> I would note is that lot of these players came into the ECAC relatively
> unheralded (several of them were not drafted) and developed rather nicely.
> Also, my memory may be off but in looking at this list while there were a
> lot of NHL draft picks I don't think many (any?) of them were in the first
> two rounds.
 
Off the top of my head, I know Kent Manderville was a first-round pick
(Calgary).  Others, I can't remember. But it was not my point to say that there
were more drafted players.  My point was to show that the ECAC has had just as
much of a talent dropoff (relatively) as the other conferences.   So, in trying
to determine why the ECAC is doing better the last two years, the idea that
they are standing still while the others are falling, I don't think holds up.
Everyone is falling off.
 
> The talent drop off from the first couple of rounds to say the
> 6th round is fairly dramatic and I was in general thinking of the former
> not the latter in my original post.  My conjecture is that the selected
> teams in the other leagues got more higher round players as recruits in the
> past.  I would agree that the ECAC is getting talent that is of the same
> average caliber as the other leagues.
 
That is not what I'm saying.  I agree that the ECAC gets less "Talent" on
average.  It's been true in 1985, 1990 and 1996.  The point I'm making is that
the relative talent level has fallen off equally in each of the leagues.
 
The draft really has nothing to do with my point.  Look at the list of players
I mentioned that became good pros.  Take the same list of players from
1992-1996 and it's a huge decline.  After Fraser, Dartmouth has had no one.
Brown's Ryan Mulhern is doing OK, but he's in the ECHL again now.  Princeton
has Sean O'Brien up and down to the IHL and ECHL.  St. Lawrence hasn't had
much, Cornell has Ryan Hughes and P.C. Drouin doing decently in the high
minors.  This is nowhere near the amount of players that were doing similar
things five years ago.
 
BTW, Yale's Mike O'Neill was just recalled to the NHL.  The last ECAC goalie to
play his first NHL game was, I believe, Les Kuntar about three years ago with
Montreal.
 
> We should not over state the importance of this topic.  The NHL draft is
> not a precise estimator of who will be a college all star and the vast
> majority of college teams are not used to playing with a substantial number
> of NHL draft picks on their roster.  The team with the most NHL draft picks
> is not a shoe in for the NCAA tournament.
 
Agreed, but again, I wasn't even thinking draft.  I was just pointing out
players who developed into decent pro prospects and are playing now. I threw in
the Cornell note about drafted players because it is a decent indicator in the
type of player the league is bringing in.
 
In fact, take a look at the draft list from 1991 and now.  There were far more
college players drafted in general in 1991 than last year, when there was about
20.
 
> I'll throw in another speculation.  With Major Junior's college scholarship
> program it is possible to try Major Junior and still decide to go to
> college at a later date.
 
Once you play Major Junior, you are not allowed to play NCAA hockey.
 
AW
 
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