Always trying to get you digs in on the ohl………your losing the battle.Ryan new where the real hockey is being played.their will be more to come soon.Hell the USNTPD u 18 team is even bored playing the college teams,ive talked to some of the players and they think its lame hockey.

who knows what the particulars are but leaving after two games against the U-18 and St. Francis doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Facts don’t lie. Buying into the CHL spin looks more and more like a decision that isn’t well thought-out. by a lot of kids.

First of all… I think our fearless blogging leader brought up some great points and great examples of guys who previously made the decision Kenny Ryan did. Look what happened to them? Clearly they made a poor choice. Time will tell with Kenny Ryan, who I feel is a better player than all of those previously mentioned.

And I’d love to know which NTDP players you are talking to that are saying they are bored with college hockey? Until they win a game against a college team this year (which they might tonight against Bowling Green) they couldn’t possibly think its not a challenge.

How’s this for a challenge? Jeremy Morin barely scored 7 goals against the North American League and NCAA in his first month last season. He had 7 in one weekend against OHL “goaltenders.” The CHL doesn’t make these kids any better…it just allows them to pad stats against whatever kind of “defense” they might be facing.

south side hockey….you are absolutely right, I agree with you 100%. Go get your education kjds… by the way OHCANADA, you have no idea what you are talking about… we on this board keep throwing stats your way and keep saying how superior it is up there….been there done it dude, it is not what everyone thinks it is…read the stats!

Would not be surprised if the schooling got to him – remember he hasn’t had to do any school work for two years. They don’t exactly stress that in Ann Arbor. I’m sure he wasn’t prepared for college, especially a place like BC.

LOL!!!

More sour grapes from our esteemed blogger who now realizes (finally) that the NCAA is getting its arse kicked, and kicked bad by the CHL.

Look the most recent drafts….the majority of players either came from the CHL or were about to enter it. So naturally a player like Ryan would be swayed by the CHL and his sweet education package more than made up for what he may have lost at Boston College.

As for the stats….ok lets take a look

2009 entry draft
17 CHL players in the first round….7 in the top 10.
6 NCAA players in the first round….ZERO in the top 10

2008 entry draft

20 CHL players in the first round……8 in the top 10
4 NCAA players in the first round…..1 in the top 10

2007 entry draft

18 CHL players in the first round….8 in the top 10
8 NCAA players in the first round….2 in the top 10

2006 entry draft

18 CHL players in the first round…..5 in the top 10
7 NCAA players in the first round…..4 in the top 10

2005 entry draft

18 CHL players in the first round……7 in the top 10
8 NCAA players in the first round…..3 in the top 10

And some of you clowns are still wondering why a better than average prospect like Ryan decided to take his chances with the CHL over the NCAA? Hey why let facts get in the way of your fantasies….just carry on as we continue to laugh.

KTF…

You aren’t comparing apples to apples. Let’s talk about this from the American perspective. American players are at no bigger advantage going the CHL route than going the college route. American players are not brought up on the idea that the CHL is the only choice as many, if not all Canadians are. There is no culture there. It is not surprising that so many Canadian players choose the CHL. It’s tradition.

However, when it comes to Americans, there really is no tradition. I am telling you, its a wash. The college game is far different than the major junior game. I’d like to see your draft breakdowns featuring solely American players. The numbers wouldn’t be as skewed.

While there may be less games, every single game matters in college. You can’t take a night off and expect to win. There is more time for players to build strength physically, and more time to mature by becoming a well-rounded individual. Taking classes, making grades, hockey practice and traveling forces players to become more well-rounded.

That’s the way I see it at least…

southside,

Some fair points and I am not implying that the NCAA is the wrong route for all, unlike the author of this blog who is always slamming the CHL always spewing on what a bad decision it would be for any American to consider it as an option.. Its obvious that his dislike of the CHL is based on a huge inferiority complex concerning the league and its really qiute commical.

The fact of the matter is (and it is an indisputable fact) that the CHL more closely resembles the pro game and prepares its players every bit as well, and I would even argue a tad better, than the NCAA.

You obvioulsy know they play more games but it shocks many NCAA supporters to know that they actually practice more than than college kids…..they are on the ice a full 6 weeks earlier and a full month after the NCAA season is completed. They have to be mentally and physically fit to withstand the rigors of a much longer schedule and in a more physical league. They are up against, night in and night out, some of the best players in the world within their age group.

The CHL isn’t for everybody though, and the NCAA is a good option but it is not a better option period!

