It’s too late to lobby for a player that probably deserves to be on the team, but it’s never too late to learn and do better next time.
In any elite level selection process there are always going to be some decisions that on the outside appear to be perplexing.
Whenever you have a lead up to a selection process that happens over several year period and there’s projections involved one always has to consider that mistakes are inevitable to happen.
In many cases player projections are never linear, there’s always ups and downs in their progression.
At the end of the day everyone involved obviously wants to select the most deserving players that go into to making the most successful team which will give the organization or franchise the best chance to win and compete.
There’s several lens in which to look through in any selection process, but the most deserving players should no doubt be at the forefront of any decision.
What about most deserving at the time of the entire selection process?
What about ghostrosters, what consideration or significance do they have in the process?
What about benchmark dates in order to revisit or reassess evaluations and projections?
A lot can happen in a few months when it comes to growth and development of a young player.
Why can’t there be a process in place to potentially bring players back into the fold during the final selection process?
In season evaluations should probably also be considered when one is trying to select the best players available for any elite level team. What about current performance?
You see now isn’t the time to be lobbying for a player or players, it’s probably way too late for that, now is the time to look at the overall selection process and make sure potential mistakes in the future aren’t made. Now isn’t the time to tear everything down, now is the time to reflect and build capacity within the overall process.
It’s easy to criticize from a far especially when we have no idea what went on behind the scenes or how the framework or criteria of the selection process is constructed.
There’s always going to be questions or potential controversy regarding any selection process, one only hopes consistency and accuracy are always involved in the process.
Mistakes have been made in the past, it should be all about learning from those and moving forward so the most deserving players are always considered and never overlooked.
It’s too late lobby, it’s never too late to learn.
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My son was quite disappointed when the U16 team he tried out for the last 2 years won the Monctonian. Disappointed in the fact that he wanted to know when the hard work pays off. The extra sessions, the dry land work, the sports psychologist, the physiotherapy. Doing all this stuff year after year finishing with the top goalies in tryouts yet still not getting on a team.
He questioned why he’s doing this as the goalies on the team are walk on’s. They don’t do any of the extra work, heck he knows of some that don’t even bother to attend practice, but only want to play games.
I just tell him to not worry about them and focus on your game. The ones who know you know you are at a JrA level.
But, I also know he’s running out of time and it does get harder as you get older. We don’t have in’s like the goalies around the league so it’s tough to lobby for him,
To make a long story short. Scouts should be looking at other levels and not just the elite teams. So many get overlooked because they are not on a certain team or in a specific tournament. They always push fairness and equality in hockey, but the reality is far different.
Great article as always.
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