I have debated writing this article for some time now. Knowing it would provoke some heated discussions with some of my Canadian and international friends certainly had something to do with my delay. That said, I know I am not the only person talking about the rise of American born players in all levels of hockey.
Simply put, American born players are taking over. That take over isn’t going to stop any time soon, and eventually these American born players will represent the majority of players in the NHL. I say eventually because it will take more American born NHL Coaches and General Managers to make it happen.
To be clear, I am not a scout that lives and breathes international competition. I do not have an over inflated sense of nationalistic pride. As a kid I spent just as much time in Canada as I did in the United States. I have family and friends on both sides of the border and the same can be said in Europe.
Why it will take more American born Coaches and General Managers is a simple question to answer. All of us in the business of scouting players have natural biases toward certain development leagues. That’s not to say all of us don’t recognize a great player regardless of what league he may play in. But that is to say that we all have our favorites.
Call it scouting tradition, or simple familiarity with certain leagues. It certainly relates to those people in certain leagues we have relationships with. Those we can get more detailed information on a player from regarding his personality, character, and “upside”.
Don’t believe me? Here are the Facts for you;
The leading scorer in the NHL is an American. The Leading scorer in the USHL is an American. The leading scorer in the Western Hockey League is an American. The leading scorer in the Quebec Major Junior League is an American. The second leading scorer in the Ontario Hockey League is an American.
Debating this with a few friends of mine over the last few months has been fun. Most of the friends are Canadian.
Their opinions, not mine, are that the Canadian system is failing players. The Major Junior drafts put too much pressure on players to develop and perform at too young of an age according to them. The cost of ice time and equipment is another reason they have cited.
While I do agree that the Major Junior draft puts too much pressure on young players to develop and perform too early, I don’t think the Canadian system is failing. It still produces great players every year.
The cost of ice time and equipment rises just as quickly in the United States as it does in Canada, if not more quickly. Paying upwards of $500 an hour for ice in California certainly hasn’t stopped the amazing development of players there.
In fact, it can easily be argued that the cost of playing in the United States has always been higher. For nearly a century, Canada was blessed with government subsidized funding for ice arenas that kept ice costs low.
Based on that, Canadian players had the advantage of Junior A hockey that allowed them to play for free. All that changed in the last five years or so as players have now begun to pay to play. Something we have been doing in the United States for decades.
Thirty five years ago my friends in St. Catharine’s were paying $250 a season to play AAA, while I was paying $750. Five years ago, players in Junior A across Canada were paying $0 per season. While in the United States players were paying an average of $8000 a year if they weren’t in the USHL or NAHL.
The mindset of parents in the two countries is simply different today. I hear all the time Canadian parents say “I never paid to play junior hockey and I am not going to pay now.”, while I hear American parents say “You usually get what you pay for.”
The mindset comes from the traditions. These same statements are made from both groups concerning adviser services. The majority of Canadian families don’t want to hire an adviser because they have to pay the adviser now, while American families expect to pay the adviser.
I am not saying any of this is good or bad, right or wrong. These are just the facts of the world we live in today.
When talking about this with a friend the other day who works for a scouting bureau that is heavily relied on at many levels of hockey I said this;
“When government funding for arenas, and all the out door rinks went away in Canada, the American player was spending more time and money training. They were always willing to pay. What isn’t being talked about in the United States is that hockey still isn’t attracting all of the best athletes in our country. Can you imagine what would happen if athletes like Cam Newton, or Rob Gronkowski were brought up playing hockey?”
Lets also not forget the differences in the sizes of population between the United States and nearly everyone else but China. With a much larger population base, you would have to think that it was only a matter of time before those numbers started changing.
The volume of American born players signing NHL free agent deals out of NCAA hockey supports the premise of this article as well.
Like Major Junior in Canada is tradition, NCAA hockey in the United States is what the majority of players want. The difference in the mindset of players trying to attain the Major Junior and NCAA level of play is a simple one.
The NCAA potential athlete does not feel the pressure to develop as early as the Major Junior one. American players have been brought up with the tradition, and knowledge that development takes time.
When an athlete can develop until his 21st birthday, before entering college, it provides significant development advantages over an athlete that thinks he has to chose his path at 16 years old. Please understand, that I just said “thinks he has to chose his path”. Not that he has to chose his path. That is the difference in the pressures of traditions.
Its not just the American players though. Look what the Finns and Swedes did in the U-18’s this year. It really is the rest of the world that is catching up and passing Canada with the United States leading the way.
My point in writing this article is not to say one country is better than another, but to point out that some of the arrogance I and many others see coming from certain hockey circles is based on history. History is something that is in the past simply by the definition of the word.
The world is changing and the hockey world changes with it. In order to adapt to change, you must first embrace change. Until many in Canada adapt and embrace the changes in a global hockey world. Until that happens, the Americans will keep on coming. Like any other production industry in the United States, the Hockey Industry has found its efficiency modules and developed production plans.
The question now is, will other nations throw traditions aside and embrace change in order to regain position in the development hierarchy?
Joseph Kolodziej – Publisher