08-09 nhl rookies
1 (OHL)Bobby Ryan ANA R
2 (WHL)Kris Versteeg CHI R
3 Mikhail Grabovski TOR C
4 Patrik Berglund STL C
5 (OHL)Steven Stamkos TBL C
6 (QMJHL)Michael Frolik FLA C
7 (NCAA)Blake Wheeler BOS R
8 (NCAA)Kyle Okposo NYI R
9 (NCAA)T.J. Oshie STL C 57
10 (QMJHL)Jakub Voracek CBJ R
11 (OHL)James Neal DAL L
12 (NCAA)Andrew Ebbett ANA C
13 Nikolai Kulemin TOR L
14 Fabian Brunnstrom DAL L
15 (OHL)John Mitchell TOR C
16 (OHL)Mikkel Boedker PHX L
17 (QMJHL)Claude Giroux PHI R
18 (OHL)Drew Doughty LAK D .
19 (NCAA)Matt Hunwick BOS
20 (WHL)Troy Brouwer CHI

11 rookies in top 20 from CHL 5 NCAA, also top rookie in the league last year was goaltender Steve Mason also CHL.

09-10 rookies nhl
1 (OHL) Michael Del Zotto NYR D 7 2 5 7 2 2 1 0 1 0 8 25.0 14:55 18.0 0.0
2 (OHL0John Tavares NYI C 5 3 3 6 1 0 2 0 0 0 18 16.7 21:04 23.4 43.3
3 (WHL)Jamie Benn DAL L 6 1 4 5 2 4 0 0 0 0 15 6.7 15:52 23.3 100.0
4 (WHL)Tyler Myers BUF D 5 1 3 4 6 0 0 0 0 0 6 16.7 20:18 24.8 0.0
5 (OHL)Ryan O’Reilly COL C 7 1 3 4 3 0 0 0 1 0 7 14.3 14:03 20.6 54.4
6 Artem Anisimov NYR C 7 1 3 4 0 4 1 0 0 0 10 10.0 10:06 14.0 34.1
7 Victor Hedman TBL D 6 0 4 4 0 8 0 0 0 0 15 0.0 24:52 29.3 0.0
8 (NCAA)James Van Riemsdyk PHI L 4 0 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 0.0 10:42 15.8 0.0
9 (WHL)Evander Kane ATL C 4 2 1 3 3 4 0 0 1 0 10 20.0 13:28 17.5 0.0
10 Peter Regin OTT C 4 2 1 3 3 2 0 0 0 0 7 28.6 11:33 16.5 48.3
11 (NCAA)Davis Drewiske LAK D 7 1 2 3 5 2 0 0 0 0 4 25.0 15:41 20.6 0.0
12 (QMJHL)Jason Demers SJS D 7 0 3 3 3 4 0 0 0 0 6 0.0 16:35 21.0 0.0
13 (LEFT NCAA WENT TO THE WHL)T.J. Galiardi COL L 7 0 3 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 5 0.0 15:21 22.9 45.7
14 (OHL)Matt Duchene COL C 7 0 3 3 -4 0 0 0 0 0 10 0.0 16:48 23.1 37.8
15 (QMJHL)Dmitry Kulikov FLA D 6 0 3 3 -5 4 0 0 0 0 2 0.0 17:24 21.3 0.0

10 out of 15 rookies from the CHL, another thing you might want to look at is World Juniors Canada’s team loaded with CHLl players USA loaded with NCAA players who has won the last 5 gold medals? Want anymore stats?

What do you mean which u-18 players what does that matter,you have college players that are 20 to 24 years old that are barley beating a team of 17 year olds.The team is good but colleges should be hammering them.i can put a team together of just 92s that would smoke that NTDP team.And as far as morin he has put up points this year in the ohl because he is excited to play some real hockey,the kid didnt give a shit playing with the USA team last year.anyway stay tuned theirs more to come

I wonder what would happen if the U18 team went up against any major junior team. Probably the same, win some, lose some. Just as happens against the colleges.

But playing players 20-24 years old is beneficial for the young players in college hockey. It forces them to up their game, work on becoming stronger and playing smart hockey. While there may be less high-skill players in college, there is no lack of physical players who will beat you up if you’re not ready to go.

I think at the end of the day, in my eyes. There is no “better” route. There is no “perfect” route. It just depends on the player. I am just partial to college because I think having a fall-back plan is a good thing. The percentage of players that play in the NHL is small to begin with. Why not get an education from an esteemed university while you’re playing elite-level hockey if you have the chance?

I think all of us just need to understand that this debate is endless and there will never be a resolution to it… Pro-college folks will never agree with Pro-major junior folks and vice versa.

southside,

Your attempt to buttress the old tired argument, that happens to be a favorite on this site, that a quality education can only be had by going the NCAA route will not change the fact that all elite level prospects who do entertain the choice between the CHL and NCAA know full well that their educational needs would be more than taken care of should they decide to opt against the NCAA in favor of Major Junior.

Perhaps this is why the number of high end American born talent in the CHL increases year after year.

