North Teams vs South Teams
If we look at the entire SBAAHL league really on any given night any team can beat any other team which tells me that SK teams overall would be able to compete against the lower tiered teams of the AB/BC/MB leagues. SBAAHL is a great league and judging from the parity among all the teams SHA has done a pretty good job of creating a system that tries to level the playing field. Could it be tweeked, sure but at least its decently close to allowing as many kids as possible play AA level hockey without having to travel more than 2 hours to practice in most circumstances.
Definitely SK Valley and NE are at a level to be able to consistently compete against Yorkton and Prairie Storm in any game . I would also put PA into the conversation if they can get their act together.
Would SK be able to compete against the top tiered teams in AB(SSAC, Cgy Bisons/Flames, Lloydminister)) BC(BWC, NSWC,POE,OHA) MB(Monachs),SK (ND) Never!
These programs are basically allstar teams from there respective areas drawing from 3 or four times the populations. AB and BC especially are all about the Have Nots and Haves in their leagues year in year out. In MB the Wpg teams draw from 250K populations compared to maybe 100K populations for the rural teams.
We see in SBAAHL that SK Valley and NE have had strong progams every year in the North and Prairie Storm in the south but these programs do not dominate the SBAAHL to the same degree that the top tier teams in AB and BC dominate in their respective leagues.
We dont need to create a system that allows us to compete against those programs. We need to create a system that develops good people and elite players!
So far so good I think for SK but if things change dramatically indicating poor development the model may have to change.