Minor league hockey team destroys hotel

That quote is priceless.

 

His most ridiculous statement yet.

 

These days the ECHL and the lower minor-pro leagues have little attraction for a lot of guys because if you aren't signed by an NHL team and sent down you face a long, long road for $400 a week or whatever.

And for many junior teams, signing a pro contract will nullify your education contract so if you go pro in the ECHL for a year and decide it's not for you, you might not be able to collect on your package to go to university.

 

The United States Hockey League has been a good option for some of the younger elite US players. They get to refine their game and keep college eligbility. Just this week I was reading about a kid that the Canadians drafted # 1 who played in US league last year and is now at Michigan.

 

I believe Huggy posted a link a link to a story about Mark Messier's son Lyon, who is a defenseman in the USHL. I may be wrong, but it seems like the USHL is the American version of Canadian junior hockey.

And I think that's a good thing. It gives young hockey players the option of improving their craft at (A) the high school (B) the U.S. National Team (C) Canadian Major Junior and (D) USHL levels.

 

That's about right. The USHL is for high school age kids. It's not a retread league like the Federal League or whatever the fuck league this Jamestown team played in.

 

Elite US players are viewing the USHL as kind of a prep school leading to D1 scholarships.

 

They now have real options. They can play in the USHL. They can go to prep schools. They can play in the CHL or they can play for the US Developmental program.

 

The franchise in our market just dropped our low-level CHL team for a USHL team a few years back.

The high school players are far and away better players than the "pros" that were in the CHL. The level of professionalism in the on-ice product is about 1000% better, too.

Guys in those low-level leagues -- unless you're the one or two players who get some kind of salary cap exemption -- can barely skate, can barely complete a pass, and usually have one part of their game they can do well (the scorers need a roadmap to find the other side of the red line, the d-men with big slapshots usually shoot it into the bleachers, the fighters are really good at fighting) ... and that one thing is usually fighting.

It is entertaining ... in five years with that league, I witnessed a two-handed slash over someone's head, someone come flying out of the penalty box flinging all of his equipment at a guy, a near brawl in the locker room between two guys arguing over a puckbunny, another spread-eagle himself across the exit door so the linesman couldn't usher him off the ice after he had incited a brawl ... 300+ penalty minutes in a period, one that finished with 12 guys on the ice and 3 guys *total* on the benches (two of them were spare goalies) ... but the caliber of hockey leaves a lot to be desired. The average salary in such leagues is usually something like $16K a year, plus room & board. Paychecks aren't guaranteed beyond the next week. IIRC, a puckbunny bought one of the teams in that league, too.

Even if it's not the Canadian Major Junior, the USHL has been a noticeable step up, both in the level of play, the professionalism of the league/teams/personnel and the fact that people are going somewhere. I strongly believe our local USHL team would skate rings around the old CHL team here ... although it would probably get the crap kicked out of it in a fight (which is what the CHL team would try to let the game degenerate into).

The USHL now operates in the UHL/CHL's footprint, and the CHL has basically had to retreat from the Upper Midwest (Indianapolis, Topeka) and the UHL has barely been able to hold onto 6 teams.

 

Don't confuse the Central semi pro CHL with the major junior CHL, which is the top talent producer for the CHL.

 

ohl is good... juniors, but still

 

I think most people would agree that the USHL is perhaps the equivalent of what we call Tier Two junior here in Canada. The most famous recent example of a Tier Two player being drafted (most aren't) is Kyle Turris (Phoenix) who played at that level because he wouldn't forego his NCAA eligbility.

The OHL however, has a great educational program for their players.

Huggy knows more about it than I do but I had a long chat with the brother of a Brampton player who's playing hockey down east where my son plays football.

In addition to what the school pays him, the OHL guarantees him his tuition and his books for four years.

Now, you still have to be eligible academically. but it's a long way from what it used to be if you played major junior. If you weren't drafted, your hockey career was over and you may not have even finished high school