Subject: USA U-18 Team

Caps I am on a computer tomorrow so I can upload the players

Good win today, Cap. I was worried for a bit there.

The other team was scared to play the reigning division I champions.

Added the ones you asked for to the DB and updated around 60 others.

Thank you for your help!

I've been really busy for the past few weeks, so I haven't been able to post a writeup about the roster yet, but I finally have time and will post it soon. The only goal for this season is to avoid relegation from the top division, and it will be a difficult goal to achieve.

I've opted against my earlier idea to focus on earning more chemistry for next season since the dimished probably of staying in the top division outweighs the increased probability of promoting back to the top division next season (you only have to look at Slovenia's performance in the last two years to see that having better team strength is not enough to nearly guarantee promotion).

A lot of the exhibitions have been scheduled against other top division teams, so wins will be difficult to come by this season.

After three seasons using Camrawrn, I've also decided to give WasUpNerd the chance to gain more experience as the assistant manager this season since he has shown an interest in managing a national team. I would still endorse Camrawrn should he decide to run for a national team at some point.

I'll start with the goaltenders and first line today.

Goaltenders:
G1: Jordy Rutherford (Psychos - I.1): Rutherford isn't the best an elite goaltender, but he is about as good as any starter for the past few seasons and should give the team a solid chance. His AVQ is a little low, but somehow, with having access to state of the art training facilities, Rutherford has consistently been the best goaltender of his age group for the last few seasons.

G2: Cameron Queen (Psychos - I.1): somehow, both of the best 18 year old goaltenders come from the same team this season. Cameron Queen might even have more or at least as much potential than Rutherford in the long run, though Rutherford is sufficiently better at the moment to maintain control of the national team goalie mask given to the starter every season.


Line 1:

LW: Vito Corey (Team SMC SD - Slovakia IV.31/Razorback Thugs - I.1): though Corey is not quite as good as his line-mate Shorter, he has awesome shooting, good enough that I decided to give him the nod over Shorter's teammate Holt.

C: Richard Milton (Black Owls - Czech Republic V.94/the pirates - II.4): for the past few seasons, the United States has enjoyed the services of a generational talent at first line center. Last season, Dupuis lead the team to the top division. The previous season, Lance, possibly the best player pulled in the United States in many seasons, lead the team to within one game of promoting to the top division. Milton is only a very good center, but he has extremely good experience and is a starter on his team. He might be one of the best players to come from a division III team though. Milton is the captain this season.

RW: Ty Shorter (STL Saints - I.1): every season there is usually at least one elite player, and this season that player is Ty Shorter. He has a lot of great qualities and started out with great OR. He even has decent experience for his age. It will be up to Shorter to help the team to remain in the top division this season more than any other player. Shorter will benefit from his experience playing with the team that promoted to the top division last season.

LD: Matthew Valadez (Psychos - I.1): another product of the Psychos' talent pipeline. I've had Valadez tabbed as a future starter since two seasons ago. He is a solid defenseman with some offensive ability.

RD: Wilber Barker (Boilermakers - I.1): I've had Barker tabbed as the top defensemen for this for a while. He will be one of the last legacies of the High Hitterz and now plays for the Boilermakers who have emerged as one of the top producers of talent over the past few seasons. Along with Shorter, Barker also went along with the team that promoted to the top division last season.

Line 2:

LW: Nick Holt (STL Saints - I.1): Holt is Shorter's teammate from the STL Saints and a member of last season's team that promoted to the top division. With overall good qualities and still perfect CL, Holt projects to have a promising future. Holt is a step above the other wings on the team, about as good as Shorter, though his shooting isn't quite up there with Shorter's (which is why I'm giving Vito Corey the nod for now on the first line). Even so, Holt should help to make the second more dangerous.

C: Herbert Pruett (Boilermakers - I.1): Pruett is a solid second line center. I originally had him picked out to be the first line center on this season's team until Milton came out of nowhere with similar attributes and much better experience. Even so, Pruett has better shooting, and very good shooting for a center in particular, so he will be an important asset on the second line.

RW: James Zehnder (Boilermakers - I.1): Zehnder is another player from the Boilermakers. Like the rest of the line, he has very good OR for an 18 year old, though not up there with Shorter. Zehnder is will help bring the shooting up on the second line.

