On Dec 20,  6:40, Ralph N. Baer wrote:
> Subject: College up to NHL grades?
>
> In the December 23 issue of THN on page 47, there is an article written
> by Ken Campbell that claims that the quality of college hockey has
> greatly deteriorated over the last few years.
>
> The following is the start of the article:
>
> U.S. colleges continue to offer higher education, but are they
> producing a lower brand of hockey?
>    Perhaps not to fans who keep filling collegiate rinks, but NHL
> scouts don't like what they see.
>    Here's a sampling of comments from them:
>    * "The last three or four years, the calibre of play in Division I
> has just plummeted."
>    * "I've been telling our guys for two years how bad it is."
>    * "If you weren't going to see guys you had already drafted, there
> would be no point going at all."
>    * "I went to a game recently and between the two teams I saw one guy
> who had NHL potential."
>
> The article goes on to "prove" its point by mentioning things like only
> six players from college ranks were drafted by NHL teams last year
> compared to 43 in 1991.  (It does mention that the number is 44 if
> college-bound high-school players are included.)
>
> Reasons given are fewer scholarships, fewer games, no red line,
> prohibitive recruiting rules.
>
>
> Ralph Baer
> RPI '68, '70, '74
>-- End of excerpt from Ralph N. Baer
 
        for my $.02, i have two points:
 
1) the obvious -- is it that big a deal that the "calibre of players" is not as
high??  what about their graduation rates, future (non-hockey) employment
potential (especially this season :-) or the fact that the standards of fine
schools such as those discussed here every day are not compromised to increase
the "calibre of their hockey team."
 
2) the other hand -- i wonder if what the scouts are seeing is not an actual
decline in calibre, but the effects of the Eastern European influx.  the time
frame the article discusses seems to match with the recent flood of talent from
the former warsaw pact states.  could they just be making comparisons between
the collegiate (read "including academics") programs of the west, and the
vestigial state-supported (read "hockey, hockey, hockey") programs of the
east??
 
                                        jag RPI '87