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Post by Jack Bauer on Jan 10, 2017 10:57:58 GMT -4
Jesus I can taste the salt. Cape Bretoners are very bitter about Q players not wanting to play here. 1 thing you'll notice though is that when a CB kid comes out and doesn't want to play in Northern Quebec or a place like Baie-Comeau that they become very silent on the matter. Much like our country when we win in shootouts The bigger issue is that people refuse to have anything but a 1 sided conversation about it. The minute you get into things like the midget kids have choices and every franchise is different in terms of pros/cons then the people who hate kids picking destinations can't seem to keep up with the discussion. We've had kids not want to report as midget drafted players. We've had Quebec based players ask to be traded to Quebec as veterans to finish school. We've had Maritime kids ask to be sent closer to home for family/school reasons. You name the reason a kid can want out and we've seen it. I empathize with almost all of them because CB is a small place with a huge inferiority complex. As a teenager when a Robbie Sutherland wanted out I followed the sheep because I felt they were right and that you could get the same education in CB that you could in Halifax. "We ALSO have a University!" was the big tag line I believe many proudly trumpeted. Then I graduated high school and knew people finishing University who had to apply to places like Dal, X, and UNB to take certain graduate level degrees and I realized that for an 18/19yr old serious about careers that you really can't always get what you need by being in a place with 1 small University and may need to go elsewhere to get what you need. We hold all of this against teenagers which as I get older only becomes more laughable. Are some getting bad advice? Absolutely. But most are simply trying to put themselves in the best position to succeed. The same reason people in CB go to Dal, X, St. Mary's for undergrad degrees they can get here at CBU. But if the University here was failing and going bankrupt do you think those people feel any negative feelings about their own personal decision? Of course not as that only reinforces that they made the right choice.
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Post by aquilae on Jan 10, 2017 11:42:40 GMT -4
Then that's the QMJHL's business. Ahern has to protect his franchise. The Drakkar are in a bad way right now. The municipal government just gave them $100,000 and the mayor is pleading with locals to support the club lest they lose it. Very few things in junior hockey are more damaging to a franchise then players refusing to report - wether it's a 16-year-old phenom like MacKinnon or a 20-year-old veteran like Plante. This is completely different than a 16yo not reporting. That 16yo has the option to go wherever they want. If they want to go USHL rather than Baie Comeau, they have the right to do that. Just because you get drafted by a team doesn't mean have to play there, and it doesn't mean you're a head case if you don't. QMJHL players get drafted into the USHL every season, and refuse to report there because they'd rather play in the Q. Americans get drafted into the Q every season, and refuse to play here because they'd rather play USHL/NCAA. This is a 20yo who was on a mid-pack team, that would rather play Jr. AAA than play for a bottom Q team for the last three months of his career. Ahern isn't going to get more fans because he has a vendetta against kids that choose not to play for his team. They are better off showing the world that they have the player's best interest in mind, rather than showing the world that they don't. The fact that Ahern would burn a 3rd round pick, an 8th round pick, and would rather deal a 18yo player, for essentially no compensation, screams sour grapes. People see this, and it isn't a positive for their franchise that's for sure. He's taking a stand where there's no stand to take. It's not completely different. It's a player refusing to report to a team in either case. I understand most teams have to deal with players choosing to play elsewhere but the effect it has on one franchise might be quite a bit different then the effect that it has on another franchise. Then that's the QMJHL's business. Ahern has to protect his franchise. The Drakkar are in a bad way right now. The municipal government just gave them $100,000 and the mayor is pleading with locals to support the club lest they lose it. Very few things in junior hockey are more damaging to a franchise then players refusing to report - wether it's a 16-year-old phenom like MacKinnon or a 20-year-old veteran like Plante. Sure, but that's not Plante's concern. The Drakkar's problems don't obligate him to report. It's in no way "good on Ahernn" to go acquire an OA to play on a 17th place team likely to miss the playoffs who's obviously not going to want to report. Notice how Moncton handled the Kennedy situation? That's how organizations that are run properly do things. If this is