I went ahead and analyzed, as best as I could - using the Norpac Pacific Division Rosters from Pointstreak.com - the player ages per each team. What I found didn't really surprise me, in fact it made clear to me, why the Wranglers have the record they have, and why other teams have the records they have.The Wranglers, after all the recent player cuts, have the smallest team and the youngest team. The Wranglers have 6 players that are 16 or younger, and only 7 players older than 16. No player is listed as an '88 (20 years old). The Wranglers have four players in which I do not know their ages, so perhaps there could be some older players but I doubt it. If, you assume the 4 players ages are 18, the average age of the Wranglers is an incredible 17.1 years old! That's young. And, being young means being inexperienced in Junior hockey.
Now let's go to the other extreme, the league leading Seattle Totems who the Wranglers play this coming weekend. The Tote's have 7 1988 birth year players (20 year olds) and 4 1989 birth year players (19 year olds). If you use the same assumption that the 9 players they have rostered with no birthdate are 18 years old, the average age of the Totems is, 18.4 years old. Over 1.3 years older than the average age of the Wranglers. All of the Totems top four scorers are 20 years old (Stombaugh, Galvin, Snider, Schulze). The lines are predominately 20 year olds.
If you look at the 2nd place team the Eugene Generals, the average age is 18.2 years old. Over 1.1 years older than the average age of the Wranglers. The Gens top scorer is Frei who is an '88 (20 year old). The Gens top 5 scorers are all 18 or older. You can tell the Gens are building and investing in some younger talent trying to be a consistent contender through-out the years. Whereas the Totems, T-Hawks, and Jags have invested in age and experience.
So, the Wrangler competition is older and more experienced, in some cases much more older. No wonder that the Wranglers have such a tough time getting outplayed and outscored, and their record is so dismal. No, I am not making excuses for the Wranglers, I am merely pointing out that again, that if you consider age and experience the Wranglers are definitely at a disadvantage - a big disadvantage.
Here's my challenge if there are any Totems, Generals, River City, and Puget Sound fans or coaches out there reading this. What if you set up your lines and players - age wise - to match the Wranglers age wise? Average age 17.1 to average age 17.1. Now that would make for an interesting game. I think I'd put my money on the Wranglers. But no, the greed of winning big, the greed to rub the Wrangler's noses into the score is too great. C'mon the Wrangler's fate is set - they're in last place and they're going to stay there, they're not a threat, rather it would be a great show of sportsmanship.
