Well now I really feel old as these kids are now younger by several years than my kid are. I remember when some of their school friends or old hockey teammates were drafted a few years ago, it is interesting to follow their progress thruoh the rest of the minor hockey and in some cased junior careers now.
Full caveat, I'm by no means a hockey scout or expert but a quick glance through this year's draft list provides some interesting initial thoughts. And this by no means a thorough analysis, I just looked at where the kids had played bantam.
My observations:
1. there are very few kids from Calgary (city) or even the surrounding area. I think I counted 4 total in the top two rounds of the draft. I've heard before how we (Calgary) develop fewer prospects than many smaller places or even other larger cities like Edmonton, this seems to correlate with that.
2. hockey schools dominate the top 10 picks (9 out of 10) with the 'regular' AAA hockey model only providing a single top ten. And this looks to follow through the entire first round although not quite as lop sided. (only 9 of 22 picks). Not sure what this says for the traditional developement model or sports schools, maybe it is short term trend.
3. despite #2 and also going back to #1 Calgary sports schools had exactly zero kids drafted this year (compare to Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy who had 5 in the top 10, which would also be a huge anomaly.
Could just be a short term one off thing and over time it probably averages out but these things sure stuck out to me.
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