Scott Radley: Junior Bulldogs and Huskies merge in minor hockey shakeup

For years, some folks have wondered if the Hamilton Jr. Bulldogs and Hamilton Huskies should merge. Become one organization with one strong AAA team in each age group to both simplify and improve competitive minor hockey in this city.

That day has come.

The two groups announced Thursday that they'll be joining forces in a three-year pilot project to become the Hamilton Steel Hockey Club. Wearing Los Angeles Kings' style black, white and silver, they'll play in the Ontario Minor Hockey Association.

It is to provide Hamilton with one true AAA team that can compete with the best in Ontario," says Jr. Bulldogs president Adam Syring, who will become vice-president of the new organization.

If you have one AAA team at each age group in the city you can focus your resources to provide the best experience for the top players who are all hoping to become prospects and climb the ladder to the Ontario Hockey League. And then maybe - if things go according to their dreams - to levels beyond that.

Resources have indeed been an issue. Coach applications have been declining in recent years and finding volunteers has been tough. As a result, the organizations were fighting each other to get the best of them.

Basically it was a tug of war every year," says Huskies director and now Steel president Mike Spadafora.

This move will make this city's AAA teams formidable. There have been strong teams in the past but usually just one or the other. Combining them into one unit should make Hamilton a powerhouse. Which could allow the best players to feel confident they can stay in town and develop rather than going to super-programs in the Toronto area.

It'll also make the local feeder organizations' teams better since some players who might've played AAA will now be flowing back to Ancaster, Dundas, Stoney Creek and elsewhere.

And those who make the Steel will have even a better chance of being drafted because scouts will be able to see them more often since there are half the number of local teams to watch.

Put that all together and from a competitive standpoint it sounds like a good thing.

But there's more to kids' hockey - at least there's supposed to be more - than just winning. Which leads to the vastly more important reason this matters.

Cutting down the number of roster spots in AAA may seem unfair, especially to those whose places are about to vanish. But what this is really doing is reducing the number of kids who are spending extraordinary amounts of time and whose families are spending outlandish amounts of money chasing a dream that just isn't realistic for them.

Rob Kitamura is a scout with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He's been the head of OHL Central Scouting. He knows minor hockey as well as anyone.

In my professional opinion," he says, there are too many AAA teams and there are too many players at every age who shouldn't be playing at that level."

Don't believe him?

There are 17 spots on most teams (15 skaters and two goalies). The most he can ever remember being drafted into the OHL from a single minor midget team anywhere in the province is 12 or 13. In other words, not everyone is a prospect even on the most-loaded squads. There aren't going to be 17 kids drafted from Hamilton in any one year. There sure as heck won't be double that.

Yes, it did give more players opportunity to play AAA," Spadafora says of the two organizations. But are we giving that opportunity just based on the fact that we needed to fill 34 spots?"

The correct answer to that is, yes. Which means some will be far better off playing a level down. There they can be a star instead of being the sixth defenceman out of six who gets two or three shifts a period.

What fun and what experience is that player getting?" Syring asks. Development doesn't always happen just because you have the extra A."

You can be sure not everyone will share this view. Some of those on the periphery whose spots are about to disappear won't be happy about it. Being forced to lose one of those precious letters on their team jacket may sting. It might sting mom or dad even more if we're being honest.

But it's the right thing to do. Allowing the absolute cream of the crop to pursue their realistic goals while nudging others to a spot where playing the game can be more enjoyable and less like work makes all kinds of sense.

Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com