Most people unless their kid is going thru all the way to 66 & National team has some issues. Here are some thoughts:
I think that most of us on this board agree that Minnesota girls hockey is clearly the deepest and most talented of any state. There is plenty of evidence to support that. There are some very high end girls from all over the country but the #s are huge here compared to everywhere else and while MA or MI might have 3 very high end girls from their states there are not many more than 10-20 more kids that are worthy of National camps or D1 programs at each age (or graduating class). The #s from 2016-2017 D1 season show it. 145 women from MN, then 72 from MA, 35 from IL, 32 from NY, 30 from MI, and 170 total from other states. Interesting that there are 176 from Ontario.
See this site for more info:
http://scholarshipstats.com/hockey.html
I have heard for years from friends with older kids that are graduated or currently playing D1 hockey that when they were watching their kids in St Cloud at u18 camp and u15 camp that there were LOTS of kids that did not make it out of their district to MN Camp at 15 or 54's for 16 & 17 that were CLEARLY way more talented and better than kids from many other states and regions that got to attend Natty camp. I believe that it used to be even worse #s wise with MN getting less slots regardless of talent level.
Regarding the section issue that goaliedad31 brought up there are lots of things to discuss imo. Lots of data points. I watched a bunch of games, looked at points, team performance (scores, records, etc), and even saw a few practices at 16 & 17.
Lets look at Sections 4/5/6 at 16 this year as they will also be eligible next year as 17's and they secured 28 of the 54 spots:
Section 4 had a 2-1 record and lost in Champ to Section 5 while outscoring opponents 11-6. They had
3F, 3D, and 0 goalies that made 54's 15 points between the 6 position players that made 54's. There were 25 total points scored by their section.
Section 5 had a 3-0 record and won the Championship while outscoring opponents 13-3. They had
7F, 2D, and 1 goalie that made 54's. 22 points between the 9 position players that made 54's. 32 total points scored by section.
Section 6 had a 2-1 record, won the 3rd place game and scored 5 goals and had 6 against. They had
7F, 3D, and 2 goalies that made 54's. 6 total points scored between the 10 position players that made 54's. 9 total points scored by section.
Just looking at the data I don't see how S6 should have had 2 goalies to S4's zero. Both sections had 3 54-worthy D...does that mean that the F from S6 were much better defensively with 4 more making 54's? They certainly did not score more as the 7 S6 forwards had only 2 goals and 3 assists. What about S4 having more D make 54's? If their G were not good enough than did they have better defensive position players? Section 4 beat section 6 2-0 and section 6 had more shots in the game. How about more F's from S5?
What about Section 8? 3F, 2D, & 2 goalies. They lost 4-0 to S5 and then beat S2 & S3 by 4 goals each.
As goaliedad31 said Section 6 should be more stacked next year with Blake moving in with 3 01's. 1 Gopher commit, Blake's 3rd leading scorer this past season, and another that made S5 but not 54's. Section 6 will probably score more goals as the 3 combined for 5 goals and 7 assists at this years festival.
There is a lot more to look at but my eyes are crossed and brain hurts. Things to analyze could be the % of outstate kids (and the distribution of spots). How many points these kids scored in their HS season. How many are already committed to D1 schools (does anyone commit at 16 to D3 schools already?). How many are A/AA kids. What % are OS/Winny kids. Then you could take all of these stats and look at the distribution of kids that go to 66/U18/National team.
How about MN hockey getting some form of an evaluation to all of the kids in each district? Maybe even as simple as work on speed, or shooting, or vision of the ice, or back check harder, or whatever...I am guessing that there are kids (and parents) that would LOVE that information!
Or to kids that were close a "sorry you did not make it but were very close. We would encourage you to..." I am guessing that this would be most helpful for 15's and 16's as they have at least 1 more opportunity to try to make a camp.