Talent level sinking in WHL?

MeHateHe

Registered User
Dec 24, 2006
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I'm not sure the WHL is sustainable as it is. What parent wants to send their kid potentially 1500 miles away, to play in a meat grinder, on the vain hope that they develop into an NHL player? Most of the players who are not on the top six of their WHL roster are never going to get a sniff at anything more than an ECHL contract, or perhaps Europe, and for their time in the league, they might get a scholarship to a university that doesn't cover all their expenses. There is a lot of incentive for developing players - especially the ones who are the classic late bloomers - to stick closer to home and play Junior A.

There's rationale for the league to be split in two, including dividing up the catchment area, to give players more confident that they aren't going to be shipped a long way from home and be subjected to outrageous and unreasonable travel schedules.
 

lakai17

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Aug 10, 2006
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The WHL is a much more balanced, physical and more defensive league than the other 2(especially the OHL) which results in less goals

This exactly. We have some hard players in the whl to play against(always have). A lot of toughness.

The whl always went under the radar to me but now i believe its getting some exposure it deserves as of late.

So I do not understand this thread. Then again the whl gets slept on by some and lots in eastern canada.
 

canucks4ever

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Mar 4, 2008
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The Whl is dead last in producing top end talent. Most of the busts in the last 10 years are whl players. The ohl, the q, ncaa and Europe all produce far better talent than the whl.
 

cneely

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Jan 6, 2005
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The Whl is dead last in producing top end talent. Most of the busts in the last 10 years are whl players. The ohl, the q, ncaa and Europe all produce far better talent than the whl.

That's an interesting perspective. The WHL had more picks than any other league in last year's entry draft.
 

cneely

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Jan 6, 2005
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That's an interesting perspective. The WHL had more picks than any other league in last year's entry draft, including 7 in the first round.
 

canucks4ever

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Mar 4, 2008
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That's an interesting perspective. The WHL had more picks than any other league in last year's entry draft, including 7 in the first round.
2 out of the top 30 scorers this year are former whl players. One of them is leon draisatl, hardly a homegrown talent. WHL is deadlast in producing top end talent, yet everybody likes to beat up on the q.
 
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cneely

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Jan 6, 2005
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2 out of the top 30 scorers this year are former whl players. One of them is leon draisatl, hardly a homegrown talent. WHL is deadlast in producing top end talent, yet everybody likes to beat up on the q.

Points certainly are one indicator of "talent".
 

cneely

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Jan 6, 2005
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Too bad the whl has never really been viewed as the top league. The us will produce a generational talent before the whl does.
Maybe. 2 of the consensus top 6 or 7 prospects coming into this season were also from the WHL
 

cneely

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Jan 6, 2005
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Who is the best whl prospect in the last 15 years? I couldnt even name it?

They have produced some solid defencemen. Morgan Rielly, Seth Jones (only 1 year, but to be fair he jumped right into the NHL at 18), Ivan Provorov. I definitely think you could call Draisaitl a star. Barzal is looking pretty solid.

I have to agree, over time, it's pretty light on stars, but they do produce their share of NHL quality players. The last few drafts seem to be much better, I'm pretty high on guys like Glass, Dach, Byram and Foote.
 

Barclay Donaldson

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Feb 4, 2018
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Looking to most productive players in WHL and comparing them to QMJHL and OHL, it seems, that talents level is down in WHL. Is that true?

Absolutely not true at all.

The WHL typically has more defensively responsible and physical players. The OHL and the QMJHL often times are played with no defense and are offensive affairs where goalies are left alone on constant odd-man rushes. The WHL every year has just as many and often times more NHL draft picks and free agents than the OHL, and certainly many more than the QMJHL.

Looking at points and final scores are probably the worst ways to judge league quality.
 

Tube Skates

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May 12, 2016
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Absolutely not true at all.

The WHL typically has more defensively responsible and physical players. The OHL and the QMJHL often times are played with no defense and are offensive affairs where goalies are left alone on constant odd-man rushes. The WHL every year has just as many and often times more NHL draft picks and free agents than the OHL, and certainly many more than the QMJHL.

Looking at points and final scores are probably the worst ways to judge league quality.
The Q league the last 5 years oozes great defencemen. Just about every team plays a tough defensive system here. Coaching has become the top quality. Showing great results. How is the coaching out west?
 

Barclay Donaldson

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Feb 4, 2018
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The Q league the last 5 years oozes great defencemen. Just about every team plays a tough defensive system here. Coaching has become the top quality. Showing great results. How is the coaching out west?

Uh, are you sure about that?

2015: Zboril, Chabot taken in the first round. Chabot is a bonafied all-star that's fair, and Zboril has 2 NHL games to his name. 2nd rounder Lauzon has something like 10 NHL games.
2016: Samuel Girard was the only QMJHL defenseman taken in the entire first two rounds, and he's a decent Top 4 defenseman, nothing incredibly special.
2017: P-O Joseph was the only 1st rounder and he has zero NHL games to his name, he is not even one of the better Penguins defensive prospects. The only other defenseman even worth noting was Lauzon's brother who is not even playing pro hockey anymore.
2018: Had Dobson, Beaudin, and McIsaac. Solid players, but not projected to be anywhere near "great defensemen."
2019: Had 2 2nd rounders chosen in Bolduc and Knyazev, neither are projected to be anywhere near "great defensemen." Bolduc was -32 during his draft year and Knyazev has the 5th lowest plus/minus on the entire team despite them being one of the top teams in the league and comfortably top of their conference.

None of that is oozing great defenseman. That's one legitimate very good NHL defenseman, one that's pretty good, and then a handful that can't even break into a NHL roster.

Any league with Steve Hartley is not evidence for top quality coaching. The top coaches leave there quick as possible, like Ducharme and Bouchard. Roy saw his Avs team regress significantly and stepped down before he could be fired, and everyone remembers the incident in Chicoutimi.

Only 5 current QMJHL players on this latest World Juniors roster. Mercer had zero points and Rodrigue did not see a minute of ice.

The league has the fewest number of players drafted out of major junior. USHL/NCAA has surpassed them in recent years, and the one American area they can recruit from, New England, does not give them many good players, with Conor Garland being the only one. They are far and away the worst of major junior league from top to bottom.
 

Tube Skates

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May 12, 2016
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Nice speech. You really didn’t have to. I was more referring to all the dmen in the league. Not the stars. I could care less about them. It’s expected. I know what I see and that is well coached defensive units throughout the league
 

wetcoast

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Nov 20, 2018
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Too bad the whl has never really been viewed as the top league. The us will produce a generational talent before the whl does.

So you are comparing a nation with 300 million plus people to the WHL which has less than 10 million people to draw from?

There is no problem of talent in the WHL, although some of the top players from western canada are going the US college route.
 

TheWhiskeyThief

Registered User
Dec 24, 2017
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All NA junior leagues are losing talent as the demographic shift from millennial cohort has already occurred.

In the next 5 years, you are going to see an explosion of scoring that (almost) rivals the post merger decade.

It’s already begun but will get worse unless places like Germany & UK start filling gaps.
 

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