Let's Make a Deal, or a couple hundred of them

Hundreds of players were dealt in junior hockey this season, which has created a buyers/sellers dynamic and rendered the first-round playoff upset basically impossible

Montreal Canadiens prospect Owen Beck was one of 108 players who changed teams in the OHL this season. (Photo by Steven Ellis)

In the words of one player agent, “This has to be driving David Branch nuts.”

Not sure about that, since the commissioner of the Ontario Hockey League did not return a request for an interview, but it’s fair to say that Branch likely isn’t thrilled these days. For that matter, you’d have to think Branch’s counterparts, Gilles Courteau of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and Ron Robison of the Western Hockey League, can’t be terribly happy with what they’re seeing, either.

Or maybe they don’t care. After all, all three men are perfectly comfortable running hockey leagues whose business model is based on paying the most important employees poverty wages, so perhaps it doesn’t keep them up at night that hundreds of their players are shuttled around from team to team every season.