By Nathan Kanter

OPINION: How to improve the SJHL showcase

Sep 29, 2016 | 7:54 AM

Over these past few days, I attended the SJHL showcase for the first time as a new local reporter and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

As a huge hockey fan, I was giddy upon seeing NHL scouts from the Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks, Buffalo Sabres, Arizona Coyotes – among others – in attendance. And that’s not all. There were also WHL scouts and scouts from both Canadian universities and American division I and division III schools.

Of course, none of these scouts were there to see me (or even acknowledge me). They were there to see the players.

The annual SJHL showcase, a multi-day event where all 12 teams play two games each at one location and games count in the regular season standings, is supposed to be for the players.

It gives scouts from all over Canada and the United States the opportunity to see all SJHL players in one convenient location in a short amount of time.

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And while the idea seems nice, the event this year lacked execution.

From an organizational standpoint, almost every game started late and teams often found themselves without a flood for warm up. That was after games had already been pushed back an hour in the first place.

“I think they try to act like this is a great thing for the players. It certainly isn’t,” North Stars head coach Nate Bedford said after Monday’s game. “We waited around for 30 minutes wondering if we had a flood for warm up or not. It’s unorganized.”

Weyburn Red Wings head coach Wes Rudy believed the showcase is valuable for the league, and has one idea for how to improve its organization.

“It’s tough with the amount of people involved [and] the amount of teams involved to get everything perfect,” Rudy said. “People don’t realize that [for] the coaches and the players, there’s more than just a game being played out there. We’re talking with scouts, we’re meeting with people while we’re there.

“The biggest way to improve it would be to have one person responsible to delegate responsibilities.”

This is a league where 10 of 12 teams have one person serving as both head coach and general manager. So it’s their job to prepare for back-to-back games on the ice and talk to scouts constantly off the ice? Isn’t that a bit much?

Taking Rudy’s suggestion is simple enough and would certainly help from an organizational standpoint.

But my next point is an even bigger issue with the showcase. These games count towards the regular season standings.

Why?

Why does a showcase – which is billed as an event where the players get to show their stuff in front of scouts from all over – count in the SJHL regular season?

Rudy said his team played differently in this week’s showcase compared to if it were a normal regular season game. His team probably wasn’t the only one, as players know they have to make themselves look good and may subconsciously put themselves as individuals over the team.

So here’s how to improve the showcase: move it up two weeks in September so that it’s after training camp and before the regular season begins. That way it won’t count towards the regular season standings.

Some may say that’s not better because players will be rusty in the early going and won’t look good in front of scouts. But will two weeks really make that much of a difference?

Perhaps, but it’s worth it so the SJHL season doesn’t suffer.

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.Kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11