LD: Clint Craven (Boilermakers - I.1): Craven is the third player on what I should dub the Boilermakers line at this point (there are enough Boilermakers, from every position, in the lineup to actually create a complete Boilermakers line). Craven is a solid defensive defenseman. Overall, there are enough decent players like Craven to fill the lineup (this was not always possible in previous seasons), though the depth outside of the top 5 LD's and RD's is rather weak).

RD: Bob Brownlee (STL Saints): Brownlee will add some offense from the defense. He is possibly the best offensive defenseman on the team, though of the RD's, Barker is better overall, and Rodriquez might turn out to be slightly better overall.

A short note on the schedule: I scheduled a lot more exhibition games against top division quality opponenets, so games will be a challenge, and wins will be harder to come by. In the World Championships, Russia and especially Slovakia have a roster full of players like Shorter. Spain is also very good, though perhaps possible to beat. An upset win will certainly be possible against the other teams. It will be a challenge to avoid the relegation round, though the United States might have a fair chance if forced into the relegation round.

In order for the U18 team (and effectively the U20 team and the senior team) to have a better chance to be competitive, it is necessary for the United States to have more high level sports academies (granted that for personal teams, the arena and HR department should take priority). There are currently 14 teams upgrading or upgraded past level 13 in league I.1, 3 teams upgrading or upgraded past level 13 in division II, and 2 teams upgraded past level 13 in division III (division IV doesn't seem to be especially active this seasons). Although I always check all American teams and their transfer histories down to division IV that have been active at some point over a period of 3 seasons, and there are often good players from sports academies between ~11-13, the teams with level 14 and 15 sports academies tend to be the ones that regularly provide ~2-5 national team caliber players every season.

Of course, this will automatically happen over time (though other countries are improving too). There are a bunch of up-and-coming teams, my own team included, that are quickly approaching the point of being able to build elite facilities. Even so, it is something to keep in mind.

Not sure if i agree with having level 14 as being that essential .....
I am on D3 and will complete level 13 in 4 days. Kalamazoo ha level 14, however his training is only level 11 and Regen level 10.

My training is level 14 and Regen is finishing level 11 in 2 days.

while Kalamazoo has slightly better potential to pull better players, his facilities cant train them well enough o have players in NT roster, unless, of course, he sells the players for somebody else to train.

Balance is still very important. I don't plan on upgrading to level 14 anytime soon unless someone decides to make an offer to one of my youngsters of 100M or more.

The cost to upgrade SA to level 14 is more than a season of savings for my team. More likely 2 seasons of savings.

I think if one wants to help USA, those rich teams should start looking for top prospects around USA from teams that need money and start making offers, instead of buying international prospects....

Giving an example ... I have a 92 EQ Center Angel Berry who has great potential to become a NT playe
Not as high starting OR due to lower SA but the experience he will gain will compensate. He has 10 and should be close to 20 experience points before he turns 16.

I expect him to join the NT team at age 18. he will have close to 40 experience points.r.


Since I cant look at U19 players let's compare his potential experience gain against current U19 player listed here ...

Angel Berry - 21 league and 1 NC match at age 15. At this same time of the season, at age 18 he should have 150+ professional matches under his belt and thus very high experience.

1. Cameron Queen - Not a pro yet. Has never played
2. Vito Corey - Played a few professional matches: 4 league, 1 playoff and 4 NC
3. Richard Milton He is a Pro. Total of 91 league matches being 18 this season. Benefits of being on Division V ...
4. Ty Shorter - Played a couple of professional matches but 2 league, 2 NC and 2 CWC does not qualify him as being a pro.
5. Matthew Valadez - Only 3 league and 4 NC matches under his belt. Not a pro.
6. Wilber Barker - yet to play a professional match.
7. Nick Holt - 2 league and 1 NC. not a pro.
8. Herbert Pruett - yet to play a professional match.
9. James Zehnder - played 1 league match. Not a pro
10. Clint Craven - yet to play a professional match.
11. Bob Brownlee - played 1 league match. Not a pro


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Conclusion
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Only one of the listed players is a Professional Hockey player. And that is because he is on a Division V league.

