03-27-2023, 12:26 PMACapitalChicago Wrote: :denied:

I don't want to come across as condescending, that's not my intention at all. Instead, to just soapbox for a little bit, it breaks the GM'ing pipeline. When it comes to being a general manager there's only four real leagues to gain experience from, SHL, SMJHL, IIHF, and WJC. Of these, it's rare for anyone to jump straight into GM'ing/Co-GM'ing straight at the SHL level, typically you need some experience elsewhere. IIHF fed heads have low turnover rates on average which shrinks the available positions for people to learn from, leaving just the WJC & SMJHL. WJC has made amazing strides to be more accommodating and entry level for new GMs, but it's shortened and inherent position of only happening for brief stints often with unforseen problems can result in skewed experiences that aren't the full GM'ing experience. Not to say the SMJHL is without its own unforseen issues (Fucking FHM), but on average being a J GM or Co-GM can be the best place to gain GMing experience. The seasonal turnover gives many new opportunities at blank slates for teams to experience rebuilds or playoff pushes, and the level of competition entwined with tpe caps means there's more wiggle room for imperfect rosters/strategies, thus a lesser intensity of competition gives more ground for people to focus on learning the GM'ing ropes. While not as core of a focus, the SMJHL gives people a place to learn how to be GMs in addition to being new players.

But, to bring it back to the original comment, the biggest issue with exclusive minor league teams beholden to SHL teams is the lack of control that provides flawed GM'ing experiences. General managers of minor league teams, as opposed to J teams, can't control who's on their team and why. This results in them just having to do the best they can instead with what they're given instead of actually developing a team and culture for themselves. Removing the ability of J GM's to cultivate their own locker rooms hinders both the ability of the J to retain and develop players as well as give GMs experience GM'ing when it comes to drafting, signing, rostering, scheduling, LR building, etc. To add on to this, the nature of minor league teams would mean that we would need some league below the shl level that has enough players to go around, which is a bit unfeasible for the forseeable future imo. The only way you could do that and have teams actually able to fill out the rosters enough to field a team would result in most likely having to cut the J, and could leave the situation with players are perpetually stuck in the minors. Unless of course you create regulations where they go up after X seasons, but then we might be right where we started.

To summarize, I had some free time and the urge to write but not get paid for it. I'm always happy to discuss things in regards to the J, and encourage everybody who has questions comments or concerns to please let me or any member of SMJHL HO know

Damn I was highkey joking but appreciate the explanation anyway