Agreed!

The AHL and Europe feed players to the NHL. Aside from 1st round picks, not a lot of guys jump right from juniors to the NHL. The AHL and to a lesser extent Europe are the primary feeders. Look at most AHL rosters and you'll see plenty of CHL guys and lots of NCAA guys as well. You'll also see plenty of guys who came up from the ECHL - those roster are also split between CHL and NCAA guys. Let's not pretend it's still the 70s and there are very few college guys.

I was simply saying that having the CHL and the AHL as the minor league system for hockey dynasty instead of all those divisions in American colleges makes more sense. We can still have US college players show up somewhere somehow in the game, but from what I understand they are often times signed as free agents not drafted. I say we go with what is the more common route to the NHL.

I think players from HS, Europe(world) and CHL should be available for the draft and after players are drafted they should go in AHL or directly to NHL it would be easier to create the game.
We would have 2 pre-draft scouting department, one for HS and CHL and one for world scouts. I don't think we need international scouting.

I would think that U.S. college scouting in an NHL dynasty game should work just like international scouting in HBD, since that's kind of like how it plays out in RL.  I would also think that college kids would be either canuck or yank, with the occasional world citizen in there.  Many Canadian kids go to play college hockey in the states, since the scholarships are more lucrative there.  The AHL can be the only minor league.  CHL teams don't have NHL affiliates.  Most prospects who are drafted in their first year of eligibility are sent back to juniors.  I'm sure that a good percentage of players in the CHL never get drafted.  Having 3 categories (U.S. high school, CHL, international/European) for the amateur draft sounds cool though.

Looks like a lot of you need to read up on college and junior hockey in the US before you make some suggestions.

There were 22 US High School players drafted in 2010, which is the most ever in a single draft.. Kids play juniors in the US (USHL, NAHL, EJHL, and several other leagues). From there, they go to US colleges. Many get drafted while playing juniors, then go to college, some go to college, then get drafted when they are freshmen. Altogether, 63 of the 210 players drafted in 2010 are either committed to be freshmen at US colleges this fall, or are already enrolled. That's just about 1/3 of all the draft picks.

As for the comment about "all those divisions in American colleges", there are 2 divisions - Division I and Division III (Division II was largely eliminated about 15 years ago, though there are still a couple of schools that play at  the DII level. You can count on one hand that number of DIII players that have made the NHL. 

If you want do mimic HBD, then you have the NHL - AHL - ECHL - CHL/IHL (or whatever it's called now). That's the way the pros run. "The AHL can be the only minor league" ? I don't think so. There are dozens, if not hundreds of players who have started in the ECHL, and worked their way up to the AHL and eventually the NHL. Where do you think AHL teams get players from mid-season? Nearly every NHL team has affiliates in the ECHL as well as the AHL. 

From Wikipedia:
"The ECHL, along with the AHL, are the only minor leagues recognized by the collective bargaining agreement between the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players' Association, meaning any player signed to an entry-level NHL contract and designated for assignment must report to a club either in the AHL or the ECHL."

I stand corrected.  Nice digging.

No digging needed - as many of the vets on here can tell you, I am an avid college hockey fan, and attend upwards of 50 NCAA games per year. 

The original IHL is now defunct.  What is now the IHL is what used to be the Colonial Hockey League.  It seems that several of the teams have NHL/AHL affiliates, but not all.  The  The CHL that we are referring to is the Canadian Hockey League, which is broken down into the WHL (Western), OHL (Ontario), and the QMJHL (Quebec and Maritime provinces).  This is where most NHL players (esp. the CDN ones) played when they were 16-20.

Again with the corrections for you....all NHL teams have an AHL affiliate. It has been that way for a few seasons now.

The CHL that I'm referring to is the Central Hockey League, which is equivalent to the new IHL (which used to be the United Hockey League, not the Colonial Hockey League). Both are a step below the ECHL.

I know what the CHL you are talking about is, and as much as some of you want it, it has no business being considered a "minor league" for a potential Hockey Dynasty. None of the teams are affiliated with any pro teams at all. Most of the Canadian players may have played there when they were young, but saying that"most" of the NHL players did is an exaggeration. As of 2008-09, 52% of NHL players were Canadian. However, some of those played US college hockey, therefore, less than half of the NHL played in the CHL. Is it the primary source of talent? Yes, but it certainly doesn't supply "most" of the players in the league.

I don't think I said that any NHL teams don't have an AHL affiliate.  I was arguing against the Canadian Hockey League being a "minor league" for a hockey sim as well, eh?  I guess  I wasn't clear.  BTW, there are plenty of American kids playing in the Canadian Hockey League (Rob Schremp and Dustin Brown are two alumni I can name off the top of my head).  Check this out: http://www.chl.ca/fullstory.php?id=1543  I do now agree that the ECHL could also be a minor league level in a NHL dynasty sim, so you have convinced me of something!

In baseball dynasty, minor league team don't have a city name and they are not in a league with a name, they are just  minor league teams that play in a league exctly the same as major league. I think it could be the same in hockey, NHL and 2 levels of minor league.don't need to put a name, if I play Boston Bruins, I would have a AAA Bruins and AA bruins.

Actually, in HBD, all the minor league teams do have a city name - the same one as the Major League team. All the cities WIS chose for HBD are ones that currently have a major league or minor league franchise - they weren't just arbitrarily picked.

2 cents to be thrown in.....why not the Canadian Hockey League.....more and more Euro/Russian teens are choosing this route as are the countless Canadians and plenty of Americans that join this league.  If enough people joined (which may be a huge stretch) but could we not have a CHL where the goal is to have your players drafted to the bigs and then you recycle from there???

i don't really care what they call the minor leagues, or whether they're based on real life leagues or not.  as long as it's structured similar to HBD, it's all good to me.  i just want some sort of minor league system where i can develop players to call up to the bigs when they're ready.  whether it has one, two, or multiple levels isn't as important to me.   :>