WOC Skill Match Making

While I agree this isn't a good idea due to the issues at times of low population, what they did have last year was a better state. There has to be some level of it seeing if you look at it on a whole the game has different tiers of difficulty. If you remove skill based matchmaking why not put all online game modes to superstar difficulty without an option to change. That to an extent is what you as stating with that view point. Which isn't fair play to everyone who plays the game. 

I do see the idea there where in theory it would make sense that they should be able to learn and get better but if you are not having fun at a game, you may not always play, what gives you a reason to continue and not walk away, which would hinder the player volume more? There has to be some staggering to allow them to properly learn (like in offline modes going from rookie to pro, then to All Star and lastly Superstar, hall of fame)

Plus WOC isn't technically hockey per say, it's a "Pricy game of Pond Hockey", where its based around meta builds along with over usage of skills and feature moves (which ultimately affects the game as a whole with nerfs of those overused features - green one tees as an example). For a younger player or casual, it is not fun or a learning experience to get matched with high skill, seeing you are not learning about the game of hockey or having fun, just inflating the win column of higher players. 

The mentality that if they are too scared then just quit is why I stopped bothering, being a decent player at it and wanting to just in and try for fun with my nephew (as I'm mostly offline for 20+ years), doesn't build a strong community and actually hurts the wait times for games, cause they move on to different modes or different games, where I'm solely offline again and my nephew won't even touch an NHL game anymore, for this exact reason (we would get put against top tier players in starting few games).