The Ins and Outs of Canadian Hockey
Hockey is the national past time for the country of Canada. Every young child grows up in Canada hoping to become a player in the NHL someday. It is vaguely similar to the way young children grew up in the 1960s in America wishing to become baseball players. Some of the best players in the world hail from Canada.
The most popular hockey player from Canada right now is Sidney Crosby. Crosby recently led the Canadian National Hockey Team to a Gold Medal in front of a home crowd in the most recent Winter Olympics which were held in Vancouver, Canada. He also led the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Stanley Cup title 2 years ago.
The system in Canada is more geared to get young players in to the pros more quickly than other sports like Basketball and Football. They start playing junior level hockey when they are teenagers. They then can be drafted once they turn in 18. These Junior League teams have schools as well so the players can go to school while they focus on their hockey. Many of the recent top draft picks in the NHL Draft have been 18 or 19 year old kids that were drafted out of the Canadian Junior Leagues.