CJAHL Prospects Game:

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The CJAHL has 10 leagues and 141 teams. Out of approximately 2820 Jr.A players (20 per team, keeping in mind some already have letters of intent to NCAA schools), the CJAHL deciding that 40 players (approx. 0.01 players per team) are the "Top Prospects" for the NCAA is a complete joke.

At the very least, there should be 2 games, one for the East and one for the West.
 

Senator Stanley

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Dec 11, 2003
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Totally agree Van. This event is supposed to be for the exposure of its players, but with such a small selection from such a broad base it doesn't do nearly enough.
 

God Bless Canada

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Dwight McMillan, the winningest coach in Junior A history, and the second winningest coach in junior history, is coaching the Eastern team? The guy, who should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame (if Kilrea's there, McMillan should be there), won all his games in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. That's like having Scotty Bowman the World All-Stars in the NHL All-Star Game.

Don't know how Brett Bothwell is in there. Hometown hero, perhaps? There are better young goalies in the SJHL than him. (Including a couple in Notre Dame). Chad Nerhing's a solid young prospect. His brother is a cheapshot artist, but Chad has talent. Blake Gallagher was torching the SJHL as a 16-year-old (since turned 17), a difficult feat in a league that favours 19 and 20 year olds more than any other in Canadian Junior A. Derek Kellar is one of the best young defencemen in Junior A. He had a scholly at 17 and will play pro one day. Tyler Beechel is the only reason to get excited about what has otherwise been a stinker Flon team for years. (No playoff births since 2001 RBC final appearance, and three seasons with 10 wins).

The number of prospects for the OPJHL is more a reflection of the other leagues in eastern Canada than the strength of the OPJHL. It's the best league out east, but is still a notch below the three most western leagues.
 

BobMckenzie

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Van's point is well taken, but if you look at the rosters for both teams, I would say many of the players involved already have college commitments. The game, apparently, was a joint venture between the CJAHL and NHL Central Scouting, although it's worth noting that, this year anyway, there are no high-level NHL prospects playing Jr. A. The NHL CSB players to watch list has only "B" level prospects named, no "A" level guys like Cogliano, Chucko or Zajac in the past. So I think it's kind of a mixed bag in terms of being a Prospects game/all-star game.

That said, it will be interesting to see how the young guns perform. As was mentioned by another poster, Gallagher has been ripping it up in the SJHL and 15-year-old Patrice Cormier, who is playing for the East team, is heralded as the No. 1 pick in this year's QMJHL draft. So it's not as if there aren't some blue-chippers playing; it's just that they're fairly young. I am looking forward to seeing them play.

As for the heavy concentration of OPJAHL players on the East team, part of it is obviously numbers -- there are 35-plus team in the OPJAHL -- but for whatever reason, the Quebec league couldn't or wouldn't send any players, so it's just the OPJAHL, CJHL (Ottawa area) and the Maritime Junior League. So on paper, based on reputation anyway, the Eastern boys will have their work cut out for them against the best of the usually very strong West. Should be interesting.
 

goteam

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Bob,
First of all congratulations on your son making the team.

Secondly, like you said this is a game put on by the CJAHL and Central Scouting. When looking at the players on each of the rosters, yes, there are not any 'A' grade players as deemed by CSB, however, over 20 are deemed as 'B' grade.

Eight top level players in NCAA (as observed by the CSB preliminary list), who played Junior A one year ago would have been eligible for this game (Street, Matsumoto, Danis-Pepin, Kennedy, Swystun, Dekanich, Marcuzzi, and Sucharski), thus showing how the CJAHL is still developing top-level talent. And that's not even including someone like Toews, who spurned the CJAHL by going the way of the U.S. High School system to get a scholarship to North Dakota for this year, or Gryba, who is one of the top defensemen in the USHL after taking Hockey Canada to court so that he wouldn't have to play in the SJHL.

I believe that this is just a bad year for the CJAHL to begin this event. However, this is not an indicator that the level of players is going downhill. Rather, it can serve as a means for recruiting players to Junior A.


God Bless Canada:
I am surprised that two players from the SJ were not even given a sniff and that is Taylor Watt from Melfort and Kyle Kvisle from Notre Dame.
 
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