yzerman19

Every advisor worth their salt has elite talent narrow it down to 5 immediately.

Reflecting on these souls and their all too brief time here with us, I can't help but think about the sense of community that sports (and in these cases a message board around college sports) creates. For those of us who have been around here for decades, these losses are not random names or pictures on the internet, but people we've engaged with passionately and often times met randomly in real life on our escapades. God Speed siouxsports friends...be sure to let us know if indeed in heaven there is no beer.

This is interesting...in the great history of Shattuck St Mary's, only 29 players that played their 18 year old season at Shattuck went on to be NHL draft picks. The vast majority of their cred is due to kids that played there, but left at 16 or 17.

playing his own birthyear...hes good, not really d1. He tied Sunger in points. I love Sung, but he's a 5'8 16 year old...

january of 2008...not a great prospect...I would guess CC de-committed him

Clanko reporting more garbage "AAA" hockey tourneys. I will echo that there are only a handful of meaningful AAA tournaments. The rest are fun or not fun depending on the group you are with and the expectations. Truthfully, if the goal is playing at a level that guarantees high school and beyond, you are best served spending that money on high quality skating and skill development.

wait, they have hockey west of Fargo and Grand Forks? Send pics. Just poking the bear lol

The 5/5 rule is also going to make things very interesting...

good point. Michigan, Michigan State, BU, BC, Minnesota seem to draw the most forward chippaz. Perhaps the focus is D chippaz with maybe 1-2 forward chippaz per year

chippaz beget more chippaz. I take 10 chippaz on my roster every day of the week

Nightingale and a Munn Arean upgrade...then chippas like to play with other chippas.

That kid is a monster and a stud.

This is another factor for draft stock...according to AI (I was too lazy to research) "Yes, the USHL being the lowest-scoring of the four leagues is a durable, long-standing trend. While scoring fluctuates year-to-year based on talent cycles, the USHL consistently averages between 6.0 and 6.6 goals per game, whereas the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) leagues—the OHL, WHL, and QMJHL—typically hover between 6.8 and 7.5 goals per game."

The other factor is the kid factor and being away from home. Some kids aren't ready for that. Some situations aren't great either in terms of billets, etc. some kids might not want to live and breathe hockey. Some kids might hate the emphasis in the gym. Some might find regional differences hard to deal with or rural vs urban vs suburban settings. School is a factor. My point is it isn't all just about hockey that these decisions are made.

Could definitely see that with the U.S. Players. Putting them in the same draft as Canadian kids, that risk of ever reporting and maybe only getting them for 1 year looms large.

Really interesting article with some good data points. To some degree, this is about a numbers game and sorta shows that the scouts don't necessarily get it correct on 15/16 year olds. If you have one or two surprise hits and one or two surprise misses out of every 20 guys, that makes a huge difference across the sheer number of players in the CHL vs the USHL and definitely vs the single team NTDP. I like the point that there is no veteran leadership on the ice and no further-developed players age wise on the NTDP...You can certainly point collect without being the alpha dog on a CHL team if you are on the pp and playing with older, drafted players on the regular. In looking at the 2010's in particular and the data points in terms of when American kids committed to the WHL it reveals that several of the guys referenced made the call around the time they or their agents learned they were not being invited to 40-man camp such as Colmer and Kaebel. Both are good players, but they weren't getting invites. Dozark is a notable exception as he is a top 4 D in the US in that birth year and committed way earlier than the 40-man discussion. His rights were also held by Portland which is a US destination and a top end program. Much easier transition for an American kid. Deraney is another that had a solid shot at making the NTDP and chose to go WHL before invites went out. He also had a destination that is familar to US players in that Penticton was in the BCHL and developing NCAA talent for years before making the move to the WHL. These cases are also a product of the fact that the WHL drafts a year early giving players that clear option and being able to woo players for almost a year before the NTDP makes its selections. Sorry all, I thought this was really interesting and commented, but further discussion on the matter probably should land on another thread...

DiCunzolo is Penn State, I know that.

For NTDP players from Minnesota this year, here's just some of the out of season teams they played on other than the District HP teams: Minnesota Blades AAA- Cullen, Stevens, Thompson Minnesota Fire AAA- Stevens, Thompson, McKinnon, Buttweiler SDP AAA- McKinnon, Stevens, Suter, Buttweiler ProHybrid AAA- Schemenauer Thompson, Cullen, Buttweiler, and Suter also spent time on season based AAA teams in the blue blood arena such as Honeybaked and Little Caesars. Breakaway Academy connections- Stevens, Thompson, Schemenauer so all but Knott seemed to be on the Major AAA circuit and almost half went to a special school with a hockey focus. these boys were obviously talented and worked to hone the talent to get to the program, so no way to say they would or wouldn't have made it without AAA, but they almost all did.

Blue Ox and Loons and such are part of the CCM HP program. This is not pay to play AAA in the typical sense, but you still pay lol. Those teams are district based and there is a process to making the teams. They are also adjacent to the USA Select process for national development camp.

its a great debate. Lots to consider in all of this. It depends on the team and the kid a lot too. It is telling that the best WHL eligible US players that were drafted in 2025 ALL chose NTDP over WHL when offered in April.

If you have to pay for an agent that is a HUGE tell. None of the top agencies charge for representing top youth players. They believe and are invested on the return when the kid gets paid to play hockey.

I wonder if the Nicol brothers are on Chyz's radar? Reid is excellent in his own right, but his little brother is a potential exceptional status player. They are from Brandon.

fair- a handful of kids have selected CHL over NTDP over the years. From a physical development perspective the NTDP cannot be beaten, kids come out of there strong and fast. Can argue about competitive development until everyone turns blue in the face. I guess my point is that you seldom see a top kid say CHL over NTDP. Does it happen? Sure, but its unusual. With that being said, that will limit US kids getting drafted high, because they are a riskier bet.

any American kid who is 100% committed to CHL either isn't on the NTDP radar or their agent has a bone to pick with NTDP

It will be interesting to see what happens in the WHL draft. Historically they had the separate US Draft, so they were used to taking flyers there. They picked up Thompson and Morris early last year, but Joey Cullen was picked up later because of the Force connection and the <1% chance he would report. In a unified draft they probably would've slipped a ways simply because US kids are harder to commit. I predict zero top dog american kids go in the first round of the WHL draft this year.