Why Canada can't win the Stanley Cup

[Eddie_Shack]

Then feel free to explain how the Islanders do it. Moulson, Parenteau & Colin McDonald were UFA signings nobody wanted. Grabner, Nabokov, Hickey & Strait were waiver pickups. They signed Mark Streit to a 5 year deal & allowed him to play defense when the other teams that were interested in him wanted him to be a forward. Ken Morrow & company do a great job of pro scouting that's for sure. The Islanders are probably near the lowest in terms of amount of scouts in the entire league. Word was they only had like 1 or 2 scouts at the NHL combine last year.

Define "it".

 

[Darkstone42]

Then feel free to explain how the Islanders do it. Moulson, Parenteau & Colin McDonald were UFA signings nobody wanted. Grabner, Nabokov, Hickey & Strait were waiver pickups. They signed Mark Streit to a 5 year deal & allowed him to play defense when the other teams that were interested in him wanted him to be a forward. Ken Morrow & company do a great job of pro scouting that's for sure. The Islanders are probably near the lowest in terms of amount of scouts in the entire league. Word was they only had like 1 or 2 scouts at the NHL combine last year.

Build a playoff team on a budget you mean? Having a lot of scouts is a luxury, but if you find the right scouts, you'll assemble talent. The Islanders scouted well, made smart signings based on those scouting reports, and consequently found themselves in the playoffs this year despite a low payroll.

 

[davnlaguna]

This is really an article saying based on how many times someone googled NHL we should have half the NHL teams in Canada thus increasing Canada's odds to win the cup.
My question to him would be why have more Canadian teams failed and had to fold or move to the US than the other way around?

I think it has more to do with corporate sponsors than fan support. But I don't really know

 

[DaBoltsNIsles]

Define "it".

How the team that spends less money than the actual cap floor & likely spends less money on it's scouting staff than any other team in the league has been able to amass a talented team & excellent prospect pool, while many teams with bigger payrolls & more scouts have faltered. Edmonton has had 3 straight 1st overall picks & will pick 7th overall this year. They have some highly paid talent on their roster. Yet they continue to flounder. Calgary has a high payroll. A lot of veteran talent. Their prospect pool has a few up & coming players, but not many.

My point is just because a team has the money & manpower doesn't mean they will be successful. It's who's making the decisions that matters most.

 

[forty_three]

Okay most of you won't appreciate this the way I did but I got a good chuckle out of the list of prospective cities for NHL relocation/expansion. Particularly the 4th on the list.

These people obviously have no idea what they are talking about. The combined population of the 2 cities & surrounding areas is probably about half of that (divided fairly evenly between the 2). But that's not even the best part. The 2 cities are an hour and a half away from each other with pretty much nothing in between. Neither city would support a team awarded to the other. Once in a lifetime concerts or other events? Sure they'd travel to see it without any type of jealousy that it wasn't in their own city. But an NHL team? I can't even finish this thought it is so ridiculous so I need to change the context to CFL which has been discussed and is at least somewhat realistic. Neither city would support a franchise awarded to the other even if they try to brand themselves as a provincial team. They wouldn't exactly boycott it but they wouldn't go out of their way and feel as though it is "their team" either. They'd check it out now and then but there'd be very few STH's from the opposite city and there would no doubt be some jealousy that would cause a few to boycott.

I read the list and though something was off. Then I read this:
In 2011, I estimated the number of fans for each N.C.A.A. football team by comparing Google search traffic for the term “college football” in different media markets. We can do the same thing for hockey by evaluating the number of people who searched for the term “N.H.L.”

I am a die hard hockey fan and I am not sure I have ever Googled NHL. Because, you know, I know how to find NHL information.

4% of the population of Milwaukee are hockey fans? I'd bet 20% are hockey PLAYERS in Wisconsin. There is no way on God's Green Earth that the same percentage of people in Atlanta are hockey fans as there are in Milwaukee. No fucking way.

Almost three times as many hockey fans in Phoenix as there are in Milwaukee?

How about no.

Then feel free to explain how the Islanders do it. Moulson, Parenteau & Colin McDonald were UFA signings nobody wanted. Grabner, Nabokov, Hickey & Strait were waiver pickups. They signed Mark Streit to a 5 year deal & allowed him to play defense when the other teams that were interested in him wanted him to be a forward. Ken Morrow & company do a great job of pro scouting that's for sure. The Islanders are probably near the lowest in terms of amount of scouts in the entire league. Word was they only had like 1 or 2 scouts at the NHL combine last year.

Wonder where he learned about putting the right pieces into place and getting the most out of each guy?

 

[KennyBanyeah]

How the team that spends less money than the actual cap floor & likely spends less money on it's scouting staff than any other team in the league has been able to amass a talented team & excellent prospect pool, while many teams with bigger payrolls & more scouts have faltered. Edmonton has had 3 straight 1st overall picks & will pick 7th overall this year. They have some highly paid talent on their roster. Yet they continue to flounder. Calgary has a high payroll. A lot of veteran talent. Their prospect pool has a few up & coming players, but not many.

My point is just because a team has the money & manpower doesn't mean they will be successful. It's who's making the decisions that matters most.

No offense but getting even ONE 1st overall pick makes a big difference. This is particularly true when there is a franchise centre is available that year. Combine that with a handful of other lottery picks and the Isles should have a good prospect pool. The Isles have really just managed to not screw it up. The Oilers on the other hand.....

 

[DevilishWon]

Define "it".

Bill Clinton is that you?

 

[DaBoltsNIsles]

No offense but getting even ONE 1st overall pick makes a big difference. This is particularly true when there is a franchise centre is available that year. Combine that with a handful of other lottery picks and the Isles should have a good prospect pool. The Isles have really just managed to not screw it up. The Oilers on the other hand.....

Really? Lets see the only 1st round picks made by Snow who are on the current roster are Bailey & Tavares. In fact if we add Okposo who was taken in 2006 by Neil Smith that number becomes 3. Garth didn't have a 1st round pick in 2007. In fact they only had 2 or 3 picks that year & none of them signed. Two signed with other teams. The other 3 players the Islanders took in the top 5 aren't even on the team yet.

Travis Hamonic 2nd
Casey Cizikas 4th
Matt Martin 5th
Andrew MacDonald 6th
Frans Nielsen 3rd
Kevin Poulin 5th
Jesse Joensuu 2nd
David Ullstrom 4th

Joensuu & Ullstrom weren't on the roster the entire season either. They didn't draft most of their roster.

 

[juliansteed]

I read the list and though something was off. Then I read this:
In 2011, I estimated the number of fans for each N.C.A.A. football team by comparing Google search traffic for the term “college football” in different media markets. We can do the same thing for hockey by evaluating the number of people who searched for the term “N.H.L.”

I am a die hard hockey fan and I am not sure I have ever Googled NHL. Because, you know, I know how to find NHL information.

4% of the population of Milwaukee are hockey fans? I'd bet 20% are hockey PLAYERS in Wisconsin. There is no way on God's Green Earth that the same percentage of people in Atlanta are hockey fans as there are in Milwaukee. No fucking way.

Almost three times as many hockey fans in Phoenix as there are in Milwaukee?

How about no.

Yeah no kidding. And 7% in Hartford? Even if that stat was accurate do they not think that maybe losing a team might have something to do with it? Put a team back in Hartford and that figure triples or quadruples easily back to the Pittsburgh & Buffalo range.