The Kassian talk needs to chill a bit

There are two things that I just can’t stand in professional sports:

1) Hype
2) Hidden agenda

Over the last month or so, I’ve been listening to some of the talking heads on WGR and for that matter, people over at the Sabres, explain to me why I should give a crap about World Juniors. A tournament that I never really watched before and that you could probably say the same for the rest of the states. I’ve heard that this is suppose to be the greatest hockey on the planet and that all the NHL stars started their careers playing in juniors.

Or have they?

Well, I decided to take a look back at one of the old Canadian rosters to see if that was really the case. I went to the 2007 squad and frankly, I wasn’t that impressed. There’s only 2-3 real NHL caliber players on the squad (Toews, Letang, Marc Staal), and when I say that, I’m being kind of nice. 2005 was better, as the likes of Crosby, Getzlaf and Jeff Carter were on the team. Even still, there were some other players that I never heard of. Hell, one of the players was actually named Clarke MacCarthur

This is all leads me to my Zack Kassian rant. Look, I didn’t watch the game in which he was suspended in, but judging by what Mike Schopp, Jeremy White and others said about the kid, you would have thought he was the reincarnation of Mike Peca, Jim Kelly and Andrew Luck.

Look, I hate to break the news to you, but the majority of the players who make it to WJ’s have like a 25% chance of making it in the NHL. Plus, what people don’t get, is that your stats in juniors mean absolutely d#4k when it comes to playing in the NHL. Case in point, Patrick Kaleta’s season high in goals in the OHL was 24 goals. You know what Kassian’s career high was? It was the same. When you make it to the NHL as a junior, you are in essence, someone that totally dominated that league. Mark Mancari could walk into a OHL league and dominate it. Hell, Rob Ray had 52 points in 62 games in the OHL.

All I’m saying is that all this talk about Luke Adam centering the line between Marcus Foligno and Kassian for the Sabres next year is completely idiotic. These kids have so many more hurtles to jump over before they can even make it to the NHL. And just because some kid knocked out a 17-year old out of a game, doesn’t mean I should be ordering my Kassian jersey.

As far as the hidden agenda goes, it doesn’t shock me that some of the Sabres media outlets are pouring so much love on Kassian because they have to sell the tournament to Buffalo somehow. From what I read from Sunday’s game, the arena wasn’t exactly buzzing for a USA Hockey game. So, why not just sell the Sabres prospects as your marketing point. As I said a week ago, there was going to be a ton of love for the Sabres prospects, but I actually didn’t think we’d be talking about Kassian as being a franchise savior or whatever.

Look, if you want to be a fan of WJ’s because you love hockey, then go for it. I can totally live with that. I just happen to be someone who doesn’t really get into amateur sports. It’s just, I grew up in Buffalo and it really wasn’t much of a college sports town. Now, if you want to go down to the Arena because it’s a tournament that doesn’t come here all that often, ah salute. Hell, if you’re a European, who will end up spending 50 bucks to park a car downtown, which will put food on a parking lot attendant’s table, keep going.  However, if you are going to buy into this tourney because you think Kassian is going to be crushing NHL players next year and changing the Sabres franchise, you better take a step back, because if the NFL draft is considered a crapshoot, then the World Juniors should be considered the lottery.