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OT: Public Tryouts for the Leafs

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Jason Spezza went to my high school. I played ball hockey against him and some OHL guys in a few gym sessions. It was a fair bit of fun, but quite telling how even at age 15-16 the seismic skills gap between us. Some of us thought we were pretty good because we played AA or AAA bantam hockey a few years earlier. They were obviously better (i.e. they destroyed us) - and they were also taking it really easy.

I can't imagine that gap narrowing as one gets older without the daily exposure to elite level competition. It simply isn't possible, especially in a dynamic game like ice hockey. With baseball, where the game can be broken down systematically into a set of static actions (i.e. pitching, hitting, fielding), there's probably more latitude for diamonds in the rough.
 
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Warden of the North said:
My grandfather says he distinctly remembers tryouts for the Leafs when he was young. You just went and did it
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yup, exactly. My father-in-law passed away last year at the age of 70. He was from Montreal and a hardcore Habs fan. When he was 18, he actually made the Habs and the Rangers teams through tryouts. The Rangers were offering good money but he couldn't relocate to New York because of family health-related issues, and chose to actually work as a seasonal lumberjack in Northern Quebec because it paid more than what the Habs were offering. What a different era
 
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The worst player in the NHL is a phenomenal talent. There's a reason why D1 and CHL players often find themselves on ECHL rosters after finishing their college careers. The top .1% of the top 1% is significantly better than the remaining .9%

The talent gap is truly staggering without even factoring in hockey IQ, toughness, competitive nature, etc.

No one in men's league is touching that, and no, Senior A hockey shouldn't be considered men's league as it's mainly ex junior and pro players
 
Stephen said:
Technically this already happened for David Ayres...
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Technically, it didn't. Ayres didn't "make the team". He was a practice goalie that, due to a lack of immediate available options, got carried through half of a game as an emergency backup.
 
the closest i have come to the pros is playing with former NHL players, and current OHL players, robbing them with a glove save is so sweet. Even sweeter to have video of it.
 
Dekes For Days said:
Technically, it didn't. Ayres didn't "make the team". He was a practice goalie that, due to a lack of immediate available options, got carried through half of a game as an emergency backup.
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Technically he did. Before he stepped on the ice, he had to sign a one-game contract with the NHL. He was paid $500 for that game, technically he didn't earn a penny though, but in reality he did. So technically based on the amature contract he had an amature try out, technically he was paid to play for the Hurricanes. Technically he wore a 'Canes sweater in a regular season NHL game. So technically he was a Cane for one game.

 
Im going to suggest it would be almost impossible these days.

The gap in hockey between the NHL and AHL is big enough, the gap between the AHL and minors is big enough.

To expect some unknown individual to come in and make any impact at all in a positive way, just wouldn’t happen.

I played with some extremely skilled AAA players that thought they would make it big, only to first hand see themselves exposed to fringe NHL talent in a competitive scene and you can see how deflating that exposure can be to some.

To others, it can light a fire under their butts and push them to a level where maybe they can make a career out of professional hockey at some level if they just work that much hard and take a look in the mirror and adjust their game to what will get them there.
 
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Bluelines said:
Technically he did.
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No, technically, he didn't. The question was "is it possible for any Joe Blow to make the team out of camp by just walking in to some kind of training camp?". As in, a "diamond in the rough" that simply didn't take the traditional route through junior and minor leagues. This is not the Ayres situation. He didn't participate in any camp. He didn't "make" any NHL team. He wasn't any good. He got carried through half a game as an emergency backup due to a particular rare circumstance, and his only relevance now is being brought up in unrelated threads to take weak jabs at a team for a meaningless regular season game over a year ago.
 
Every North American amateur player with even the slightest outside shot of making a pro club is on the pro scouts' radar. Every single player participating in that Making the Cut series had an extensive amateur and often pro resume. A walk on at the amateur level is possible and some have even eventually played in the NHL years later. But make no mistake when these guys have walked on to a junior team, they have a history dominating a level of hockey below the junior level and they were on the scouts' radar to some extent but judged as a poor skater, too small, not athletic enough, etc.
 
