Hockey Recruiting in Ontario

At last week's Red-White scrimmage, a friend made an interesting observation about Cornell's freshman class.

On this year's roster, only five players came from the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL). And all five are freshmen.

Moreover, seven of the nine freshmen are from Ontario. In comparison, zero of the six seniors are from Ontario. (Adding departed players Tony Romano and Justin Milo to that class makes it zero out of eight.)

Why didn't Cornell bring in a more geographically diverse class?

Recruiting in Ontario is obviously less expensive than recruiting in places like British Columbia, Alberta, or the American Midwest. The seven Ontario recruits all reside in or around Toronto, which I'm sure allowed Cornell's coaches to meet with several of them during each visit.

Despite the focus on Ontario, Cornell was able to bring in a talented and promising freshman class. Perhaps the coaching staff received enough interest from Ontario prospects during this cycle that there was no need to look elsewhere?

I would try to analyze this a little more, but it looks like it may just be a one-year phenomenon. According to BRP's sidebar, none of the players who have committed to Cornell for the next two years are playing in the OJHL. So I don't think we can explain this Ontario frenzy in terms of budget cuts or a seismic shift away from Cornell's traditionally strong recruiting in western Canada.

But it'll be interesting to look at the geography issue again when more players announce their commitments to Cornell.