Not much is heard from the Wranglers as far as recruiting or coaching. Which leaves many wondering what's going on. What's next? Well, spring and early summer is recruiting time. Within the next two to three months there are several hockey showcases such as, Burnaby and Las Vegas Global Player Showcase, USA Hockey Chicago Showcase, 5 Hole Hockey Showcase, USA Hockey District Camps, USA Hockey District Tournaments, Arizona Jr. & Sr. Showcase, and Vancouver Challenge Cup. Also, many Jr. A Tier I & II teams are doing their recruiting in April leaving the "left overs" for Jr. A Tier III and Jr. B for the later camps and available for recruiting by NorPac.If you remember your science, there's a thing called a "bell shaped curve." If you place on the X-axis player skill/talent level from great to poor. And, for the Y-axis you measure number of players. You will see that there are very few great players - probably less than 5%. Good players, from 5% to 20%. Medium players from 20% to 80%. And less than medium to poor filling in the last 20%. "Are ya still with me? If so, let's move on."
Great players are probably already spoken for by being placed on WHL protected lists, and already contacted by upper level teams. They are not playing NorPac. Next are the "good players" which may or may not play NorPac. There's intense competition for these players by all the teams in NorPac and other Junior leagues. The bulk of the NorPac players pool are probably those "Medium" skilled and talented players. Many of these "medium" players can become "good" or maybe even "great" and that's what a good scout or coach can find - those "diamonds in the rough." Finally, the last segment of "poor" players are those who think they are good or great, but realistically and truthfully are where they are. The Wranglers seemed to have a dearth of them last season. No, I am not going to name names, we all have our suspicions of who. Lets leave it at that. And, I don't think they were invited back.
The real recruiting game in NorPac is finding those medium skilled/talented players who given the right amount of coaching, development, and play can turn into those players who make a difference on a team. The Yellowstone Quake went from last place in the America West division in 2007-2008 to 1st place in 2008-2009 based on an excellent recruitment. I met recruiters from Helena last year at Globals and they were searching for those "diamonds in the rough." And, once again they were successful. Coaches and scouts in BC are in full swing trolling the player waters doing their homework - researching player stats, talking to coaches, reviewing game videos. My experience tells me that each year the competition to find competitive good-to-great players is getting tougher. The good players have plenty of options to choose from. The upper layer medium players may have one or two, and the rest are lucky to get anything. And, if they do get an offer they'll snag it, then act like they're "Sid the Kid."
Here's the challenge for the Wranglers... Without a coach who knows what they want in terms of players, you're going to get the GM and Wrangler Scout doing the recruiting. The Wranglers cannot sing their record as a recruiting tool, and they cannot entice a player to play for a coach because there is no coach. The "sales schtick" will have to be the supportive fan community and plenty of playing time. Rumors travel fast in the hockey world and I would suspect that the Wranglers face a recruiting challenge just like trying to win games last season. Let's just say it's going to be interesting. Being a Wrangler fan I hope and pray for the best - a great recruitment, but the Wrangler curmudgeon in me says sarcastically, "good luck!"
Oh, by the way... for those of you who send those foul, filthy, trashy comments. I reject 'em when I see the first four-letter curse word. So they don't even get fully read when they get sent to the "reject bit bucket." Why waste your time? It's like the bumper sticker on a car I saw the other day, "I See Stupid People." Was it you?
