Agree with this in many of the games that I watched (only saw the top 3 levels and some of a practice with the futures group). I appreciate that there were lots of girls that were able to participate and also that they had 2017 graduating kids along with 18/19 and a few 20's playing together across the spectrum (not including futures).Nevertoomuchhockey wrote:Is this the first year they've had 4 tiers? I watched (I think) every team in the top 3 prospects brackets at least once. I don't want to call out players or teams, but after black/gray/white/red it seemed just about every team in 2nd and 3rd levels had at least 2 up to 4-5 players who really really looked out of place with the pace of play and just seeing the ice. I loved the opportunity to watch this kind of talent in one place one weekend, but at times it felt like growing the format meant settling for some kids who seemed outplayed every second. Can't be fun for them. Anyone else agree?
I think they said they had 22 D1 coaches there Sat, but there had to be just as many D3 Sat and Sun as well.
How many players do you think played down or didn't play at all since they moved the weekend up to finals/prom/grad? Looking forward to round 2.
However like you said I think that there were girls at each level that could have moved up or down from their level to better fit in with similar skilled peers.
I also wonder if OS should consider one of the 3 weekends to be a weekend with all 17's playing together and the same with 18, 19, & 20's. This might allow these coaches (who also probably do most of their own recruiting) to start to see kids with their graduating/recruiting classes rather than the typical 99/00/01/02 years that is available at National & state camps/weekends. I would also have current commits mixed in to give the coaches a potential measuring stick of sorts. Even if they did 2 of the 5 games like this coaches may be interested in coaching a specific year or watching for recruitment purposes a certain year. For example the gophers may be fully committed for current 17s & 18s. Then they could look at 19's. Or BU might be looking for one more 17 D and 2 F from the 2018 class.
Anyway...it seemed slightly watered down with 4 divisions and 18 teams but how does Winny & crew make it less so without having tryouts or other to make these weekends. Or do they have graders of sorts that watch each game to see if there are any standouts that might be considered for a move up or laggers that might need to be moved down or wait listed...
