04-04-2022, 02:46 PMACapitalChicago Wrote:

04-04-2022, 02:31 PMspooked Wrote: Honestly, the J is not a development league anymore. It operates essentially on it's own without much oversight from actual SHL HO/Commish in terms of intention of the league, and the J HO doesn't really seem to want to compromise their own competitiveness to accommodate development style changes from what I saw, now maybe that has changed or maybe they would take some, but I personally never saw much flexibility.

I strongly disagree. The J very much still is a development league, as we have our set goals of development and retainment. Just because we may not develop directly into the SHL does not mean these players are no longer developing at all, and instead speaks to the overall and frequently aforementioned issue that players outright don't want to leave the J. I fail to see how our autonomy and ability to be self-sufficient instead of relying on a different League's head office is a fault, when I instead find our current professional courtesies and conversations helpful and beneficial to all involved. Why should SMJHL HO not have oversight of the SMJHL? Not once, for as far as I've been in SMJHL HO, "not wanted to compromise our own competitiveness to accommodate development style changes" to paraphrase your own words, and I'd be interested in hearing how we've done so in the past. The last update scale changes were not made with the SMJHL's parity or health in mind beyond hoping to result in more callups, which already strongarms our ability to handle competitive balance.

I know you probably didn't mean it this way, but this feels like a slap in the face to call us inflexible when we have done nothing but rewrite the rulebook and restructure our interior departments multiple times over multiple seasons so as to better accommodate the needs of the J.

Yeah, I didn't mean it that way. The "not being a development league anymore" was along the lines of "The J (and it's HO/Staff) is doing so well at making their product good it is actually compromising the SHL itself". It isn't much of a developmental league because there is no incentive to actual move on from it for some/most people. The GM jobs are more approachable, the player aspect is easier/more fun (less grind), etc.

The product the J can put out is easier to make superior because of how quick & approachable it can be, it pulls a lot of weight in helping the league be more engaging more quickly. Now you have some issues to face too, but the inherent advantage of only needing a couple months to be "good", instead of a year or more, makes it very difficult for the SHL to actually compete quickly/incentivize callups. The spread in TPE in the SHL also makes it much harder... These are not really problems that can be solved, just the nature of the J being outright advantaged in those areas. There needs to be more incentive to be called up, but I also don't think the SHL alone can make those changes since early-career SHL players are almost impossible to improve beyond what has already been done barring just kneecapping high tpe players outright or something along those lines.

I think it would be hard to name specific items, but the general attitude I remember was challenging to get anything between SHL to SMJHL HO done if it had any negatives to it for the J. The draft being so delayed is the obvious one cause it came up multiple times, but it is possible that would work as an example. In my opinion there isn't really a need to have the SMJHL Draft so far back, I think it would actually be better from a league perspective to draft the rookies FIRST, and then do the SHL draft... but the SMJHL pushed really hard to make sure the J GMs know the send downs before they draft for competition reasons I assume. Which is funny to me cause a GM could still change their roster after that date if they wanted to, it's not frozen I don't think anywhere in the rules last I looked.

The update scale being done that way was probably within the realm of what I am speaking to as being desirable for the site long term. Things that impact the SHL AND SMJHL should be decided by SHL HO and the Commish basically because it involves the main league, but with input from the SMJHL HO to avoid easily avoidable issues. Honestly speaking, I think the league would be a lot better if the two HO's were basically merged and managed the league from the top down without the division.