First, congratulations to your son Northendzone. Hopefully he has a great season and it is nice to see his hard work pay off.
Reading the posts about evaluations has given me a few thoughts to put down here:
Regarding goalies:
Typically when a MHA contracts out their goalie evaluation to an outside source it is to a group like GDI or World Pro. Seems logical and is probably a good idea. Many kids who play goal also use these groups for training and they are well known. But I have heard that they all have their own subtle differences in what they teach or how they teach it and naturally will notice those things when they evaluate the goalies. So there may some bias towards a goalie who has trained with them vs. goalies who have not because those kids will play the way they are 'supposed' to.
Regarding skater evaluations:
It is just a fact it seems that the 'flashy' players are the ones that get noticed and the solid yet steady ones can blend into the background despite playing a solid game. Human nature for most volunteer evaluators to see the game like this in general. My kids have never been the flashy types, they play a steady dependable game but I'm under no illusion they are the most skilled players on the ice. When it comes to Evals each year I tell them that sometimes you have to be a little selfish and perhaps play like you normally would not. Something to get noticed. Once teams are formed they can go back to their 'normal' game.
As a parent I hate this time of year and yeah I probably get worked up more than I should. But remember these two things:
1. most evaluators are volunteers and are not malicious. They may not see things quite the same way you do but if there are enough of them everything should balance out in the end. They are just marking things the way they see them and we all see the game differently.
2. for the most part the MHA's get it right and kids are placed on the correct team for their skill level. That said most kids could probably play on the teams directly above or below them and fit in just fine as well. From top to bottom there are certainly differences but across one team or within a close range of players the differences generally are pretty small.
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