Thankfully our annual series ranking leagues is over. No, we wont be changing our format, and no we wont be doing more rankings based on level of competition.
We all understand everyone has a bias. We try to be objective and base our rankings on development numbers that can be proven. That’s it. Not what the leagues did last year or ten or twenty years ago.
History is just that, history, and its in the past. The past, more often than not, does not reflect how the present or future looks.
We all understand that Canadian hockey fans and people in the business simply think that their hockey is the best hockey regardless of whether or not the facts back those claims up any more. History.
We apologize to the people who love the QMJHL. Not because we are wrong in our rankings, but because its time to face the harsh reality that the “Q” isn’t what it once was.
Thank you for the hate mail and all the absolutely ridiculous comments, I sincerely appreciate reading them about as much as I would like to hit my thumb with a hammer repeatedly.
For those of you that enjoy this annual series, we thank you for reading. Is it a perfect ranking? Probably not. Based on real development numbers, and some subjective thoughts from scouts about how leagues are trending, we believe it is a useful tool for players and parents to use in their decision making process.
The most important thing to remember is that “LEAGUES” do not make the player. “Leagues” do not assure anyone, any type of advancement, or exposure.
“Teams” within leagues, and the people within those “Teams” or organizations are the key to advancement. There are good teams and bad teams in every league. The good teams can point to great advancement and development numbers internally. The bad ones usually like to point to “league” statistics and not their own.
Thank you all for reading, and enjoy the rest of summer. For most of you the season begins in four or five weeks, for my friends in Europe, the season begins in just over three weeks and I will see you soon.
Joseph Kolodziej – Publisher