the way Ahern ad the Drakkar are going to act, than good riddance, Newfoundland needs a franchise anyway. I don't know that it was obvious that Plante didn't want to report to the Drakkar. Are you sure that Ahern wasn't under the impression that Plante would come to Baie-Comeau? And I'm very aware of how the Wildcats handled the Kennedy situation. I'm also aware in the seismic difference between the Wildcats franchise and the Drakkar franchise. I'd hate to see any city in Canada or the U.S. lose their CHL team. That's a horrible thing to have happened to a hockey fan. Then that's the QMJHL's business. Ahern has to protect his franchise. The Drakkar are in a bad way right now. The municipal government just gave them $100,000 and the mayor is pleading with locals to support the club lest they lose it. Very few things in junior hockey are more damaging to a franchise then players refusing to report - wether it's a 16-year-old phenom like MacKinnon or a 20-year-old veteran like Plante. Create a good atmosphere and kids will want to play for you. Brad Kennedy refused to go to Moncton. Should they have not released him? I guess since they're a big market it's ok for Kennedy to not go there? Baie-Comeau has been a small market that's barely got by since day 1. It's not the fault of the kids that the adults have never been able to make it work there. They were never in a position to be anything but a bottom 5 market basically since getting their team. A veteran picking Jr A over a Q team for the second half is not at all comparable to a MacKinnon in the midget draft. It happens all the time as players who have lost the NHL dream realize that being close to home at the end of their teenage years after leaving at 15/16 trumps the 2nd half of a bad Q season. Playing hard ball with those kids is why more kids won't want to play there. So if you support more kids playing hard ball with Ahern then I guess it's a good job for Ahern in taking that stand. Trading for a kid and talking to him then making the best decision for the kid as a rebuilding Q team goes a long way in the eyes of scouts and parents. Are you sending your kid to Moncton or Baie-Comeau today if you have the chance based solely on the decisions of both teams in similar situations over the past few days? Forget the big/small market stuff, just on how organizations treated players Moncton wins hands down. It doesn't cost any money to do the right thing. You can't "forget the big/small market stuff". That's the difference in these cases. When a kid like John Marino doesn't report to Halifax, in general, most Mooseheads fans don't really care. They understand that in some instances players - particularly American players - will refuse to report to Halifax and go the college route. The don't really care because they know that they'll get a few terrific non-Canadians to report and they'll have talented Quebecois and Atlantic Canadian players who will report without issue. The situation is different in smaller markets. Hockey fans on the North Shore don't know if talented American or Atlantic Canadian players will report. They're skeptical if they'll ever get upper-echelon Euros. Knowing this, they then have to decide on whether or not they want to invest their money in supporting a franchise that a.) won't be terribly competitive most years or b.) could be on the move. I don't see Ahern as the villain here and I respect him for taking a stance on this. Courteau and the QMJHL established a team in Baie-Comeau 20 years ago and they have an obligation to protect the franchise.
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Post by Jack Bauer on Jan 10, 2017 11:52:00 GMT -4
You can't "forget the big/small market stuff". In this trade deadline cleanup for rebuilding teams stuff you absolutely can as both teams lost players they wanted and both handled it in a completely different way. Moncton talked to their player and tried to accomodate him but still couldn't convince him so they let him go and grabbed someone else. Baie-Comeau is choosing to play hard ball with the player meaning they can't or more importantly won't dress someone else. Come June we can all agree with Moncton is a big market and going to have access to more players then BC. But for any kid in a later round scenario that might be a late training camp cut or a year away from contributing do they view these situations as favorable towards Baie-Comeau or Moncton? You can't cry about players treating you like shit as you're treating players like shit. That stuff isn't small market/big market stuff. There's a petty adult making that decision and it has nothing to do with any market conditions because for the next 3 months both teams are the same in terms of bottom feeders playing out the string. Any good will BC can take it absolutely should to try and make it look like they at least pretend to care about a players best interests. They choose not too which further causes more players to not want to go there. They have nobody to blame but themselves for that in THIS situation.
