yzerman19

There are legit reasons for a kid to leave town for a tier 1 program. However, if you do, you better be going to a team with great coaching and teammates that make practice truly a development opportunity. I'd also contend that you better be the best or in the argument for the best player on that tier 1 team. The logic should not be based on winning or exposure. It must be based on development and growth opportunity. it should truly be a rare event that is easily understandable with a kid that is CHL first round, USHL first round, or NTDP bound most likely. Chippaz only. It should be ages 13,14,15 only. Bantam and midget minor. Younger than that is too young, older than that- well if you follow my chippa logic, they should be gone to higher level hockey.

The key here is to be forward thinking...establish the relationship/pipeline with top talent and several teams in the CHL (WHL mostly) because downstream, that league is going to just get better with top US talent as well (due to the NCAA rule change). Chippaz are going to go up there for their draft year, even those that go in the first two rounds in the NHL draft most likely won't be ready for the NHL at 18. Many of them will decide to come down for a year or two to play bigger/stronger/older guys before signing.

Agree if you (and more importantly your kid) are ready to do boarding school at 14.

Lotta Minnesota guys from the red river valley, or with Regional roots, or current/alumni of Breakaway Academy (Chyzyk) performed extremely well at the big WSI tourney AND/or were drafted pretty high in the WHL draft. Gotta think Jax and Bryn are piped in there.

Nephew I believe

No doubt he's good. The hard part in evaluating is that Minnkota is a bubble and 09's don't play 10's (and some 11's) anywhere else. So it's about seeing the players vs the rest of the top end kids in systems and age group. That's why US nationals, WSI, Kings of Spring type stuff is so important from a scouting perspective

Agree with this. I do think Marto can get there with some time. Especially in USHL.

Draft order in WHL draft is getting better with NCAA. Its still not perfect, but of the kids I know that got drafted, they all belong in the conversation. Congratulations to every kid that got their number called for a path to the next level. Joey Cullen would be a top 2 pick if his dad didn't own part of the Force and he wasn't a virtual lock for NTDP. Kid is an absolute talent and will play hockey for a while.

remember, only kids that aren't that good are thrilled to just be on the team....

your point and reference are fair. I just gotta say...Puck Preps...of all the "pay for" services, they seem to be most disconnected from the real scouting universe from what I've seen and know.

Thus far they aren't ripping it up, but they are tweaking it downward

More chippaz to CHL more older grindaz to USHL

One big difference is the CHL scholarship $. You get money for school by playing in that league. Now that you can get a school scholarship from NCAA on top of that, that's a big difference. USHL does not currently offer that.

magnum PI theme song or the classic "Father Figure" by George Michael lol

Dementia is not funny... Keep it to funny things...like full blown AIDS

Yeah, I haven't heard details on that deal either. I know that the NHL provides development money, and historically that money went to the NTDP, but I don't know the latest and am not in tune with how the funds flow in any detail.

USHL will be diluted more for sure. Its that next Tier though...the NAHL and the Junior A teams in Canada that are really going to hurt. The WHL draft coming up in 2 weeks will be very interesting with the new rules. As a result the US Draft will likely be significantly different than years past.

The 93 group fits the Jeff Panzer era of North teams. You are correct that they were too old for the 95 group. Perhaps 1 was north and 1 was south.

who is Navin Johnson?

Dean Blais 1981

Team ND not doing very well at Nationals...both teams (13O and 14U) are winless and actually goalless thus far with the the 14U team playing #1 overall Little Caesars tomorrow. The 14U team will be done tomorrow, as they cannot advance even if they pulled off the modern miracle on ice. MN Blue Ox at 14U has won 2 tight games and is in good shape to move on. SSM is undefeated at 14U and along with Little Caesars have secured #1 seeds in the Quarterfinals. The 13O Minnesota Lakers are 2-0 and have scored 14 goals in those 2 games.

pretty sure those were the north teams...that would've been Panzer era

well, that's one approach....

USA Hockey Tier 1 Nationals start today...lotta talented kids playing. Of interest at the 13O level is Team ND and MN Lakers (District 6 HP team). At the 14U level you have Minny kids on SSM, Little Caesars, and MN Blue Ox (HP team with Moorhead and Warroad boys) Team ND is also in this tourney. 15O you have SSM and SF Power. 16U SSM is loaded (Diego and Fitzy are underagers and will be in red, white and blue next season), SF Power in the tourney as well. Very talented 2010 playing up with his brother on the 16U North Jersey team (Will LaSouro).

Yes, with as much success as he had on the ice and on the bench with this program, it wasn't coincidence. Thanks for the memories!