Rant: Insecurity in Prospecting, Rating, and Ranking

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DumbManHockey

Registered User
Nov 21, 2016
210
128
This is not a new issue; people have been insecure forever. I've spent decades caring about my team's players and how they're viewed by the rest of the communities I'm active in. This year I've completely lost my ability to care, and it's starting to bug me how much I used to care.

Who the hell cares if your prospect is viewed highly by posters, bloggers, writers, or fans?
-The only thing that has literally any bearing on anything at all is (1) what the GM thinks, (2) what other GMs and scouts think, and (3) what you think personally.
-It really does not matter if the prospect is viewed as potentially being better than another team's prospects. The only thing that matters is results, and how that player's actions support team success.

Who cares if your favorite player (or any) is overrated, underrated, or unnoticed?
-
Again, no bearing of anything of any substance.
-If you love a player, overrate them to your heart's desire! Your relationship with that player's play to you, is the only thing that ought to matter. It's Dumb Man Hockey certified Dumb Man Hockey to base your enjoyment off of a player based on others' ratings.

Who cares about where your prospects or players fall on a ranking list?
-That stuff sucks in general. That is worthless article writing, zero substance, and purely subjective writing. WHICH IS FINE! You are allowed to write anything, and its more than acceptable to write positive substance about a player you like. The problem is that a ranking bears no weight on the world. It does not matter if Lane Hutson is the 30th ranked player behind Tim Stutzle. Go score points and help the team win. It does not matter that Bedard is the 3rd ranked guy on a list.
-In a league where there is a definitive, cut and dry, 'who's best' system of numerical statistics and the ability to win championships, subjective rankings need not exist.

Am I far off base? Am I Dumb Man certified? I just get so irrationally peeved at heads who spend hours and hours begging that people 'watch the game.' If you're worried about a ranking, you've already got a guy that you find to be awesome! Enjoy that! Lean into the positive!
 
Well yes, it's all noise at the end of the day. But some people enjoy the discussion even if it seemingly makes them angry
 
The melt downs that occur on the prospect boards whenever some kind of list or ranking comes out is always a treat to watch. Blows my mind how serious people take that shit when it has absolutely zero barrings on how a prospect will turn out.

People are allowed to have a different opinion than you, but everyone just wants to be "right"
 
I've had some time with my thoughts and can't shake one thing:

What's the point of Ranking lists?

I know that writers do it because it always generates clicks and discourse (which is smart marketing). I'm just so curious why we care about them at all.

Players are directly comparable.
 
The people that claim to watch
Every Swedish league
Every Finnish league
Every Czech league
All of Canada OHL, QMJHL, WHL and major junior
USA - USHL, NCAA

Those are the worst posters on this platform

Entire scouting organization struggle to cover this and pay third party firms for info

But a single poster on this site has watched every game for all these leagues

Rankings for specific leagues…. Yes that makes sense from people who ACTUaLLY watch them.
 
This is not a new issue; people have been insecure forever. I've spent decades caring about my team's players and how they're viewed by the rest of the communities I'm active in. This year I've completely lost my ability to care, and it's starting to bug me how much I used to care.

Who the hell cares if your prospect is viewed highly by posters, bloggers, writers, or fans?
-The only thing that has literally any bearing on anything at all is (1) what the GM thinks, (2) what other GMs and scouts think, and (3) what you think personally.
-It really does not matter if the prospect is viewed as potentially being better than another team's prospects. The only thing that matters is results, and how that player's actions support team success.

Who cares if your favorite player (or any) is overrated, underrated, or unnoticed?
-
Again, no bearing of anything of any substance.
-If you love a player, overrate them to your heart's desire! Your relationship with that player's play to you, is the only thing that ought to matter. It's Dumb Man Hockey certified Dumb Man Hockey to base your enjoyment off of a player based on others' ratings.

Who cares about where your prospects or players fall on a ranking list?
-That stuff sucks in general. That is worthless article writing, zero substance, and purely subjective writing. WHICH IS FINE! You are allowed to write anything, and its more than acceptable to write positive substance about a player you like. The problem is that a ranking bears no weight on the world. It does not matter if Lane Hutson is the 30th ranked player behind Tim Stutzle. Go score points and help the team win. It does not matter that Bedard is the 3rd ranked guy on a list.
-In a league where there is a definitive, cut and dry, 'who's best' system of numerical statistics and the ability to win championships, subjective rankings need not exist.

Am I far off base? Am I Dumb Man certified? I just get so irrationally peeved at heads who spend hours and hours begging that people 'watch the game.' If you're worried about a ranking, you've already got a guy that you find to be awesome! Enjoy that! Lean into the positive!

A part of that is :
- Those people are passing off themselves as non-biased, when they are biased. By biased, I don't mean towards certain teams, but towards some players or archetypes.

- Frankly, Pronman is paid to talk about hockey, which is f***ing cool when you think about it. I'd like to be paid to talk about hockey myself, like I'm sure a few on this website would. This said, people being paid to talk about hockey should not be writing things such as Lane Hutson could end up being a 2nd pairing player, when he obviously very well above that level at the moment.

There's some jealousy at work here, but also real frustration. I personally don't like to read stupid stuff, evenmore when the writer is paid for it. Had Pronman put Hutson around 30 (not around 40) and supported his ranking by saying that Hutson is probably at his ceiling and that he has unfixable issues that will limit his all-around usefulness, on top of being 21 instead of 18, that's an absolutely fair take. That exposes him to be called out on it a few years down the down, but it's not downright moronic on the spot. Having his absolutely ceiling below his actual level just makes everyone question the guy's understanding of a sport that he's actually being paid to watch.
 
Making fans of terrible teams feel like they are winning at something.
Hey it's all I have, man!

This is not a new issue; people have been insecure forever. I've spent decades caring about my team's players and how they're viewed by the rest of the communities I'm active in. This year I've completely lost my ability to care, and it's starting to bug me how much I used to care.

Who the hell cares if your prospect is viewed highly by posters, bloggers, writers, or fans?
-The only thing that has literally any bearing on anything at all is (1) what the GM thinks, (2) what other GMs and scouts think, and (3) what you think personally.
-It really does not matter if the prospect is viewed as potentially being better than another team's prospects. The only thing that matters is results, and how that player's actions support team success.

Who cares if your favorite player (or any) is overrated, underrated, or unnoticed?
-
Again, no bearing of anything of any substance.
-If you love a player, overrate them to your heart's desire! Your relationship with that player's play to you, is the only thing that ought to matter. It's Dumb Man Hockey certified Dumb Man Hockey to base your enjoyment off of a player based on others' ratings.

Who cares about where your prospects or players fall on a ranking list?
-That stuff sucks in general. That is worthless article writing, zero substance, and purely subjective writing. WHICH IS FINE! You are allowed to write anything, and its more than acceptable to write positive substance about a player you like. The problem is that a ranking bears no weight on the world. It does not matter if Lane Hutson is the 30th ranked player behind Tim Stutzle. Go score points and help the team win. It does not matter that Bedard is the 3rd ranked guy on a list.
-In a league where there is a definitive, cut and dry, 'who's best' system of numerical statistics and the ability to win championships, subjective rankings need not exist.

Am I far off base? Am I Dumb Man certified? I just get so irrationally peeved at heads who spend hours and hours begging that people 'watch the game.' If you're worried about a ranking, you've already got a guy that you find to be awesome! Enjoy that! Lean into the positive!
Welcome, fellow nihilist.
 

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