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Post by Jack Bauer on Jan 10, 2017 11:56:53 GMT -4
The situation is different in smaller markets. Hockey fans on the North Shore don't know if talented American or Atlantic Canadian players will report. They're skeptical if they'll ever get upper-echelon Euros. Knowing this, they then have to decide on whether or not they want to invest their money in supporting a franchise that a.) won't be terribly competitive most years or b.) could be on the move. I don't see Ahern as the villain here and I respect him for taking a stance on this. Courteau and the QMJHL established a team in Baie-Comeau 20 years ago and they have an obligation to protect the franchise. Hockey fans in Maritime markets don't know if talented French speaking players will report. Euro's are a crapshoot for everyone but 3-4 teams. The Q has no obligation to a team running itself into the ground. It has an obligation to all 18 teams and if 1 wants to treat players poorly then doesn't get defended in some warped logic by being a small market. Treat players properly and players will want to play for you. In THIS example of overagers not wanting to report the market conditions have little to do with it. But overall if BC wants to spend all their picks on players who don't want to report to prove a point then the only point they've made is that they're more concerned with proving a point that isn't theres to make then they are about proving their community with a decent hockey team to watch. They turned a 1st overall into a league finals appearance. To the Q that means the system in place works. If there's too much work in doing that for the small market team then maybe a Jr A team is better for that market.
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Post by aquilae on Jan 10, 2017 11:57:21 GMT -4
Jesus I can taste the salt. Cape Bretoners are very bitter about Q players not wanting to play here. 1 thing you'll notice though is that when a CB kid comes out and doesn't want to play in Northern Quebec or a place like Baie-Comeau that they become very silent on the matter. Much like our country when we win in shootouts The bigger issue is that people refuse to have anything but a 1 sided conversation about it. The minute you get into things like the midget kids have choices and every franchise is different in terms of pros/cons then the people who hate kids picking destinations can't seem to keep up with the discussion. We've had kids not want to report as midget drafted players. We've had Quebec based players ask to be traded to Quebec as veterans to finish school. We've had Maritime kids ask to be sent closer to home for family/school reasons. You name the reason a kid can want out and we've seen it. I empathize with almost all of them because CB is a small place with a huge inferiority complex. As a teenager when a Robbie Sutherland wanted out I followed the sheep because I felt they were right and that you could get the same education in CB that you could in Halifax. "We ALSO have a University!" was the big tag line I believe many proudly trumpeted. Then I graduated high school and knew people finishing University who had to apply to places like Dal, X, and UNB to take certain graduate level degrees and I realized that for an 18/19yr old serious about careers that you really can't always get what you need by being in a place with 1 small University and may need to go elsewhere to get what you need. We hold all of this against teenagers which as I get older only becomes more laughable. Are some getting bad advice? Absolutely. But most are simply trying to put themselves in the best position to succeed. The same reason people in CB go to Dal, X, St. Mary's for undergrad degrees they can get here at CBU. But if the University here was failing and going bankrupt do you think those people feel any negative feelings about their own personal decision? Of course not as that only reinforces that they made the right choice. No one is faulting kids for wanting to put themselves in better positions. And to suggest that Cape Bretoners in particular are "bitter" or biased is ridiculous. I was a season ticket holder in Halifax the year they won the Memorial Cup. I very much enjoyed watching MacKinnon but not at the expense of a small town potential losing their franchise. The reason for my position is simply conserving teams in small markets. I'd love to see the Eagles win a championship but more than that I just want to see the Eagles and kids like Veleno and Parent. I expect, as a fan, the league to do their best in protecting clubs like the Drakkar and even the Eagles from folding or relocation.
