Greetings!

Many of you are aging out of midget hockey and I'd like to hear your viewpoints about the different leagues and teams out there. Any questions or complaints are welcome too.

I'll start it off...

How do the American leagues compare with the Canadian leagues?

Is it harder for a skater or a goalie to make it into juniors?

Does being drafted gaurantee you a spot on the team?

How fair are open tryouts and are they woth it?

Thanks Commish for adding this section to your fine website.

As a goalie parent, I would argue that it is harder for a goalie to make it to the JR's than a skater. Since there are only two spots, a goalie must really do something to stand out to get noticed. While all players must do something to call attention to themselves a mistake made by the goalie is glaring as it is a puck in the net. There is nowhere to hide for the goalie.

Being drafted does not guarantee a spot on the team. You must still try out and sometimes a walk on may beat you out.

As with any try out there is no guarantee and some may be a money making scheme, however the opportunity to try out against some top amatuer hockey players across North America and see how you measure up against some of the best is priceless

I think with regards to American VS Canadian JRS. For the time being it appears that more players are making it to the college level from the Canadian leagues with the exception to playing in the USHL. As to the level of competition, it would depend on what team you play for. Some top US teams can beat Canadian teams however the Aurora Tigers would probably beat almost any Tier II Jr team this year. They were loaded with 20 year olds and just won the Royal Canadian Cup and the bragging rights to being the best JR A Tier II team in all of Canada.

I copied this from the US Hockey News Midget Boards
"I calculated the recruitment mix identifying where kids are comming from who enter D1 universiities. I used Boston College, U Maine, U Vermont, U New Hampshire, and Cornell as a cross section of Hockey East and ECAC. Here are the results:

Prep 25%
CDN Jrs 25%
USHL 16%
NDT 9% - National Development Team
EJHL 5%
NAHL 5%
Other 15%
* 4 kids in this sample went to both prep and the USHL


It appears that Prep is the most compelling with USHL also very important, unless your kid plays in one of the Canadian Junior leagues - OPHL, BCHL, Alberta Hockey League (AHL), Manatoba Hockey League (MJHL)etc. Most of the EJHL player went to Maine 4. With 2 going to BC and 1 to Harvard 1 to Cornell for a total of 8. USHL players represented 27 of the rostered players while Prep represented 43. Interesting huh."

I would be interested in seeing that same mix analyzed for some of the other college teams (such as the teams in the WCHA and CCHA) I have a feeling the numbers might be a bit different. It seems to me that most of the prep schools are back East - While I am not saying the mix won't be the same - I wonder if it is different. There have been some great debates at the US College Hockey website on their message board on this very topic. Flames do get thrown at times, but some good information can come out of it too.

www.uscollegehockey.com

Go Flames!
Mom

I agree that the stats would vary from area to area. I will attempt to look up some stats form Colleges across the USA from West to Easst and get back to you.

As Promised here is a break down of where the Colleges get their players

School	League	USHL	CJPHL	NAHL	Other JR	Prep	HS	Eur	NTPD	Other	Total
Boston Col	Hockey East	4	0	2	2	7	2	1	6	1	25
Denver	WCHA	13	7	4	0	0	1	1	1	0	27
Harvard	ECAC	1	7	2	1	10	0	0	5	0	26
Holy Cross	Atlantic	0	8	1	3	14	0	0	0	0	26
Maine	Hockey East	0	14	0	4	3	2	0	3	1	27
Miami, Ohio	CCHA	9	5	7	0	4	0	0	3	1	29
Mich State	CCHA	7	6	7	0	0	0	0	3	2	25
Mich Univ.	CCHA	7	3	5	0	3	0	0	7	0	25
Minn	WCHA	17	1	0	0	1	4	0	2	1	26
Minn Duluth	WCHA	12	10	0	0	0	3	0	0	1	26
Niagra	CHA	1	14	2	3	1	1	1	1	4	28
North Dak	WCHA	19	3	0	0	3	1	0	0	0	26
Notre Dame	CCHA	8	5	4	0	1	0	0	7	0	25
Ohio State	CCHA	8	12	2	1	0	0	0	1	0	24
UNH	Amer East	11	7	0	0	8	2	0	1	1	30
Wisconsin	WCHA	9	6	4	0	1	3	0	5	1	29
	Total	126	108	40	14	56	19	3	45	13	397

These are the schools that were the 2004 Division I Championship teams as per http://www.ncaasports.com/icehockey/mens/teams

as you can see USHL leads followed closely by the Tier II Canadian Junior Provincial Hockey Leagues (CJPHL).

The Canadian Junior teams represent the teams from all providences of Canada

Thanks Gotice! I had a feeling that the Prep recruits were mostly an Eastern school thing. The Western powerhouses seem to get their kids from the junior leagues.

It's an intimidating proposition having a 15 year old and figuring out what would be the best path for him.

Go Flames!
Mom

You will notice that Maine, an east coast school took no kids from the USHL or the NAHL. They took 14 kids from the Canadian JR teams and only 3 from the prep schools. In this years draft, they again took no kids from USHL or NAHL. They took 4 from the Canadian JR teams and 4 from the East Coast JR teams.

I know how you feel, I too have a 15 year old and the choices and paths are overwhelming. What does your son want to do? IS he ready to move away from home? Are you ready for him to move away from home? Will he be able to continue to develop and challenge himself in his present setting. Is he one of the top players in his league? Not just on his team , but how does he compare to other players in his league? Once you answer these questions then you research options based on your answers. Good Luck in the Hockey maze

Good luck to you too - My son desparately wants to play for his school this year and play in a before and after league. We are still debating sending him to open tryouts for junior teams this summer so he gets an idea of how hard he has to work this season. He still says his goal is to play beyond high school. His grades are decent (3.5 average) and I have been aware of the possibility of him leaving for a little while (so I've had time to get used to the idea - it still scares me)

There are days I just want to play ostrich, bury my head in the sand and wait for what appears - the maze never-ending. And how do you go about finding an "objective" person to help you? My husband and I are worried that we would be too biased where my son is concerned - too often what the parent sees and what someone else sees are wwwaaaayyy different.

Thanks for letting me think out loud - good luck these next couple of years!
Mom