Over the years of covering the game it became very evident that certain 16 year olds or even 17 year old rookies were deserving of roster spots, but were released and sent down.
Why?
“That’s part of business”, “a numbers game”, “just not ready, but really close” the excuses are well rehearsed and perhaps overused at every level. Hopefully everyone involved knows going in that things get very complex when it comes to cracking Major Junior rosters during the selection process. Nevertheless, some of those 16 and 17 year olds that were released players ended up taking the Jr A route or went back and dominated U18 before making the jump the following year. Others unfortunately bounced around from organization to organization looking to find their footing in the league even though they probably deserved a spot at 16 or in their first training camp.
There’s tons of reasons why players might not be ready to make the jump, but when a 16 year old kid has outworked some veterans or higher profile prospects and is deserving to make it only to get cut and are left out in the dark because of it, it becomes incredibly difficult to fathom.
Obviously, if you have been around or followed Major Junior hockey you have probably witnessed a lot of things that make you shake your head, that’s part of the game and business side of it.
You see there’s a lot of reasons why deserving players get released in some cases it’s perhaps their off ice comportment, in other cases it’s completely out of their control.
It could be a coaching decision or it could be upper management not wanting to put a very valuable perhaps vulnerable rookie and future star in a situation where they’re set up to fail.
The GM and the coach could be feuding over personnel decisions or there could be a historical side to that feuding as well. Sadly ultimatums are created between the coach and GM’s that usually puts young talented kids in the middle of things which is unfair on so many levels.
Case in point, a talented later round selection, might be overlooked even if they outperformed a higher draft pick at camp. How would it look if a kid selected in the 6th or 7th round makes the club over a kid selected in the late 1st or early 2nd?
Sometimes the optics don’t look so good for the organization, coach and GM when decisions are made.
As training camps are set to commence players and their families are getting set to embark on an entirely new chapter of the game and their lives. Many aspects of the business side of the game are completely out of their control and the quicker they realize that the better.
Organizations have collectively done a better job of showing transparency throughout the tryout and selection process which is great to see. Obviously, difficult hockey decisions have to be made and that’s never easy, but let’s hope those that are deserving of making the team actually crack the roster rather than trying to navigate the disappointment and devastation of deserving to make it and not.
Best of luck to all the players attending QMJHL camps for the first time or perhaps their last.
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