OSA
Registered User
- Jun 11, 2011
- 1,122
- 437
The Pastujovs are Americans. An opportunity to play US National Development program (or on a USHL club team) followed by NCAA for 4 years is likely more appealing than 4 years of OHL followed by CIS in a foreign country (Canada). Understandable, to be honest.
Anyway, back to hockey ..... I’ve spent some time over the last week taking in a few of the OHL Cup games (about half a dozen) and have to say that the 03 group is hard for me to evaluate — and I’m well connected to the birth year and have seen a ton of games over the years. High end talent is close to other birth years but in my view the depth is markedly shallower. Maybe in 2-3 years I’ll have to eat those words — who knows.
The issue is this festering narrative that a kid like Pastujov has such better educational opportunities going the NCAA route. Unless the kid is going to Harvard or Yale etc, the narrative is bull shit. If you want the experience of playing at a big school and want to live the College lifestyle....great. But don't tell us you're going to play for the Wisconsin Badgers because if the superior education that would otherwise be unavailable to you should you choose to go the OHL route. A kid that plays 4 years of hockey in the OHL has 4 years of school paid for. If he has the grades, he can attend a school like McGill. The education at McGill will be as good or better than any non-Ivy League school. Guaranteed.
In terms of the NCAA being what Americans want, I get it and, generally speaking, I certainly don't have any issue with it. But when a high end 16 year old prospect becomes a low end NHL prospect, I think its not unreasonable to infer that there was some sort of developmental misstep along the way.