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Post by Jack Bauer on Jan 10, 2017 12:01:45 GMT -4
Cape Bretoners are very bitter about Q players not wanting to play here. 1 thing you'll notice though is that when a CB kid comes out and doesn't want to play in Northern Quebec or a place like Baie-Comeau that they become very silent on the matter. Much like our country when we win in shootouts The bigger issue is that people refuse to have anything but a 1 sided conversation about it. The minute you get into things like the midget kids have choices and every franchise is different in terms of pros/cons then the people who hate kids picking destinations can't seem to keep up with the discussion. We've had kids not want to report as midget drafted players. We've had Quebec based players ask to be traded to Quebec as veterans to finish school. We've had Maritime kids ask to be sent closer to home for family/school reasons. You name the reason a kid can want out and we've seen it. I empathize with almost all of them because CB is a small place with a huge inferiority complex. As a teenager when a Robbie Sutherland wanted out I followed the sheep because I felt they were right and that you could get the same education in CB that you could in Halifax. "We ALSO have a University!" was the big tag line I believe many proudly trumpeted. Then I graduated high school and knew people finishing University who had to apply to places like Dal, X, and UNB to take certain graduate level degrees and I realized that for an 18/19yr old serious about careers that you really can't always get what you need by being in a place with 1 small University and may need to go elsewhere to get what you need. We hold all of this against teenagers which as I get older only becomes more laughable. Are some getting bad advice? Absolutely. But most are simply trying to put themselves in the best position to succeed. The same reason people in CB go to Dal, X, St. Mary's for undergrad degrees they can get here at CBU. But if the University here was failing and going bankrupt do you think those people feel any negative feelings about their own personal decision? Of course not as that only reinforces that they made the right choice. No one is faulting kids for wanting to put themselves in better positions. And to suggest that Cape Bretoners in particular are "bitter" or biased is ridiculous. I was a season ticket holder in Halifax the year they won the Memorial Cup. I very much enjoyed watching MacKinnon but not at the expense of a small town potential losing their franchise. The reason for my position is simply conserving teams in small markets. I'd love to see the Eagles win a championship but more than that I just want to see the Eagles and kids like Veleno and Parent. I expect, as a fan, the league to do their best in protecting clubs like the Drakkar and even the Eagles from folding or relocation. They turned MacKinnon into how many playoff home games and how much revenue? Him coming into the league when he did benefitted 2 fan bases. Baie Comeau got the windfall of his value in other assets. Halifax got him as the centerpiece of a contender built around many other players along with MacKinnon. The league doesn't owe a CB a Veleno any more then they don't owe Rouyn a Radulov in the Euro draft or a team picking 1st in a bad year a great player to draft. Those teams owe it to their fans to try and build winners from the players who will report. History will show you that champions are also built out of those players so why does everyone obsess with the very select few who try and pick their place or simply refuse where they went? Did CB lose last year because of Veleno? Euros? High 1sts who wouldnt report? They had tons of great players. And still lost because of coaching and other factors.
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Post by Captain Obvious on Jan 10, 2017 12:10:18 GMT -4
You can't "forget the big/small market stuff". In this trade deadline cleanup for rebuilding teams stuff you absolutely can as both teams lost players they wanted and both handled it in a completely different way. Moncton talked to their player and tried to accomodate him but still couldn't convince him so they let him go and grabbed someone else. Baie-Comeau is choosing to play hard ball with the player meaning they can't or more importantly won't dress someone else. Come June we can all agree with Moncton is a big market and going to have access to more players then BC. But for any kid in a later round scenario that might be a late training camp cut or a year away from contributing do they view these situations as favorable towards Baie-Comeau or Moncton? You can't cry about players treating you like shit as you're treating players like shit. That stuff isn't small market/big market stuff. There's a petty adult making that decision and it has nothing to do with any market conditions because for the next 3 months both teams are the same in terms of bottom feeders playing out the string. Any good will BC can take it absolutely should to try and make it look like they at least pretend to care about a players best interests. They choose not too which further causes more players to not want to go there. They have nobody to blame but themselves for that in THIS situation. Did they say BC would get their picks back? I haven't seen anything on that.
