Man, those college hockey recruiting rankings for 2023… that sure takes me back a bit. It’s funny, you see these lists pop up, all official-looking, and you think, “Alright, these are the guys.” But the story behind actually trying to make sense of ’em, or even caring about ’em, can be a whole other can of worms.
I actually got neck-deep into that whole scene around the 2023 cycle. Not because I was a scout or anything, far from it. My buddy, Kevin, his kid was a pretty decent defenseman, nothing superstar level, but solid. And Kevin, bless his heart, was absolutely obsessed with where his son might land, and by extension, where every other kid in North America was ranked. He’d call me up, “Did you see who’s number 5 on the ‘Future Stars’ list? What about the ‘Northern Prospects’ board?” It was constant.
So, one day, I kind of half-jokingly said, “Kev, how much of this is real and how much is just, you know, guesswork? Someone’s opinion?” He got all fired up, naturally. And somehow, I ended up taking on this personal project, almost like a challenge to myself, to really dig into these 2023 rankings and see what was what. I figured, how hard could it be?
Famous last words, right?
I started by just looking at the big names, the well-known lists. Easy enough. But then I started noticing discrepancies. Big ones. A kid ranked top 10 on one site might be an honorable mention on another, or not even listed! So, I thought, okay, I need to go deeper. I started pulling up smaller blogs, forum discussions, even tried to track down old showcase rosters to see who played where and when.
My process became pretty involved. I actually made spreadsheets. Yeah, me, Mr. “It’s-probably-guesswork,” had spreadsheets tracking players, their supposed rankings from different sources, what little stats I could find, any blurbs from “insiders.” I was trying to see if there was any pattern, any consensus beyond the obvious top 3 or 4 guys everyone agreed on. I spent evenings clicking through grainy game footage when I could find it, trying to match names to numbers.
What I found was… well, it’s messy. Really messy. Some rankings clearly had a regional bias. Some seemed to heavily favor kids who went to the big-name summer showcases – the ones that cost an arm and a leg. Then there were the “intangibles” that no list could really capture, but you’d hear whispers about – “great locker room guy,” or “coach’s kid, understands the game.” How do you rank that?
I realized that these 2023 rankings, while a starting point, were just one tiny piece of a massive, confusing puzzle. So much depended on who saw you, when they saw you, and what they were looking for that particular day. And let me tell you, the amount of effort parents and kids put into just getting seen was mind-boggling. It wasn’t just about being good; it was about being in the right place at the right time, and often, knowing the right people or playing for the “right” summer team.
So, when I look back at “college hockey recruiting rankings 2023,” I don’t just see a list of names. I remember the hours I sank into it, the conversations with Kevin, and the slow realization that it’s a far more complicated and, frankly, subjective world than most people think. It’s a full-contact sport just trying to understand the recruiting game itself, never mind playing in it.
