Why has Canada...

[db23]

Blame it on Cherry's "beat 'em in the alley" ideal of "good old Canadian hockey". He set hockey back 30 years in this country.

 

[Seachd]

It's not that Canada isn't producing them. It's that the NHL isn't taking them, with everything else being equal (and often when it's not.) Like Hossa said, there should be some smaller players taken pretty high, which would be a breath of fresh air.

 

[Russian_fanatic]

Doesnt want to break anyone bubble but...

Joe Sakic is not exactly the kind of player to comes out of a Country every year... all countries included!!!!

Many good small centers and wingers have been mentionned in this thread already, but dont expect a new Sakic out of Canada every year... And if there is not one in 2 years, it doesnt mean Canada have not produced good small players.

Exactly Sakic is a rare player to come across. Another Savard in the NHL is Brendan Morrison, Savard will be a better point producer, bu Morrison is better defensivly, who can chip in 20-30 goals 60-75(maybe 80) .

 

[Roughneck]

Blame it on Cherry's "beat 'em in the alley" ideal of "good old Canadian hockey". He set hockey back 30 years in this country.

By controlling the devellopment of young hockey players in Canada through Coache's Corner? He has nothing to do with the devellopment of players. And it would be a scary thought to see what out hockey devellopment programs would be if they are in fact 30 years behind, seeing as we are still best in the world at it.

 

[Vic Rattlehead*]

After watching Hal Gill play awful in the first round against Montreal, I hope NHL scouts stop drafting extremely large players with no skill.

It's strange isn't it. Hal Gill is huge, but he can't hit!

 

[LaLaLaprise]

It's strange isn't it. Hal Gill is huge, but he can't hit!

LOL hitting has nothing to do with size, its a skill

 

[rikker]

I place part of the blame on Cherry as well. Part of the blame goes to those who think he's God. Cherry has no problem with smaller players that I know, it's just that he preaches 'letting them play hockey' - translation...calling penalties slows the game down. Ergo, we have clutch and hook and grab and tackle.

This type of mentality has hurt the development of smaller skilled players. Only in Canada you say? Eh?

 

[eyeofthetiger]

Ray Bourque's son Chris is 5' 7" and he was drafted 33rd overall. Now, not having ever seen him play I can't say if he's a gifted player but he is small....could be he would never have been drafted without having a famous NHL father....and I'm not suggesting that he isn't talented (I don't know his true potential having never seen him play) but I believe that without the Bourque name 5'7" Chris from prep school hockey even if he was as talented as Martin St. Louis would never have been taken 33rd in the draft this year! Talent would not have been enough for the scouts to overlook the lack of size....I think that's too bad for the sport....I don't care how big or small a player is....I think talent is more important than size.....

 

[Sammy*]

Blame it on Cherry's "beat 'em in the alley" ideal of "good old Canadian hockey". He set hockey back 30 years in this country.

I assume you have your always relevent statistical analysis to back this up?

 

[HabLover]

...stopped producing players like Marc Savard and even Joe Sakic?

Canada is always going to be the prime producer of top talent in the hockey world. Great players like Thornton, Lecavalier, Heatly and Nash comes around every other year but small extremly skilled centers seems very rare these days. I don´t think it has anything to do with the trapping era, small centers like LaFontain posted great stats as late as 98´. Crosby will be a exemption but all of Canadas great seems to be atleast 6´2-6´3 these days.... I doubt the averege length of the kids today is 6´3 so I wonder where all talented kids who are under 6´ goes???

The top young canadian playmaking centers that comes to my mind are Briere, Savard and Comrie and all of these players have flaws in their game and there talent level can´t be compared with the greats mentioned above...

What about Nigel Dawes?? Remains to be seen if he ever makes it to the NHL, but he is surely talented!

 

[Tock]

Gomez isn't Canadian and only Ribeiro and Richards can be called established offensive players. But not a bad point.

I had a pizza delivery guy bragging about how his cousin is Scott Gomez.....i guess hes a stinking liar.

 

[TheZodiac]

I had a pizza delivery guy bragging about how his cousin is Scott Gomez.....i guess hes a stinking liar.

Gomez was born in Alaska, USA