scpa0305

Yep that’s it…he was unreal

He was an unreal hockey player, so gifted. Just battled to fit in with teammates and had a ton of issues in his head. Tough story actually. There was another guy from Grand Rapids somewhat around that same age that was also unreal. Like top of the top. He went to the NTDP and started hearing voices etc. He drank to cope and it basically ended his very very promising career. He was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. Unfortunately his career was already over I believe. Can’t remember his name.

He actually was diagnosed bipolar later in life. Actually kind of a sad story. I guess he’s got that all figured out now which is great.

When they hired their coach. The turnaround was immediate.

That’s a big one.

With this article, there’s recency bias as well. Go back 3-4 years and the NTDP was producing top 5 guy after top 5 guy. It’s a moving target for sure.

https://neutralzone.com/2026/05/09/the-26-nhl-draft-a-changing-landscape-in-north-american-prospects/ This article is a pretty wild read.

That is very true. And it would be taboo to go against the grain that is the NTDP. Time will tell I suppose.

There’s been some noise around the program for the past 2-3 years. Players leave after one year from time to time but you never saw the top of the crop kids leave, second year in a row that’s happened and, from my amateur scouting angle, it’s purely to increase draft stock (and have a little fun playing hockey again).

Or they feel the CHL route may be better for development? Fairly decent track record

Smith is a stud.

Again, absolutely awful.

Agreed, he could move up a couple but he isn’t going one. And that’s probably a good thing for the squad next year.

This is true.

This is a bigger than allowing CHL players

They won’t.

It’s absolutely awful. Canadian kids have birth year schooling, many graduate at 17. Terrible terrible rule. And I’m afraid it’s 100% going to pass because no one cares about hockey. Only football and basketball.

I’m really hoping we get Carels…or crazier yet DuPont. I do think Carels may help the team more next year though. If neither, Chyz needs to find two more really solid dmen. We seem to have our goalies, PP QBs (Verhoeff/Laurila), and skilled forwards. It seems pretty clear who our PP guys will be. The rest of the guys will chip in offensively and are gritty tough to play against guys while still have some skill (close to pt/gm in juniors). We should be solid.

Seems solid to me. Curious if we’re having trouble landing big fish this year. Either way, I don’t know much about this kid. Undrafted but he did well in the ushl this past year. May fall in that “tough to play against” mold.

It’s either residency 3-4 years or maybe his dad played in the WHL.

Rudolph would be nice

We need to grab the right kids no matter where they’re from. Tons of good west cans, tons of good MN’s etc

Agree, interesting quote.

As we haven’t really hammered the portal I’m assuming we’ll get a pretty good young F and another good young D. Both will be up in the lineup. I could see Carels and Belchetz…something like that

Well yes that is obviously true haha, I realize they are technically allowed to haha. My point was we’re probably going to add F and D out of the dub…they will not commit/announce until the get knocked out, or after the draft even.