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Post by aquilae on Jan 10, 2017 12:13:11 GMT -4
No one is faulting kids for wanting to put themselves in better positions. And to suggest that Cape Bretoners in particular are "bitter" or biased is ridiculous. I was a season ticket holder in Halifax the year they won the Memorial Cup. I very much enjoyed watching MacKinnon but not at the expense of a small town potential losing their franchise. The reason for my position is simply conserving teams in small markets. I'd love to see the Eagles win a championship but more than that I just want to see the Eagles and kids like Veleno and Parent. I expect, as a fan, the league to do their best in protecting clubs like the Drakkar and even the Eagles from folding or relocation. They turned MacKinnon into how many playoff home games and how much revenue? Him coming into the league when he did benefitted 2 fan bases. Baie Comeau got the windfall of his value in other assets. Halifax got him as the centerpiece of a contender built around many other players along with MacKinnon. The league doesn't owe a CB a Veleno any more then they don't owe Rouyn a Radulov in the Euro draft or a team picking 1st in a bad year a great player to draft. Those teams owe it to their fans to try and build winners from the players who will report. History will show you that champions are also built out of those players so why does everyone obsess with the very select few who try and pick their place or simply refuse where they went? Did CB lose last year because of Veleno? Euros? High 1sts who wouldnt report? They had tons of great players. And still lost because of coaching and other factors. I didn't mean to suggest the Eagles or any franchise is owed a Veleno or a Parent. I meant I want to see them regardless of what team they're on. I just want to see QMJHL hockey like many hockey fans in Baie-Comeau just want to see QMJHL hockey. And of course franchises can be run poorly and that could lead to them folding or being relocated but top-end players refusing to report to small-market clubs can hurt them long term. What effect does Kennedy not reporting have on the Wildcats' fanbase? None. Plante or MacKinnon or whoever not reporting to Baie-Comeau could have an impact on the Drakkar fanbase.
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Post by bois on Jan 10, 2017 12:14:50 GMT -4
Moncton didnt actively pursue Kennedy... Halifax had to either release or trade him.. Moncton had a spot they made a small deal
Baie Comeau added Dufort-Plante early in the trade period to a team with a surplus of OA's already..... did Ahern even check with the player before making the deal?
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Post by Jack Bauer on Jan 10, 2017 12:15:37 GMT -4
In this trade deadline cleanup for rebuilding teams stuff you absolutely can as both teams lost players they wanted and both handled it in a completely different way. Moncton talked to their player and tried to accomodate him but still couldn't convince him so they let him go and grabbed someone else. Baie-Comeau is choosing to play hard ball with the player meaning they can't or more importantly won't dress someone else. Come June we can all agree with Moncton is a big market and going to have access to more players then BC. But for any kid in a later round scenario that might be a late training camp cut or a year away from contributing do they view these situations as favorable towards Baie-Comeau or Moncton? You can't cry about players treating you like shit as you're treating players like shit. That stuff isn't small market/big market stuff. There's a petty adult making that decision and it has nothing to do with any market conditions because for the next 3 months both teams are the same in terms of bottom feeders playing out the string. Any good will BC can take it absolutely should to try and make it look like they at least pretend to care about a players best interests. They choose not too which further causes more players to not want to go there. They have nobody to blame but themselves for that in THIS situation. Did they say BC would get their picks back? I haven't seen anything on that. I'm not sure. If they're not releasing him and are intent on keeping him on the roster then maybe they don't get them back.