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SeaOfBlue said:
Fairly sure this exists at the ECHL level, but it would never fly in the NHL anymore.

However some ECHLers do eventually make the NHL so you never know.
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Yeah, ECHL teams regularly do open tryouts.

Any higher is a no.
 
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ChuckWoods said:
Im going to suggest it would be almost impossible these days.

The gap in hockey between the NHL and AHL is big enough, the gap between the AHL and minors is big enough.

To expect some unknown individual to come in and make any impact at all in a positive way, just wouldn’t happen.

I played with some extremely skilled AAA players that thought they would make it big, only to first hand see themselves exposed to fringe NHL talent in a competitive scene and you can see how deflating that exposure can be to some.

To others, it can light a fire under their butts and push them to a level where maybe they can make a career out of professional hockey at some level if they just work that much hard and take a look in the mirror and adjust their game to what will get them there.
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My experience is that there are certain personalities who can't mentally handle not being the dangle king out on the ice. They give up as you said rather than take a secondary role at a higher level of play. Also they often outright refuse to learn/embrace the subtler skills and positional awareness required of a team's support players.
 
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BooRadley said:
I'm sure quite a few folks here thought about making the team out of camp with some kind of tryout similar to American Idol.

I'm past my best before date and never would try out myself, but seeing how baseball and basketball execs can find diamonds in the rough overseas, is it possible for any Joe Blow to make the team out of camp by just walking in to some kind of training camp?

I know it's pretty far fetched because you would need to know how to skate first and foremost among other things, rather than learning skills on your own with a ball and / or stick. I would bet there's quite a few people on these boards that might catch a small look if there were some kind of public camp. Clarkson came out of nowhere and he's just one example.

Is it near mandatory to make the team the conventional way by starting young in junior and making your way up through whatever leagues until a scout notices you? I would imagine there's lot of politics behind the scenes I'm not even aware similar to how someone might plateau in the corporate world. Don't flame, it's just a question I've always wondered and never knew who to ask. I'm sure some of you thought the same thing at some point in your life.
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We all love the stories of the guy walking off the streets and making a big league team. So yeah, I imagine there is some dynamic hockey player in a small, frozen town somewhere who can skate circles and curl the puck like no other, all he needs is a shot but his parents can't afford organized hockey.

Unfortunately stories of the NHL star out of left field is extremely rare. I use the word unfortunately as it's a shame when some who might want to pursue a career cannot (often due to costs) and they are left out in the proverbial cold.

I remember in the first season or two, the Raptors had a high school teacher who made the cut and there must be multiple cases of pitchers in particular seemingly coming out of nowhere and into the MLB One guy even recorded himself throwing a 96MPH fastball in some challenge and the Oaklands A's signed him for a tryout. Hey, it's that simple. Hah.
 
Ten years from my last junior game, with a solid string of intramural and beer league since and only about 10 pounds over my playing weight I'm confident that given a focused two months to get back to game shape/speed I could make a solid case for myself as a 4th liner.. for my local senior A team.
 
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It's too bad. If I was still in my prime, I might have given Hutchinson a run for his money, lol.
 
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Dekes For Days said:
No, technically, he didn't. The question was "is it possible for any Joe Blow to make the team out of camp by just walking in to some kind of training camp?". As in, a "diamond in the rough" that simply didn't take the traditional route through junior and minor leagues. This is not the Ayres situation. He didn't participate in any camp. He didn't "make" any NHL team. He wasn't any good. He got carried through half a game as an emergency backup due to a particular rare circumstance, and his only relevance now is being brought up in unrelated threads to take weak jabs at a team for a meaningless regular season game over a year ago.
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He still made the saves
 
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ruaware41 said:
Salty little man. He still made the saves
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Mhm, seems like the most salt would be coming from those who can't move past a meaningless game from over a year ago. I'm just pointing out the facts. Not that it has much relevance to what I said, but he actually made saves at a pretty horrible rate, and worse than the previous emergency backup who did the same thing (that nobody seems to care about, funny enough).
 
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