I often think that even the coaches in the NCAA fail to realize this new reality and hit the recruiting trails armed with obsolete knowledge and arguments. That would explain why the CHL is handily winning the majority of the recruiting battles.

following a college hockey blog. “Winning the recruiting battles”? How to make it up. Five US kids were selected in the first round this year. Four are attending colleges. One went to the OHL. That looks like an 80% hit rate for those idiot coaches stuck in their outmoded ways. (Forget Louis LeBlanc taking his Habitantes opportunity to Harvard).

southside,the physical comment craked me up,they have padlocks on their straps you aint getting beatin up anywhere in college hockey its the safest hockey to play,and as far as phsycal players on the ntdpt there isnt 1 or 2 that can handle themselves,thats why they play there…..no worries

Ok, I don’t really care about this us versus them battle. It’s time to get off high horses. Everyone knows that very few kids will ever make a career out of the game. And yes, the CHL and Canadians know that a fallback education is important.

There is no reason the best 19 and under players could not be in the CHL and still be eligable to play in the NCAA. The blackballing occured because of a lack of high-end US born players in the 60s in NCAA schools. Progress has been made with US hockey programs. There’s no more need for USA Hockey and the NCAA to be in cohoots to promote the American player anymore. They’ve built a functioning system now. Time to once again allow schools to try to get the best student-athletes they can.

The CHL should modify their rules as best they can to conform to what should be acceptable in any court of law in the US as upholding “amateur” status. Then take the first excellent player that fits the bill (a guy that registers for schooling at an NCAA school after competing in the CHL, and is denied the opportunity to compete in NCAA hockey). And they launch the lawsuit (that I’m sure will take 7-8 years) to force open the doors.

If a kid can play NCAA tennis while travelling the world playing in “pro” tournaments, having tennis agents, pro coaches, then it’s time to give up the NCAA joke of blackballing CHL kids by calling them pros.

Here are my rule change recommendations for the CHL:
- Ban over-agers (20 year olds) from team rosters. Kids need to know that at 20 it’s time to move to a Canadian university/college, a US college, the workforce/trade school, or minor pro if they still want to chase the dream. This will also help limit the “stacking” that goes on for “rich” teams of the CHL and restore a bit of fairness.
- copy as best as possible the way track athletes, tennis players, other athletes in NCAA get financial assistance to train at the highest levels. So that when a kid is living 400km from home at age 16, and quite clearly has expenses associated because of seeking that high level of competition, they can receive $80/week in some form without being labelled a pro (what a joke that is by the way).
- kids in the CHL must be forced to attend semestered schools (I think the case at the moment). Allow trades between teams only in the off-season and for 10 days during the period when 1st semester changes into 2nd semester. have stipulations that kids enrolled in community colleges or universities can’t be traded at all except by their permission in the off-season. This will take away a lot of the ability of London Knights/Kitchener Rangers of the world to stack their teams. Teams will be focused on developing their “owned” players to their fullest potential, and the playing field will be evened.
- try to copy the NCAA prospect system, whereby NCAA players (usually Juniors) are able to play for a week at a pro level camp in the summer. If a kid is drafted, he has that camp to participate in, at which point a decision can be made whether he should return to junior, go on to college, or turn pro (minor or NHL). I forget exactly how they work, but those camps exist for certain NCAA players. But meanwhile, spending more than 72 hours at a CHL camp rules a kid ineligable for the NCAA (another joke).
- the NHL is no longer allowed to send a kid back to Junior once he signs a pro contract (to make the point directly above feasible)
- make a standard and centralized CHL scholarship pool, which all CHL teams must contribute to, and set up in a way that the richest teams contribute the most. Have some formula which determines how many funds a participant is eligable to pull from the scholarship pool based on time spent in CHL. Example, every season you play in the CHL, 10k goes into the scholarship fund that you are eligable to draw down on when you persue future education. You must use the money by 26 or it is lost.

There are a lot of pluses that would occur (can occur) from this:
1. CHL will have better players, as American (and Canadian) kids will no longer be in a rock and a hard place at age 16 with not being able to play at the highest level of amateur hockey for their age group
2. NCAA will have a better product.
3. More players will attend NCAA schools, because the CHL scholarship will help bridge the gap for the player that doesn’t have access to the 17 full-scholarships an NCAA school is allowed to hand out.
4. Players will have the opportunity to still chase the dream if they latch onto an NCAA program. Let’s face it, to be one of those one in 500 non-drafted, over-acheivers that signs a pro contract, you need the opportunity of another few years into your 20s at a high level of coaching/training to realize that over-achievement. At 19, the NHL scout will rarely see anything they didn’t see when the kid was 18.
5. The NHL will realize an increase in both Canadian and American born and trained players.
6. The USHL becomes the 4th league in the CHL (CHL can be renamed). The Memorial Cup expands to an 8 team tournament. US born players in USHL centers become undraftable by CHL teams, just like Maritime Canadian kids became undraftable in the OHL once the Quebec league expanded there.
7. Future Canadian schools in the NCAA like Simon Fraser (accepted for 2012 I think), can latch onto the excitement of what is perceived to be a better sporting system than the Canadian university sporting leagues, and open up more Canadian (and US) hockey opportunities.