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This past Friday, Hockey Canada announced its selection camp roster for their Under-18 team. Not many people may be familiar with the U-18 team but it is considered the stepping stone for players to make the Junior team. There doesn’t seem to be any notable exclusions from the roster, though it is a preliminary roster and will be trimmed down before the start of the tournament.

As with all National team rosters we always run down who is on the rosters but then we tend to look at where those players hail from. What really will stick out when you run down the list is just how many players come out of the Winnipeg Hockey system, or should I say the lack there of.  The preliminary roster actually only included one player who came up through the local system, Micheal St. Croix.

I am not saying that there should have been a lot more Manitobans included in the selection process. Nor am I trying to take away from the ability of St. Croix, the kid is a talented player and his inclusion on the U-18 roster in warranted. But this comes a few weeks after the recent WHL Bantam Draft where Winnipeg players were few and far between in the choices. In fact no Manitoban player was selected in the first round (Madison Bowey was the first pick of the second round).

Bowey was the best product coming through the AAA system and we here at Winnipeg Hockey thought he had a legitimate chance of cracking the first round, that being said we all agreed that Alex Forsberg was going number 1. But it does bring up the question. Is the Hockey development in this city failing? Here are a few reasons we believe that are hurting the development of local players.

It is what it is, the current system sucks.

From house league to AAA, what Hockey Manitoba is teaching just isn’t working. It seems that the leagues in the city tend to focus a lot of their effort on their successes. Jonathon Towes is the crown jewel of the system, grew up in the house leagues took the next step to AA than AAA before leaving the city for higher level programs. And if you ask the people involved in hockey they will most likely have a Jonny story to tell. But that was all in the past, and honestly Towes is a once a few generations type of talent (did anyone even know Cole Harbor existed before Crosby came on the scene?). What AA and AAA really need to do is start focusing on the future instead of living in the past. That and stop “stacking” AAA midget teams that make it seam like we have a stable program.

The Kids themselves aren’t interested in the game.

It used to be that when the weather started to get cold you knew that hockey season was just around the corner. You would be excited to play, the level of competition didn’t matter as long as you were having fun. Then the city playoffs would come and whatever happened, happened. There was usually a spring tournament and then the team wind up. The snow has already melted and sticks and skates were the farthest thing form the kids mind. But that just isn’t the way things are done now.

Summer Hockey actually hurts the player’s progress.

Years ago summer hockey leagues were forming around the city and province. It was initially thought of as a way to further progress kids and better prepare them for the winter seasons. The catch though, it seemed that only the “exceptionally talented” players were being invited to these camps. Those kids would then return in the winter score a bunch of goals and all the parents would say that it was because of the summer hockey. But if your kid wasn’t good enough to get an invite to one of these teams how could he get better? Hence the introduction of more and more summer teams.  Now these “elite” teams are flooded with anyone who can pay the registration fee. Whether or not the kids is actually developing over the summer is unknown ’cause all the team cares about is if his parents cheque cleared.

The best talent in the city isn’t showing themselves.

This happens in any city, in any province, but there are kids who just don’t play at the higher levels when they could easily compete. Why would a kid play below his level? There are a ton of reasons, cost of higher level programs, commitment of time and obviously he may just want to play with his friends.

Politics, Politics, Politics…

Directors, Coaches, Parents you name it there is always going to be conflict. Someone doesn’t like this coach for one reason but he has great ways of getting players to preform at higher levels. Parent’s think their kid is the next Gretzky and he needs to play 30+ minutes a game, etc. Put that stuff behind you, let the kids play. And for all you parents out there…There was only one Wayne Gretzky, let your kid be who he is.