All-Canadian, eh

As the Kootenay Ice touched down at YYZ yesterday to prepare for the Memorial Cup this weekend all the buzz on the club surrounds the lack of import players.

Don Cherry on HNIC's Coaches Corner started it off with this observation about the Ice line-up and the lack of imports and the guys over at Coming Down the Pipe and at Buzzing the Net all have some great stuff on the process that Kootenay went through in deciding not to draft any imports this season.

And of course this is what was said to me by Ice GM Jeff Chynoweth last June when he shocked the junior hockey community by opting out of the draft and trading their pick to the Wheat Kings.

It's also notable that there are no Americans on the four teams in the Memorial Cup this year. With the rate of development of high-level players in the U.S., that fact is astonishing.

It's also interesting to note the first detracting comment on the piece surrounding not drafting Euros. Nuff said, for sure as the Ice GM now looks like a genius.

A quick scan down the line-ups of the other three clubs in the Memorial Cup shows that Owen Sound has one import (a third liner on some nights) while the Majors and Sea Dogs both have two, with Kitsyn for the Majors (10 goals, 9 assists; second on team scoring) and Galiev (10g, 17a - second on team scoring) and Jurco (6g, 12a - 4th in team scoring) having major impacts on their respective clubs.

But for all the chest-thumping of Cherry or analyzing by national media of the lack of imports. I believe two important concepts are at play here. One, cost. The price to get a player released from their respective federations is significant. I'm told it's anywhere from $4000-$8000 when you factor in everything. In a small-market that significant and cannot be discounted. A list prospect costs the team nothing, comparatively speaking.

Secondly, development of prospects are paramount in the cyclical nature of junior hockey. Yes the Ice returned 18 veterans from last season (two were dealt or released in Magnus and Mathews, Eakin takes Magnus' spot so 17 is the real number), but with an older team such as Kootenay - which stands to lose five impact players next season and two others to the 20-year-old limit - you cannot discount the impact of giving younger players bigger roles headed into next season.

The drawback of a older championship team is that the following season forwards Brendan Hurley, Eric Benoit, Elgin Pearce, will be expected to play second-line roles next season. Soon to be 16-year-old Sam Reinhart will also play likely a third-line role. On the blueline guys like Paulsen and Dirk will be leaned on heavily.

Then again, they won a championship, right? So drawback might not be the right word.

The experience of time this seasonj, however limited, and the long playoff run will pay off in spades for a rebuilding club, or re-tooling as the Ice GM likes to refer to it.

So there's a method to the madness of the lack of imports this season and with a Memorial Cup shot at hand it seems to be paying off.

Don't be surprised to see an import or two here next season however, providing they're a top six forward or top four-five d-man. Otherwise they're just taking up valuable development time.