The honest truth regarding player development at all levels--regardless of whether we're talking about "Junior B" or "Junior A" hockey, Minor Midget, Major Junior (see: the QMJHL, OHL and WHL, a.k.a. the "CHL" collective), the USHL, the NAHL, NCAA hockey, European junior or professional hockey, the minor pro CHL, the ECHL, the AHL and even amateur underwater basket weaving--is an unpleasant one in terms of producing NHL players.
Put simply, NO developmental league generates oodles of thousand-game-playing, Cup-winning, Hall of Fame-making superstars. At best, and on a team-by-team basis, developmental leagues generate one NHL "regular" and a couple of call-up quality professional hockey "journeymen" per season, occasionally giving rise to a superstar. There are some exceptions in terms of the respective leagues' powerhouses (see: the OHL's Plymouth Whalers, who play in my backyard here in Southeastern Michigan), but the player development meat grinder is not particularly kind to its applicants' NHL dreams.
You might imagine that I don't believe that the Canadian Hockey League's ban on European-born goaltenders is going to do jack shit given that we're talking about 11 or 12 positions over the course of almost 40 teams, and you'd be right.
I don't believe that kicking European goalies to the curb will magically solve what Canadian hockey pundits insist is a "goaltending crisis" in their country, and I don't believe that any more or any fewer European goalies will come over as a result.
It's a bunch of sound and fury, signifying nothing, as far as I'm concerned...
And an article SI's Allan Muir found in his must-read Top Line column plain old pisses me off, because IIHF.com's Lukas Aykroyd has posited yet another bullshit article insisting that European-born goalies--like their non-goalie-playing bretheren--will somehow, magically find more NHL success if they are not subjected to the developmental wasteland that is the CHL (and yes, many European hockey pundits see the "farm teams" and "farm leagues" as something of a North American Siberia of hockey):
The CHL hopes to give more opportunities to homegrown talent and thereby reverse this trend. In the big picture, the motherland of hockey also has legitimate concerns about its Olympic and World Championship goaltending.
But what hasn’t been widely pointed out is that the new CHL policy will also serve young European netminders well. How so?
History and statistics clearly indicate that the best European goalies have been developed in their own domestic leagues. Conversely, very few who have come to the CHL for their U20 years have reached their potential.
That’s not to take anything away from the fine job CHL clubs have done in developing North American talent between the pipes. Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo, Grant Fuhr, and countless other top NHL and international goalies for Canada have emerged from these leagues. In the future, greater emphasis on goalie coaching, along with the increased CHL opportunity for Canadian netminders, could very likely make Canada the premier goaltending nation again.
However, teenage European goalies go on to bigger and better things, both in the NHL and in senior IIHF competition, when they nurture their skills in their native environment.
Want proof? Take a look at this list of the 52 European goalies taken in the CHL import draft since 2004. It’s in chronological order. Goalies who went on to play in the NHL are marked with an asterisk.
Does he continue at length? Yep. And does he "get it wrong" in suggesting that the CHL has gotten it "right?" Yes.
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