Tips ranked third in CHL poll, what does it mean?

Published 1:27 pm Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The weekly CHL top 10 poll was released this morning, and lo and behold there’s Everett ranked at No. 3. That’s after being unranked, and not even among the honorable mentions, in each of the previous polls.

So wow, the scouts must think pretty highly of the Tips, right? Well, I’m going to advise against getting too excited about this. While it’s nice to see Everett getting some recognition, the CHL rankings, particularly early in the season, are pretty much a sham. As best as I can determine, the rankings are about 95-percent based on two factors:

1) Team records.

2) Making sure there’s three teams from each of the major-junior leagues in the top 10.

Here’s a good example. I can’t remember if it was last season or two seasons ago, but an unheralded Prince George opened the season with a couple of wins and showed up in the top 10, even though nobody associated with the WHL thought the Cougars were any good. And what happened? Prince George promptly sunk in the standings, making that early ranking look silly.

Now let’s look at Everett’s case. The Tips were unranked the previous week. Last week Everett had two games, both at home. The Tips beat Kamloops 4-2 in a game they probably should have lost, then beat a modestly-talented Lethbridge team in the midst of a long road trip 2-1. Do you really think those were the type of performances that would have vaulted the Tips from being unmentioned to No. 3?

If you want to argue Everett should have been ranked from the start, fine. Although I probably wouldn’t have made that strong a case, I can understand the argument. But if you think that Everett’s play over the past week swayed those who compile the rankings, I’m afraid I’m going to have to respectfully disagree.

Now this comes across as rather negative towards those who compile the poll, and it’s not meant to be. There’s absolutely no chance anyone’s been able to get a good look at all 60 teams in order to do an adequate evaluation. And a lot of teams haven’t even been able to field their full lineups because their top players have been at NHL camps. Perhaps it would be better if the CHL followed the path of the BCS and waited until a significant portion of the season passed before releasing it’s first rankings. At least that would give evaluators a chance to gather some legitimate information before making their evaluations.