I mean you're talking about season length like it's unusual. For North America, it's not. The teenagers in the CHL leagues manage to play 68-game seasons, with the better players also getting international or CHL-based tournaments, plus whatever they play in the playoffs. It's not much different than an NHL schedule, other than less games on weekdays. And this is the league (or set of leagues) that the vast majority of NHL players come from. Sooo, is the CHL doing it wrong? Does the USHL and Junior A do it wrong?
I understand your overall point about practice time vs just playing games. That's far from settled, however, as you seem to state that it is. You're basically saying that the entire model of youth hockey PLUS the AHL is based on faulty practices. I think that's crazy.
It's like you would expect to never find skilled players coming out of the CHL because they're on the bus and playing games all the time. And yet...
I also want to point out that when you're talking about 18/19-year-old players, that's largely inapplicable to the AHL. It's mostly European players who are in the league at that age, and as acknowledged, European teens have other alternatives. But talking about general player development for teenage players in the AHL doesn't really make sense, because almost none of the AHL players are that age.
I am of course not talking about "absolutes", there are certainly exceptions and reality isn't black and white, but you make fair points.
BUT, you know, isn't the bolded true to a degree? Canada has roughly 10x the amount of youth hockey players as Sweden have but only 4x the amount of NHLers. These numbers are just googled and there could be better ones available. But the point still stands, and the difference isn't small. Its significantly high.
And certainly, when we in Sweden review the rivals, US hockey is seen as the one to keep track of. Why is that? Its said that the US nat program train extremely hard and focused. And then college often follows afterwards and the college program is held in a high regard and seen as a route that gives players necessary time to develop their game.
Also, in addition, many -- and especially the top -- CHL kids have over the last decade really increased the work load summer time in terms of work on the ice and skill development dramatically to not fall behind too much. Because the CHL has certainly fallen behind over the last years. The US program and Swe/Fin programs have certainly
gained ground. If any expert here in Sweden are asked about the reason for this, I can guarantee that the answer is "
we train more and better". Swedish hockey is an organization that is easier to run, its easier to in detail get junior team coaches in Sweden to adopt practices than its to do the same in Canada and the coach of the CHL teams. And in Sweden the practice time has been dramatically increased, like I said up towards 20 hours per week for developing players. That is an insane amount. I wouldn't say that its an average, maybe the average is 14 hours per week for developing players, but its still extremely much.
Lastly:
*You are right, I am talking about 17-21 y/o's in general, not 22-23 y/o. There are of course no set rules here either, one 16 y/o can be like another 20 y/o in his development, or vice versa. But in general.
*My knowledge of these things are based on following the AHL and the SHL closely over the last three decades. I have no direct intel on how many hours Hartford practice per week under Knoblauch.
But like Hartford has like 8 weeks with 2 games, 12 weeks with 3 games and 4 weeks with 4 games. The SHL has 17 weeks with 2 games and 5 with 3 games. And several weeks with no games. How could they train even remotely the same amount? Three games in a week of which you travel to 1.5 on average, its not like you are going to be able to put in a lot of hard practices.
Please provide a source for that number.
Its a guess, in referenec to the paragraph above. 7 weeks a day. 3 games in a week. One day is rest/travel/just shake off the legs. 3 days left. Two hours focused on skill development -- and not systems, PP/PK, physical skating etc -- is not a low number. I think its quite high (but its a guess).
