As someone who had multiple kids play in the O and advance to pro it may come as a surprise to most that I think the USHL is now the top JR league in the world. If you go back to pre 2007 ALL the top players for the most part were going to the "w" or "O". Now it makes zero sense to give up the opportunity to play college hockey in the US. USPORT is a good route but if you have an opportunity to get an IVY or say UMichigan education after JR you don't screw that up. Most Canadian parents know that as well.
I think it would have been better to weight the advancements and draft picks by number of teams in each league. Don’t think it would have been significantly different, but still a lot closer. The Q having 4 fewer teams makes a difference in the number of eligible players.
I would include USHL as a "Major Junior" league. I'd say tier 1 in USA is Major Junior (originally called Jr A tier 1) in Canada. USA tier 2 (NAHL & NCDC) would be Jr A tier 2 (all Jr A leagues) in Canada. USA tier 3 is like Jr B in Canada.
Strange that there are more AHL advancements than ECHL. I would have figured it would be many more to the ECHL since it is essentially a potential feeder to the AHL.
It is comparing apples to oranges. If you pass those same numbers through the metric based on population base, and # of hockey players/registration in the areas that these leagues encompass, that would be a more realistic picture percentage-wise of which leagues proportionately meet these metrics. IT MIGHT SURPRISE YOU AS PROPORTIONATELY TO THE HOCKEY POPULATION BASE OF THESE SPECIFC AREAS WHICH TEAM ADVANCES MORE PLAYERS PROPORTIONATE TO HOW MANY PLAYERS THEY HAVE IN THEIR RESPECTIVE DISTRICTS.
Yeah… if I remember correctly, the Maritime provinces are over represented in the NHL compared to our population. Like, obviously there are more players from Ontario, because they have many more players.
