SCBlueLiner
Registered User
- Dec 27, 2013
- 327
- 100
Yeah great way to illustrate it. Should have thought about it that way as I know my Croatian grandparents loved Frank Mahovlich who came from their town of Schumacher and had a typical first generation, low-income upbringing.
So yeah, it really makes me wonder how truly shallow the talent pool is we are pulling from? I guess wonder what are the paths of someone coming from a household of say $45,000-60,000....what is that kid's path towards professional/college/CHL hockey? How much oh a handicap does that kid start out with?
Depends on where that kid lives. If he is fortunate enough to live in Northern Minnesota, or even to the far south in a place like Rochester or even Luverne, MN a talented player can reasonably come up through the youth association to High School system on a moderate income of $45,000-$60,000. Moderate income classification for 4 person household in rural Midwest America is about $55,000. Little more expensive in the Twin Cities Metro area, but the incomes are also a little bit more there. NCAA D1 hockey is attainable, last year over 900 native Minnesotans played college hockey, D1 or D3. The typical path for a Minnesota born player is association hockey-public HS hockey-2 years junior hockey-NCAA hockey. There was a recent Let's Play Hockey article that delved into the statistics of the pathways to college hockey. Pretty informative.
USA Hockey and Hockey Canada need to find ways to bring this sport back to the people, broaden the base, and increase the number of kids playing not only recreationally but competitively. It needs to be cheaper. I just happen to think Minnesota (Wisconsin & North Dakota) have good models of association to HS hockey that bring it to the masses and produce quality players. It's a model that needs to be replicated across the Northern USA, get away from the Club Tier 1 model.