This has been a really amusing thread to catch up on. Not sure what has been funnier, the Jr Sharks bashing, or the lack of understanding of the world of AAA.
First the Jr Sharks. True they are rarely as good as the Ducks, and struggle with the Kings. The AAA landscape looks like the following based on myhockeyrankings (which is not great, but it's the best we have.) You can break down the rankings into three parts, with 'grey areas' between them. Within these sections, on any given day, any team can beat any other. Playing 'up' a section is always a struggle. Playing 'down' a section, an easy game. This seems to be true at almost every AAA level:
At the top of the rankings you have about 15-20 teams that can be considered 'elite'.
From roughly positions 20 through 50 you have what most people would consider 'good' AAA teams.
From about 60 on, you have AAA teams that are struggling. 'Bad' teams. At the bottom you usually have 10-20 teams that shouldn't be in AAA.
The Ducks are almost always in the first section. The Kings are typically in that grey area between 1 and 2, and the Sharks are almost always in the second section. So yes, the sharks struggle with the kings and ducks.
There are many of reasons for that. I think competition for players does play a part in the Kings and Ducks improving their programs over time. There is a bigger pool to draw on. They Sharks typically do not have 'tournament' and 'import' players, but rely on local kids, something the kings and ducks are not as strict about. I think the ability to commute may play some role too, as kids from the north of the bay area basically cannot play for the Jr sharks (and the sharks have not adapted to that with practice time changes, etc.) Can the Sharks improve? Yes. They are not doing badly though, drafting more WHL players this year than either the Ducks or Kings, and sending four kids to the national camp.
Would competitive teams in the area help? Maybe. But only if there are enough kids at the AAA level available. There aren't. GSE was approved to field an 04 AAA team last year. I'd argue that CAHA bent over backwards to make it happen too, approving it based on a sample roster that included mulitple '05 players (very rare at AAA beyond the Connor Bedard's of the world.) That's the only way they could make it work.
But they couldn't make it happen. GSE withdrew their application. I haven't spoken to parents about it directly, but I'm guessing that one of the reasons was that they looked at the small roster and realized they'd get their butts kicked. Some of those kids ended up playing for the Jr sharks. And as it turns out, the GSE team that was to form the core of it sort of ended up imploding this year.
We all want the game to grow. But half-assed attempts at building teams don't help anyone. The situation may well be different in Socal, where there are many more AA teams, but I wouldn't know.