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Post by Jack Bauer on Jan 10, 2017 12:21:38 GMT -4
They turned MacKinnon into how many playoff home games and how much revenue? Him coming into the league when he did benefitted 2 fan bases. Baie Comeau got the windfall of his value in other assets. Halifax got him as the centerpiece of a contender built around many other players along with MacKinnon. The league doesn't owe a CB a Veleno any more then they don't owe Rouyn a Radulov in the Euro draft or a team picking 1st in a bad year a great player to draft. Those teams owe it to their fans to try and build winners from the players who will report. History will show you that champions are also built out of those players so why does everyone obsess with the very select few who try and pick their place or simply refuse where they went? Did CB lose last year because of Veleno? Euros? High 1sts who wouldnt report? They had tons of great players. And still lost because of coaching and other factors. I didn't mean to suggest the Eagles or any franchise is owed a Veleno or a Parent. I meant I want to see them regardless of what team they're on. I just want to see QMJHL hockey like many hockey fans in Baie-Comeau just want to see QMJHL hockey. And of course franchises can be run poorly and that could lead to them folding or being relocated but top-end players refusing to report to small-market clubs can hurt them long term. What effect does Kennedy not reporting have on the Wildcats' fanbase? None. Plante or MacKinnon or whoever not reporting to Baie-Comeau could have an impact on the Drakkar fanbase. Top end players refusing to report only hurts a small market long term if they made many other bad decisions. No 1 player can cost a franchise their team. Poor management decisions with that player does that. Pierre-Luc Dubois is a recent top 5 draft pick who says he would have played anywhere. Poor decisions like avoiding players like him leads to teams being bad, not Mackinnon's not reporting. The Nic Roy decision means nothing to CB fans if their GM didn't try and use Saint John's work on Bowers to try and get him to report here. That's the kind of poor decision making that kills teams. Picking kids with no intention on playing for you or in the league multiple years in a row kills small market credibility. How does Plante impact the Drakkar fan base any more then Kennedy does to Moncton? Who cares what overagers bad teams dress to play out the schedule? It's the fact the team is bad that keeps paying fans and overagers like Plante away. Did I miss something and they NOT sellout the league finals because MacKinnon wasn't playing for them? Did they protest that season while they were dominating because of who they didn't have? Or is this simply sour grapes from a GM who should be unemployed soon?
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Post by Jack Bauer on Jan 10, 2017 12:24:49 GMT -4
Moncton didnt actively pursue Kennedy... Halifax had to either release or trade him.. Moncton had a spot they made a small deal Baie Comeau added Dufort-Plante early in the trade period to a team with a surplus of OA's already..... did Ahern even check with the player before making the deal? Probably using the Dumont logic of "He's in the league or wants to play somewhere else in the league so he should have no issue coming here" rather then simply discussing it and laying out the options to the kid and getting an honest answer. GM's unable or refusing to do a good job is a big reason for a lot of this. Moncton did the right thing here. Money wasn't why they did it. Big/Small market had nothing to do with doing the right thing in these 2 situations.
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Post by aquilae on Jan 10, 2017 12:33:36 GMT -4
I didn't mean to suggest the Eagles or any franchise is owed a Veleno or a Parent. I meant I want to see them regardless of what team they're on. I just want to see QMJHL hockey like many hockey fans in Baie-Comeau just want to see QMJHL hockey. And of course franchises can be run poorly and that could lead to them folding or being relocated but top-end players refusing to report to small-market clubs can hurt them long term. What effect does Kennedy not reporting have on the Wildcats' fanbase? None. Plante or MacKinnon or whoever not reporting to Baie-Comeau could have an impact on the Drakkar fanbase. Top end players refusing to report only hurts a small market long term if they made many other bad decisions. No 1 player can cost a franchise their team. Poor management decisions with that player does that. Pierre-Luc Dubois is a recent top 5 draft pick who says he would have played anywhere. Poor decisions like avoiding players like him leads to teams being bad, not Mackinnon's not reporting. The Nic Roy decision means nothing to CB fans if their GM didn't try and use Saint John's work on Bowers to try and get him to report here. That's the kind of poor decision making that kills teams. Picking kids with no intention on playing for you or in the league. How does Plante impact the Drakkar fan base any more then Kennedy does to Moncton? Who cares what overagers bad teams dress to play out the schedule? It's the fact the team is bad that keeps paying fans and overagers like Plante away. Did I miss something and they NOT sellout the league finals because MacKinnon wasn't playing for them? Did they protest that season while they were dominating because of who they didn't have? Or is this simply sour grapes from a GM who should be unemployed soon? All things aren't equal is my point. Kennedy not reporting is meaningless to Wildcats fans. Plante not reporting plays on the insecurities of Drakkar fans or junior hockey fans on the North Shore. Right now, one of Moncton or Baie-Comeau are going to pick Lafrenière first overall. If Moncton picks him and he decides he isn't interested in playing in New Brunswick, that really sucks for the Wildcats. They'll make a trade, get some good assets in return but they won't have a 16-year-old superstar winger and the organization will likely miss out on revenue. Regardless, the Wildcats will still be in Moncton in 5 years. If the Drakkar pick Lafrenière and he doesn't report that could be the catalyst for the Baie-Comeau losing their CHL team. One player doesn't kill a franchise of course but a superstar rookie not reporting can be massively damaging to a small-market club that has had issues in the past with attracting star players.
