"The SMJHL's West is better than the East"


Depends on your criteria I suppose. Just by looking at the standings and teams thus far, the East has the best and worst teams, while the West is more competitive. Then again, if you remove Detroit from the picture in the East, the range between the best and worst team by points is actually equal. Detroit's season has certainly been stellar so far, but that doesn't mean the East is definitively better than the West. 

If you look at future talent, I would argue that the East has a higher potential. Teams like Maine and Carolina are struggling right now, but they both have had early draft picks that could pay dividends in the future. Meanwhile in the West, you have teams with already-strong rosters like Kelowna and Anaheim that could be on the decline. 

Let's take soccer as an example. There is always debate about which is the "best" league: English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, or Italian Serie A. Many use the argument that competitiveness = better. You see this in the Bundesliga, where the past few seasons you have seen multiple teams challenging for the title. The 2019-20 season had 3 or 4 teams challenging for the title. The Serie A was dominanted by Juventus for years, but that has been changing, with other teams coming into the mix. La Liga was notoriously the best league for years, as Spanish teams kept winning European trophies, deeming their country the best in Europe. The Premier League was arguably the most competitive for years (in terms of title winners), but the past couple seasons it has become a Manchester City vs. Liverpool fight for the title. Overall, I say that a league is better based on the teams that have the potential to win the title.

If we use that standard in the SMJHL, I would say that the East is better than the West. Before the season started, the favorites for the Four Star Cup were Detroit, St. Louis, and Kelowna. The East is stronger right now, and it looks like it will continue to be that way in the future. 

AGAINST