With yesterdays release of the top twenty ratings, TJHN was once again receiving a lot of comments on social media, emails and phone calls. We certainly appreciate everyones opinion on every article we publish.
Unfortunately, a lot of comments being made are coming from people who obviously did not read the criteria that is used in these ratings.
For clarity sake, the ratings were NOT based upon the level of play or competition in any league. The ratings were NOT based upon historical accounts of multiple years of success or failure.
The ratings were and always have been based upon each league moving players up to higher levels. That is it. That is the only criteria that matters to players and families. And the numbers change every year.
As an example, one reader commented in an email that the AJHL is a better league than the EHL. Using our criteria, in moving players up, there is absolutely no evidence to support the AJHL being better than the EHL at moving players up. The fact that the AJHL has some D1 commitments and some D3 commitments does not get them rated higher than a league that produces more than two hundred commitments a year.
Another reader asked why we dont use their information on scouting when they work with a team formerly in the AJHL and currently in the BCHL. Its a simple question to answer. Any leagues opinion of itself is going to be biased.
Another comment on social media made the following comment;
“Why do D3 commitments hold as much clout in these rankings as D1? All D3 and some D1 is a big cost to players. I know many excellent players who did not go to D3 because of cost and academics but are way better than kids who do play D3 because they can afford it. Explain?”
Again, this is a prime example of people not reading the criteria. Just because a player or any players may be “better”, and whether or not they go D1 or D3 is of no impact to the actual numbers of player moving up.
If we were to do a ranking based on level of play, that would be a different list. That list though, is more subjective to feelings, and opinions, and would not be based upon actual numbers. It would be a lot more subjective to historical accounts of players and not about single year criteria.
For instance, in the 2020-2021 COVID season, the OHL did not play. They were ranked at number 18 in 2021. It had nothing to do with the history of the league or the talent of the players in it. It only dealt with the fact they did not play and did not see as many players move on that one season.
We certainly appreciate the thoughts and opinions of readers, and understand not everyone is happy with the outcome of everything we write. We try to present a numbers based series of articles every year, and in this way, players and parents can have unbiased information about actual player movement up, and not emotional or opinion based ideas on level of competition.
As always, we thank you for reading.