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Post by eaglefan62 on Jan 10, 2017 12:52:54 GMT -4
This type of thing has been going on for years now, players refusing to reoprt here or report there. In some cases, the kid genuinely has no interesting in playing in the Q while others just use the NCAA card as a ploy to get where they want.The league does provide a ompensatory pick to a team whose draft pick does not show, but it doesn't seem to have cahnged things very much. Maybe the league shoukd play hardball with these kids the same way the NCAA does with kids loosing their eligibility. If a kid is drafted and fails to report, he then becomes ineligible to play in the Q, end of story.
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Post by Jack Bauer on Jan 10, 2017 12:55:48 GMT -4
Top end players refusing to report only hurts a small market long term if they made many other bad decisions. No 1 player can cost a franchise their team. Poor management decisions with that player does that. Pierre-Luc Dubois is a recent top 5 draft pick who says he would have played anywhere. Poor decisions like avoiding players like him leads to teams being bad, not Mackinnon's not reporting. The Nic Roy decision means nothing to CB fans if their GM didn't try and use Saint John's work on Bowers to try and get him to report here. That's the kind of poor decision making that kills teams. Picking kids with no intention on playing for you or in the league. How does Plante impact the Drakkar fan base any more then Kennedy does to Moncton? Who cares what overagers bad teams dress to play out the schedule? It's the fact the team is bad that keeps paying fans and overagers like Plante away. Did I miss something and they NOT sellout the league finals because MacKinnon wasn't playing for them? Did they protest that season while they were dominating because of who they didn't have? Or is this simply sour grapes from a GM who should be unemployed soon? All things aren't equal is my point. Kennedy not reporting is meaningless to Wildcats fans. Plante not reporting plays on the insecurities of Drakkar fans or junior hockey fans on the North Shore. Right now, one of Moncton or Baie-Comeau are going to pick Lafrenière first overall. If Moncton picks him and he decides he isn't interested in playing in New Brunswick, that really sucks for the Wildcats. They'll make a trade, get some good assets in return but they won't have a 16-year-old superstar winger and the organization will likely miss out on revenue. Regardless, the Wildcats will still be in Moncton in 5 years. If the Drakkar pick Lafrenière and he doesn't report that could be the catalyst for the Baie-Comeau losing their CHL team. One player doesn't kill a franchise of course but a superstar rookie not reporting can be massively damaging to a small-market club that has had issues in the past with attracting star players. Using that logic it could massively damage any market though. Baie-Comeau losing their team wouldn't be because of any player. It would be because of poor management decisions. If the kid doesn't want to play there and you can't maximize the return in a trade then why do you select him? Trade down or pick someone else. Drafts are always more then 1 player deep. Do you really think any fans in BC look at Plante any differently then Moncton fans look at Kennedy? I don't. I think both teams were frustrated with management and leaving the trade period only 1 franchise was and those decisions had nothing to do with whether the markets were small or big. Baie-Comeau has had 20+ years to build a fan base. If they decide to lose a player over 1 kid then it's not the kids fault or the leagues fault or the fans fault. It's the fault of the people running the Drakkar who refuse to do anything differently which is the definition of insanity...doing the same thing over and over yet expecting a different result.
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