The right fit is important when buying a pair of skates and even more crucial when a skater chooses a school.

Amey Doyle, who teaches phys-ed at Champlain CEGEP in St. Lambert and coaches the women's hockey team at McGill, is trying to make the latter choice easier - or at least less prone to error.

Along with three-time Olympic hockey gold medallists Kim St-Pierre and Caroline Ouellette, Doyle has set up an Internet site (athletichub.com) that facilitates the process whereby universities and colleges in Canada and the U.S. recruit student athletes. It helps jocks pick the right schools for achieving their goals in athletics and education.

"I am a strong believer that there is a best fit for everyone, but the hard part is finding that perfect fit," Doyle emailed after we spoke on the phone this week. "There are so many options for student athletes in both Canada and in the United States that sometimes the process becomes very overwhelming and stressful. We are working to help minimize that stress and to provide as much information as possible."

AthleticHub has compiled a database of more than 500 young athletes and 40 coaches. They are participants in a few sports, not just hockey, and the male-female ratio is about 50-50.

"We help them open some doors, open some avenues," Doyle says, "and ultimately help them make the best decision for them. We try to make sure that everyone on the site understands that there are lots of options out there and to make sure they don't close doors too fast."

The doors are easier to negotiate in Canada, where Canadian Interuniversity Sport rules are less complex than those of the U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association.

"Also in Quebec there's a little bit of a language gap," says Doyle, a native of Smiths Falls, Ont., who learned French from her Martlets teammates while getting a phys-ed degree at McGill. "The NCAA rules - when coaches can speak to you, when to start the application process, writing the SATs - are all in English. We're trying to be a hub where all that information is in one spot for the athletes and we translate what we can."

The first step is creating a profile, which Doyle describes as "very similar" to a Facebook profile.

"It says: 'Here I am, here's what I'd like to do academically, here's some stats, here's some video,' " she explains.

The website also will help create and edit highlight clips. Student-athletes can post their bare-bones profiles on AthleticHub for free. But Gold memberships, with several bonus features, cost either $9.99 a month or a lifetime payment of $99.99.

The genesis of AthleticHub was recruiting work Doyle does for McGill. The usual process is an exchange of many emails with a prospective Martlet, but one potential player referred Doyle to a personal website she'd created, with all the relevant academic and sports stats, plus some video.

A light bulb clicked on. What if there were a go-to source for recruiting information? To create AthleticHub, Doyle recruited her husband, Kevin Chatel, who's a web designer. She also enlisted the help of St-Pierre, a former McGill goaltender (Doyle was her backup); and Ouellette came on board with her NCAA experience: three seasons at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

AthleticHub is mutually beneficial to coaches and prospective recruits because it cuts down on air travel and hotel accommodations.

"Am I going to spend recruiting money to fly to Vancouver to see one or two players?" Doyle asks.

The answer, thanks to AthleticHub, is "not necessarily."

"If there's video online, I can get a pretty good idea if they fit into the program," Doyle says. "And then if they fit, I'd go see them in person and go from there.

"It works both ways. It helps me as a coach and it helps student athletes, who are all comfortable with the Internet and can create a profile and upload a video in under five minutes."

AthleticHub also edits video. A student-athlete can send a game DVD, indicating where on the timeline his or her shifts occur, and the website will create a highlight package.

"Every week we come up with new features," Doyle says. "It drives my husband crazy because it means he has lots more work to do."

Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas played four seasons at the University of Vermont - where I'm guessing he didn't major in history, economics or poli-sci. But Thomas is nobody's fool, and in a TV interview a couple of years ago he talked about the choice between playing university or major-junior hockey.

"Unless you're pretty sure of being drafted in the first round," Thomas said, "picking college hockey is a nobrainer."

Education is the logical option. The Canadiens roster includes six players who went the college route: Brian Gionta (Boston College), Erik Cole (Clarkson), Rene Bourque (Wisconsin), Max Pacioretty (Michigan, albeit briefly), Hal Gill (Providence) and McGill alumnus Mathieu Darche.

AthleticHub helps studentathletes make smart choices a no-brainer.

Injury report - Three athletes, three approaches to keeping fans up-to-date on their recoveries:

-Sidney Crosby, accompanied by Penguins general manager Ray Shero, holds a news conference in Pittsburgh.

-Peyton Manning shows up for Super Bowl Week.

-Andrei Markov . uh, the Canadiens will get back to us on that.

mboone@ montrealgazette.com