So many players signing after getting cut in the ECHL. It's pretty obvious to me that the ECHL has to be seen as the superior league in terms of overall player quality. Sure, some IHL players could very easily play in the ECHL, but the overall depth isn't the same. Sometimes it's opportunity, but sometimes it's just the quality of the players. We also all know that doesn't always translate into the superior game, either.
What do you think?
Comments
i dont think the question can be answered until we start getting some head to head competition. maybe some year end contests between the champs or maybe all star game type of series but of course it will never happen as the union league couldnt take the chance of losing to a league they fear as inferior.
I think that a lot of the guys that get cut by ECHL teams are the guys the teams signed as independent players. The parent clubs supply players and the more they supply the fewer independent guys they can keep. It becomes a numbers game. At the start of the season they really do not have a clue of how many players they can count on. So they must sign enough to put a team on the ice. When guys get called up they are than scrambling to find players or must play short handed unless they carry 21 or 22 bodies. There is no doubt in my mind most if not all the players in the IHL could play in the ECHL. It boils down to a numbers game. Numbers like salary caps, wages & bonuses. The IHL has a higher cap than the ECHL & the CHL for sure. I could be all wet, I know, but I do not think so. You can all have fun with me.
I think it means that the ECHL is a part of a very political system that overlooks good players that might be as good or better than players that have been signed, sealed and delivered to the ECHL clubs because they are the property of NHL teams. I wouldn't read a whole lot into players being cut in the ECHL and signing in the IHL. It doesn't mean that the ECHL is superior, it just means they are stupid.
Who gives a rats arse anyway....I will take the product that the Frankes put on MC ice anyday over anything that is in K-Zoo. That place is a dump and their fans are fair-weather.
Go Komets!!!
Well, I don't know....so many of the guys that were in the IHL in Kalamazoo were signed there when the Wings joined the great ECHL. How are they doing there? Are they crashing and burning or are they keeping up with the team and the other players on it? Seems to me that that would be a good test right there. Some of those very same guys were on either the Komets or the Wings (I'm talking about O'Connor, Curadeau, Legault, and the 2 or 3 K-zoo players they signed whose names I remembered as being pretty good players) last year during the playoffs. OK, maybe not Legault, since he was injured or off the roster or however you want to look at that situation. Like DSchebig, just my opinion. :)
Oh...oops, I just read the previous post about O'Connor negotiating with the Komets. My bad! I've been off the blog for a while! Well, hope that deal gets done, because that would be awesome!! So ignore that part of my above post, along with anyone else's name who might be already gone from the Wings who I might have missed leaving. Sheesh, see? Miss a day or three on here, and look what you miss....
As long as the I plays tough hard hockey I think the I is better. I get bored watching the NHL......it's been all Euro-ized.
I don't think you can use the term superior league. I think you can call it the politically linked league. If you don't have an NHL or AHL contract and you are playing in the ECHL you are taking the risk, chasing the dream and there is nothing wrong with that, the risk is big but so is the reward. Do you think the young players really understand how the politics of the NHL/AHL work? I don't think they do, too young, took me a while to learn how to play the corporate politics game.
What exactly determines who gets the contracts, are they betting on giving younger players 1-2 years to develop on the farm and if they don't release them and get younger ones?
Who knows, all I know is I like what I have.
HitSomebody, I just read several pages back and saw where you answered my question about Saidachev...thanks! I'm just catching up, and I see what you mean. I hate to say this, because I really like his speed also, and think he could really break out for us this year, but yep, you are right. I think if we get O'Connor back (and I really hope we do), Saidachev will be the one to go. I will be crushed because I was thrilled to get him back, but I cannot see who else we would cut either. It will definitely be a hard decision for me to hear. Is there really no way he's a rookie still?? He was injured quite a bit last year...LOL...I'm kidding.
And Burgee...more hooking this Friday than on a good night in Vegas? That is SO going in my game night vocabulary, than you very much! I nearly peed myself over that one. I have something else I say when there is a hooking call, but I cannot say it here. We'll meet and I'll tell you then. I don;t want to get in trouble with the big guy.
And at Lake Erie Monsters games, when a guy gets out of the penalty box and both teams are back up to full strength, and the announcer says that, the crowd yells, "That's debatable!" Also, when their announcer said "official time out", we'd all yell, "What official?!" (sorry, DSchebig...) I loved those and thought I better share them!
The E has a leg up on the AA talent....that's about it. I don't like to think that the IHL is waiting around for the ECHL to cut players. They are def. the premier league as far as AA talent, but it's still AA talent.
The only difference between the two leagues is the E has young players and the I has older players. im sure the K"s could beat any team in the E.
Blog Foul Dschebig, this is tailing the komets, not kissing (fearless leader) Blakes tail, sitting in ohare bored to death reading all these posts and I have noticed you doing a substantial amount of brown nosing this week in your posts. Penalty is time served brown nosing, since you have to put up with Jimmie tomorrow. No I'm not off my meds just jet lagged.
Getting me a Foo Foo frosty beverage friday night with a blue umbrella in it.
Say, give Jimmie one of those dog biscuits.
I know the agents certainly think there's a big difference, even though the IHL has a higher salary cap.
I think you read the message boards way too much. I agree with Hit Somebody!!!
"I think it means that the ECHL is a part of a very political system that overlooks good players that might be as good or better than players that have been signed, sealed and delivered to the ECHL clubs because they are the property of NHL teams. I wouldn
blake does the i get scouted by the higher ups? ever see any scouts up in the press box?
skee? What did that mean about reading the message boards way too much? Was it directed at me? LOL
Burgee-- I hope you miss your flight!
Not that much, Tantardini.
I think Burgee ran into Pembroke at O'Hare
In my seat on the plane, sweet home........ fort wayne?
Well, there's your problem, Blake. You're listening to agents. You know they aren't even human. ;)
Let me put it this way... If these were actors we were talking about, what movie do you think they'd be pushing their clients towards -- the low-budget but meaningful flick by some up and coming independent film maker or the latest guaranteed mega blockbuster with lots of inexplicable explosions and clich
Two different leagues, two different business philosophies, two different roster rules. One isn't any better than the other. Sure there are players who trickle down from AHL teams to ECHL teams. Good for them. It doesn't make one league better than the other though. The ECHL rosters are really never "set". They are always at the whim of the higher league sending someone down or mandating their playing time or circumstances of the player. (Power play, penalty kill, etc.). Once those players are put on an ECHL roster someone has to go. Also, talk to some of the ex-NHL players who eventually filter down to the minors. There are a lot of "politics" involved in the NHL. We had a coach three years ago that was affected by "hockey politics". That was Pat Bingham. He was let go by Bridgeport because of the GM and then re-hired a year later when the team changed GM's. Did he somehow get better all of a sudden? No. Look, we've all been through this discussion of which league is better- the "premiere" AA league or the AA+ league. To me they both offer up to the fans different things. They both play good hockey and I, for one, am happy with the way things are in the IHL and our Fort Wayne Komets.