CHL: One at a Time

Running backs come from the Big Ten, point guards come from the ACC, and left fielders come from The University of Miami. But as to where the NHL's superstars come from little is known except for "Canada." Well that's right. A lot of the best NHL talent comes directly from three Major Junior Leagues in Canada that are collectively referred to as the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). They are the Western Hockey League (WHL), the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). As a matter of fact, 16 of the 20 guys on the Flyers roster today came from the CHL. Each of the next three mornings during Rookie Week I'm going to shine some light on one of these leagues in a Flyer fan friendly manner. Letting you know why you should care about these leagues as a Flyers fan and hopefully getting some of you off along the way. Bare minimum, you'll be able to make someone who does not know anything about the Flyers but proceeds to tell you he does as he sits there in his orange Roenick jersey look like an assdick by letting him know that even though Ole-Kristian Tollefsen is Norwegian he actually played his junior hockey in the WHL for the Brandon Wheat Kings. First up, the WHL.

As you can see above the WHL is comprised of teams in the western provinces of Canada and maybe surprisingly the Northwestern United States. Both of the other leagues in the CHL have teams in the U.S. too but the WHL is the only one with an entire division of American teams. If you're a Grey's Anatomy fan, which apparently it's very cool not to be since everyone said so, this is the league for you.

The WHL is the league with all the farm boys. Kids who play major junior tend to stick to their provinces for the most part and out West, well, is out West. There are some exceptions like Ryan Parent who is actually from Prince Albert and, as you'll see tomorrow, went to play in the OHL. It can turn out to be all about the draft. And yes, these leagues draft 15 year old's like the NHL later drafts 18 year old's. These farm boys, however, know how to play puck. One thing I have failed to mention up until this point is that winning your own league within the CHL is a great accomplishment, but after the league championships are done the 3 winners and a 4th wild card play in a round robin tournament for the Memorial Cup. The WHL has taken the Mem Cup home 2 times in the last 3 years and 18 times in all. Some big names who helped their teams to these championships include Luke Schenn of the Maple Leafs, Milan Lucic of the Bruins, and Mike Green of the Capitals.

Of the Flyers currently on the roster, 6 spent their Junior years in the WHL:

Arron Asham - Red Deer Rebels
Scott Hartnell - Prince Albert Raiders
Riley Cote - Prince Albert Raiders
Braydon Coburn - Portland Winterhawks
Brian Boucher - Tri-City Americans
OKT - Brandon Wheat Kings

One thing you're going to find out over the next few days is that all Major Junior teams in the CHL have badass names. It's the combination of those crazy Canadian towns and cool nicknames like the Hitmen, Blades, and Oil Kings that combine to form unique club monikers that you'll never find in the U.S. You can tell me that you don't want a Moosejaw Warriors or Chilliwak Bruins t-shirt but you'd be shittin' me, so don't even bother.

Of those guys above I'd have to say Scott Hartnell left the biggest mark on the league, purely because he was the league's first pick in 2000 NHL draft at sixth overall. Coburn was also the WHL's first NHL draft pick when the 2003 draft came along, but was taken at the 8th spot. Who went higher is probably moreso a measure of the other players in the draft than their worth to the league, but I'll do whatever the hell I want. Arron Asham tore the league up in his own right, with both his stick and his fists and was picked in the 3rd round of the '96 draft and we all know the Riley Cote story. Brian Boucher took the road less traveled for a Rhode Island boy and headed off to Kennewick, WA after some stellar goaltending at the RI prep school Mount Saint Charles. And OKT was one of those rare cases where an NHL team drafts a European player and actually manages to get him to come learn the North American style of hockey in the CHL. Probably why OKT is such an ass kicking robot.

Over the last 20 years the Flyers have drafted more players from the WHL than any of the three CHL leagues, although they haven't had much luck with those picks. Some of the more prominent names include Todd Fedoruk, Bouch himself, Luca Sbisa, and Triston Grant. Currently in the system the Flyers only have two goalies from the league: Adam Morrision and Jacob DeSerres. If I was to have gone 30 years back the Flyers first round pick from 1979 would have squeezed in and thrown of my whole data set (yeah I have data sets). That summer the Flyers used the 14th overall pick to draft a kid from the Brandon Wheat Kings by the name of Brian Propp. A kid who had just scored 194 points in 71 games and would go on to score over 1,000 points in his NHL career.

So now you know that these places - British Columbia, Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan - yeah, they're real. And they're not near the north pole (even though parts of them are). They are in fact home to some of the best junior hockey teams in the world. And all I'm asking is that maybe next time you recognize that.

Tomorrow, the big, bad OHL.