
do not happen except by accident or as the result of hyperactive 18-year old
hormones.  Generally speaking, players take the body more.  I think because
relying on stickwork in defense would be fatal because of the next big
difference...
 
Speed:
 
Top to bottom, WHL rosters are composed of much faster players.  This
despite the preservation (for compatibility with the NHL), of the archaic
two-line pass rule.  Even lousy teams have the quickness and developed
skating skills I am used to seeing friom championship-caliber NCAA squads.
Combined with the size and aggressiveness mentioned above, this speed is a
formidible weapon, and high scoring games are common, though overall league
scoring is not wildly high (about 3.75 GPG per team).  Speed is especially
notable on defense, where players can get back on the play as quickly as in
the NHL.  In general, skating skills are incredibly advanced considering
that many of these guys are under 18, and almost all are under 20.
 
Skills:
 
Here I give the college game an edge, I think derivative of the age
difference.  There are great skill forwards in the WHL -- I am privileged to
watch Josh Green, who reminds me of no-one so much as John LeClair, and
Marion Hossa, who is the second coming of Pat LaFontaine.  But once you go
below the second line you are talking about bumpers and grinders here, with
the occasional 5-8, 160 gnat with incredible heart and brains and quickness
(I've seen the type again and again all over hockey).  But the colleges'
great strength is perhaps that the blue chip players stick out more because
skill often comes with speed and speed is a relative rarity in the college
game, whereas in the major juniors it is ubiquitous.  It's hard to judge
whether the apparent higher skill of the best college players in a
foreground or background effect.  Passing is either even or perhaps a tip of
the scale to the colleges.  Defense skills I give to the WHL -- Glen Wesley
(an alum) is the prototypical WHL defenseman: steady, strong, unspectacular.
 Dan Ratushny, for you ECAC octagenarians like me, would have found a home
here.
 
Style:
 
Good teams open it up; bad teams reign it in and hope for a few breaks.
Powerplays are much better designed and executed in the major juniors;
penalty killing seems to be about the same, though if anything more passive
in the WHL (which surprised me).  Physical play doesn't correlate with the
quality of the team in the WHL, whereas in the ECAC at least heavy hitting
has been a hallmark of the second division teams.
 
The overall level of hitting is not much higher in the WHL, though the
"spikes" of what is allowable (under the rules and under the encouragement
of the coaching staff) are much more extreme in the major juniors, and one
effect on play is that there are no mighty mite lines, and indeed you don't
seem even two small guys paired much -- there is no analog to the Perrin-St.
Louis, MacDonald-Borbeau all-finesse lines in this league.  Juneau-Coles of
early 90's RPI is a good example of an effective, hard hitting combo you'ld
find here.
 
Overall Quality:
 
Reviewing my notes, it sure seems like the major juniors are superior when
just counting up the check marks.  For whatever reason, I do not carry a
feeling of either league's superior play away from watching both.  I think a
series between the Memorial Cup champion and the NCAA champion would be
highly entertaining (especially due to differences in play) and competitive.
 I do not think this is so much a difference of "level" so much as one of
tradition -- a good player in one world would be good in the other, but
might need some time to adjust to the differences.
 
Overall, being exposed to a whole new realm of hockey has just deepened my
fascination with and love for the game.
 
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