I find the whole situation a head scratcher as well.
Agree that MHR is by no means perfect, but it does serve it's purpose particularly as a barometer for whom I schedule my son's teams against. Almost everyone wants to see competitive games, and a blowout either way is usually not alot of fun to watch.
Have found that it helps bring the picture into focus when there is a ~3 point difference in a team's MHR(85 MHR vs. an 82 MHR) on whether the game will be competitive or a blowout. The more games these scores are based on, the more accurate they also tend to be as well.
While I realize it's brand new(and hopefully they will make improvements to it), I have no clue what to do with Black Bear's HPR(Hockey Power Rankings). As a clear example look at the link below:
16U Tier 2 Rankings - Hockey Power RankingsAccording to the top ranking for 16U Tier 2; the 1st place Metro Jets have a 54 Krach score and the 3rd place Lake County Vipers have a 9 Krach score. Does that mean that they are 6 times better than them even though they have an almost identical record and MHR scores?
Then you go further down the list to see that teams ranked #44 through #327
have the same exact Krach score??!??
Good luck scheduling a game if you are looking for parity. I can certainly see where Krach scores serve a purpose for the NCAA rankings and bowl seedings, but for scheduling games it's more or less useless.
While I there is a value in having a 2nd resource for scheduling games, Black Bear should stick to what they know and let someone without a conflict of interest manage this if they are really that concerned with "keeping at home with their families and local clubs as long as possible" as they lay out in their mission statement(link below).
Home page - Hockey Power Rankings