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Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher
Again that doesn't necessarily mean that the CHL develops players best. It could merely mean that a greater number of high end athletes play in the CHL because hockey is a much more popular sport in Canada than in the US. You have to look at the inputs into these leagues if you're judging them on the outputs...
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Furthermore, I would think that the numbers skew towards the CHL as a result of how minor hockey is organized in Canada. It was mentioned that the CHL produces many more "high-end" players, but that is likely a product of the decisions these kids and their parents make when they are already 14 or 15-years-old. The simple reason the CHL seems to produce more high end players is because elite level prospects are primarily already identified and drafted into Major Juniour at the age of 16—long before most of them contemplate entry into college or university.
I expect that if NCAA were to include 16 and 17-year-old kids in their programs, then the development rates would level out considerably even more so. The point is that the CHL is currently the only elite level training programme for kids this age, so by the time a large number of them are eligible for NCAA entry, their course has already been set.