Asunto: U18 Canada National Team

The one mistake I think you made was not playing VH from the get go against Spain in game 1.

The tournament is too short and too unpredictable to get fancy and try to save energy at the beginning of the tournament. All teams at the U18s are relatively close in skill, so upsets are not even that much upsets. There are very few favorites, and definitely not Canada because our GM/player base is smaller than top countries.

I have made a similar mistake in past tournaments. The points you carry over from the round robin are really important in the qualifying round. You can't take any time off until the final game of the QR if you are in really good position.

I agree.
Given the anticipated problems with goaltending, I should not have taken the chance.

Even more disturbing now at the end of the qualifying round. A win against Spain in the preliminary round would have qualified us for the playoffs. Won't make that mistake again...on any national team.

Don't worry. As I said, I made a very similar mistake a few seasons ago. I was lucky it didn't cost me a playoff spot, but it could have.

U18s cannot be managed the same as the senior NT. It is a different game where chem is of utmost importance because everything else is going to be very close from one team to the other.

I am not crazy about this system where your record only carries against the teams that pushed through to the next round. It can sometimes be very forgiving for teams that had mediocre preliminary rounds and very bad for other teams that had decent preliminary rounds.

But the system is what it is and we can't do anything about it. As a rule of thumb, you just go for it every single game. If you're lucky maybe you can rest the final game of qualifying round if your playoff spot is already assured and you are satisfied with your incoming matchup.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the new Canadian U18 GM, fron the fourth division of Czech hockey...

His profile for the coming season now has him in divsion V.1 with 53 days of experience and claiming to have experience nationally with Estonia. Do we still have time for a Canadian entry to enter and win?

Yes, yes we do.

I put in my name. I'm a little busier than I'd like these days, but I can make a little time for our dear U18

(Ah shoot, that means I gotta update all my scouting profiles xD)

I have current ones, and am willing to help.

Some players will need to be added soon for our first games of the season.

So here I am, shamelessly advertising my player.

Brenden Benson, 18yo center man. 1073 OR, currently highest OR out of all players on the NT. Maybe he was overlooked last season by mistake?

I'm working on updating my attribute list, but yes, he's going to get a call up (Dwight Neath, who is at 1080 OR, was also snubbed last season. I think we just had really good depth at center?).

I'll send canucks a provisional list ASAP

Assuming these two have decent attribute percentages, they would have increased by almost 200 points in OR over the past season. This would mean they were both at about 880 when the choices were made last season.
At that time, we had 2 centres over 1,000 and another 8 over 900. I think ten centres is more than enough to carry on the national team. My apologies.

No worries. Benson was not necessary last season. It's cool to see the flag next to the name, but there was no room for him on the regular roster.

This season however, he is probably the 1st or 2nd center on the lineup (I admit I don't know players that are not yet in the lineup).

I know it's a bit of a different ballgame, but when I was running the U20 I'd pick the top like 2 19yo of each position and give them chem and exp a bit ahead of time. Of the 8 over 900, we only needed 3, anyway ( 4 regular + 1 sub), so I would've made space for the younger players who had potential to be > 1000 the next season (which is why I keep a training/day average in my scouting spreadsheet, to somewhat predict that, among other things ).

Neath and Benson were likely the top 2 17yo centers at that time, and were actually on par with Benjamin Newell, who actually played with the U18, at the end of the season (their OR is higher now, for a year less),

There is method to my madness, and I'll try to bring that back with a slightly higher focus on current performance too. But still, always looking to the future!

Season start scouting report: We are going to be REALLY strong on the (right) wing, pretty good down the middle, but our defense is going to be a bit lacking and our goalies aren't amazing either (G2 is going to be one of the 17yos).

There are a few players for whom I have a slightly biased average OR gain atm because of end of season training camps, so I'm going to have to readjust my ratings in a few weeks to have a better idea of who stays and who doesn't.

Everything ok with the schedule there?