Brandon Hagel starts a group chat

[MoneyManny]

Yup. US has 10x the population. If their top athletes chose hockey first, like Canada’s top athletes do, then they’d have elite players like McKinnon, McDavid, Crosby, Makar and more of them too. Right now, those elite level athletes are in other sports.

It's not just the population, although it's a big factor. Nurturing young talent in Canada is way harder than in the US and we put all the burden on the parents. Our school programs are complete underfunded garbage and the government puts zero emphasis on athletics.

The government is quick to call hockey our "national sport" but what kind of effort do they ever put into it?

 

[MoneyManny]

Why was Jesperi Kotkaniemi invited?


JJ Watt did play hockey. He liked it better than football. But hockey is stupid expensive and football is cheap, so he played football.

This is super off topic but maybe turning youth developmental hockey into a scam targeting upper middle class families with the lure the generational wealth a long NHL career affords has some negative long term side effects on the health of the sport

Damn that's awesome. Makes JJ Watt EVEN more likable to me. Would of been amazing seeing him play pro hockey. We need personnalities like his too.

Completely agree with the 2nd paragraph too.