While managers with lower SA wont be able to pull players with starting OR as great as the top teams, a team with great Training facilities accompanied to the ability to actually let them play is also a great alternative to have SA 14+


Teams in lower divisions with top training facilities should be able to train high quality players that would join a senior team with tons of experience.

that sort of reminds me of Kevin Clinton who I introduced to the NT team even though his OR wasnt as great as other goalies, mainly due to his very high experience for a young player.

he has 2x more experience than the 4th goalie and 55% more than the second goalie even though he is 2 years younger

My point is .... you should take close look at those teams with high training in lower divisions that will be able to actually play the top prospects as they can become beasts when they are 21 and able to join the senior team.


a 50-100 lower start OR now wont make much difference later on. 60%+ more experience will ....

Better sports academy would help, but training and regeneration are implied to be important as well. The Kalamazoo wings would have to sell any good players they pull for their prospects to make a difference at this point. Another division II/III team regularly pulls players that seem interesting but turn out to have neglected their training ratios.

It's a matter of the probability of pulling players with good OR; increase it enough overall, and the average quality of palyers will significantly improve. Certainly, the Detroit Red Wings don't have a level 14 sports academy, but they have pulled at least one national team caliber player per season. The Salt Lake Karma Police also don't have a level 14 sports academy, but they have been major contributors to the team at times. It is possible to contribute with level 11-13 sports academies - since I have finally upgraded my own sports academy past level 11, I am pulling for the first time ever, players with good enough OR that I am willing to at least consider them (though they are just at the threshold for both OR and EQ), though only 1 A+ caliber player I drafted this season has a serious chance. With all of this said, the United States will need to have more teams with better sports academies, and yes, training and regeneration facilities and staff as well (once again, I still don't advocate neglecting the more important arenas and HR departments to achieve this) to increase the probability of pulling good players sufficiently to comepte with the very best teams.

Though good prospects do tend to gravitate towards rich teams (though players good enough to make the national team, possibly due to a lack of depth, have sometimes sold for only a few million or so), I like your suggestion. Let's make it happen.

Some D2/3 will neglect correct training due to lack of interest .. That is what happened to me. Most of my prospects had horrible ratio.

I think part of the goal would also try to keep people motivated. Watching the same few teams having players in the national team certainly is not motivating. that is something i am trying to do in handball.

Kalamazoo cant train correctly due to low facilities, but could pull a good one that could be sold to one of our rich USA teams. that would help everybody: rich team gets a very quality player, poor team gets tons of money and NT team gets a high quality player.

If for example you find a top quality player in a team that does not have the right training facilities, you could try to find a buyer and try to get the team to sell the player.

e.g: I do not want to sell Angel as I think he could be my first hockey player to make a USA team. and also I know i can help him gaining experience. but .. show me the money and I cant say no to a sell!!!

Im sure there are others in the same situation.

I heard some of those rich teams complain they have too much money and nothing to do with it ... well .. invest in USA!!!! buy players from USA managers who are playing the game for so long but struggling to find revenue due to start it too late. Lets keep the money in USA!!!

I'm sure every season tons of high quality players (with good OR) are wasted cause teams do not have the right training facilities.

I like how you're thinking. When my infrastructure is complete in 1-2 seasons I was going to try to build my team with as many US prospects as I possibly could.

Another good point.

I would be up for creating a forum for this purpose, though I don't want to get in trouble for advertising players or encouraging the advertising of national team caliber players. The forum could advertise players from the United States from newer teams that can't train them or otherwise potentially national team caliber players from the elite teams that they don't have the space to train them - players like Vito Corey who only sell for a little but end up national team candidates due to the available depth). The youth pulls forum would serve if the other managers could be made aware of this purpose. Perhaps some teams from the United States might purchase these players - perhaps some teams might even volunteer ahead of time to purchase these players and be made aware of the players as they appear, sort of like Cory Martin seems to plan to do eventually. I think that teams like the Detroit Red Wings, Momentum, and bulls4ever might actually be the ideal teams to purchase these players since they might eventually have the money and facilities, but won't have enough money to bid on the types of players that fill the rosters of the most elite teams.

To be fair, the best teams do need to find elite players that might not be available in the United States to continue to be competitive. They also need money to retain their free agents. In addition, a few really good national team caliber players that have sold in the past few seasons have actually been purchased by other United States teams (for example Barker to the Boilermakers, Means/Robertson to the GoldFish, Max Jack to the Montana Miners, and Reif to the Psychos.