USHL buoyed by USNTDPs expansion

A new feeder league is emerging in the eyes of National Hockey League teams.

The United States Hockey League is gaining notoriety with its now consistent development of top prospects for the NHL. The USHL churned out 16 players who became NHL property at last year's draft in Montreal, its best total to date. The progression is noticeable, as the drafted total increased from eight in 2007 to 11 in 2008.

The calibre of players improved over the years, as NHL players Paul Stastny, Thomas Vanek and T.J. Oshie all honed their craft in the USHL at some point in their careers. Kyle Okposo holds the distinction of being the highest drafted player in the league's history when the New York Islanders selected him seventh overall in 2006.

The league twice produced three first-round picks in one draft and that number is surely to rise this year in Los Angeles with the inclusion of the United States National Team Development Program.

The introduction of the USNTDP adds instant notoriety to the growing league, as several former national team players littered the first round in recent years. Among those are three recent first-overall picks in Rick DiPietro (2000), Erik Johnson (2006) and Patrick Kane (2008).

The USNTDP has produced a total of 166 drafted players since its inception in 1996. As such, the decision to move the program from the North American Hockey League to the USHL became a logical choice.

"This allows our team to be more competitive by playing night in and night out," explained Ryan Rezmierski, director of player development for the USNTDP. "Teams in the USHL have two solid lines and four capable defenseman to really push and challenge us to be better."

The program is comprised of two teams: a group of under-17 and under-18 squads that split the season schedule to play a collective 60 games. The U17 team plays 36 games as opposed to the U18 squad that play the remaining 24.

The U17 team faltered out of the gate to start the season, losing their first 10 consecutive games before recording their first win almost two months into this season. While it may be difficult to understand why the USNTDP would subject 17-year-olds to play against competition three- and, in some cases, four-years-older, the decision was designed as such.

"Our philosophy with the program has always been to push our players outside of their comfort zone," Rezmierski admits. "We want to put them over the edge and make them better problem solvers so that they can learn from difficult experiences."

This type of 'tough love' translated well as the U17's won gold in Timmins, Ont. at the World Under-17 Challenge, a title Team USA had not captured since 2002. The Americans went undefeated in the tournament with a 6-0 record and boasted the top scorer in Rocco Grimaldi (6-4-10-14).

After winning the tournament, the U17 team entered the second half of the USHL schedule brimming with confidence and finished with a respectable 13-19 record to finish the season.

The U18 squad only plays 24 games in the USHL due to their college commitments in intra-squad games with Division 1 and III schools, such as Boston University and the University of Michigan.

Most important, however, is their involvement in international play. The U18 program competes in three international tournaments throughout the year: the Four Nations tournament held in November, the Five Nations Tournament in February and the most prestigious of them all - the U18 tournament held in April.

The Americans are the back-to-back defending gold-medal winners at the under-18 tournament and have won the tournament five times in the past nine years. The team was led by all-world goaltender Jack Campbell whose rapid ascension to stardom has made him the top rated goaltending prospect. The confident and rock-steady keeper also backstopped his country to a gold-medal in last year's tournament as an under-ager and did so again at the under-20 world juniors in January.

This year's edition was not only strong between the pipes, but boasted a talented back-end with several highly-coveted NHL draft-eligible defenseman, including Derek Forbort, Jarred Tinordi, Justin Faulk and Jonathan Merrill. Like Campbell, Merrill also participated in last year's tournament as an under-ager.

This year's team also featured two players who were not part of the program this season, but enjoyed successful campaigns with their respective junior clubs in Austin Watson (Peterborough, OHL) and Connor Brickley (Des Moines, USHL). Both are highly-touted for the draft and were key contributors at the summer under-18 tournament, the Ivan Hlinka.

The USNTDP does not participate in the summer tournament, electing to monitor the progress of potential add-ons for other international events instead.

"We use the Hlinka as a great training ground for players to make our international teams," Rezmierski explains. "Unlike other nations - in particular Canada - we do not bring our best team over, as it is not recognized as an IIHF-sanctioned event. However, we evaluate players based on their performances and weigh this tournament heavily in our decisions as determining factors to assemble our best possible teams."

The U18 team has not only benefitted from playing against Tier I competition in the USHL, but also due to a rigorous off-ice strength and conditioning program that is spearheaded by Darryl Nelson. Nelson, the head strength and conditioning coach, has been involved with the program since 2000. He focuses his efforts around functional strength training working muscle groups in three dimensions.

The players are in the gym on a daily basis and actually accelerate their workouts prior to big international tournaments to get them better prepared. The program also provides a power skating instructor and a skating treadmill. A cross-training coach is also provided in addition to nutritional diet-programs to help the players put on and maintain their weight.

"In all my years working in the USHL as a former coach and GM, I have never seen such dedication into the off-ice conditioning as the program offers," Rezmierski said. "The results have been staggering as Forbort has added 20 pounds of mass and Merill has added 22 pounds of lean muscle to his frame this year alone."

The USNTDP is not the only expansion team to enter the USHL from the NAHL this season, as the Youngstown Phantoms also joined the league, thus expanding it to 14 member clubs.

"This year was definitely a challenge for us," Youngstown assistant general manager Jason Koeher admits. "We were fortunate to have a good infrastructure in place with billets and schools for our player-athletes to attend due to our involvement in the NAHL for the past six seasons."

The Phantoms missed the playoffs, but remained competitive until the second half of the season when they fell victim to two losing streaking spanning six and eight games, respectively. Although they were able to draft players from other USHL teams prior to the season to bolster their roster, the lack of experience in all positions saw them finish in last place in the Eastern Division.

"We had 10 high school players on our roster and only one defenseman on our blue line with USHL playing experience," Koehler said. "Despite our finish, there is plenty of optimism within our organization. Scott Mayfield, for example, did a tremendous job for us making the adjustment from midget to stepping in and playing top four minutes."

The USHL will continue to grow next season as Dubuque and Muskegon will join the league.

"I think it is great for our league," says John Burkart, director of player personal for the Green Bay Gamblers. "It is good to spread-out the league, getting more kids involved in a high level of hockey and providing additional chances."

"The USHL is slowly becoming a one-stop shop for NHL scouts for them to evaluate players," echoed Rezmierski. "I saw countless NHL scouts in Ann Arbour to assess how our players did against USHL competition rather than the games we played against the colleges. The USHL can definitely support expansion."

With the introduction of two new teams and the added support of the USNTDP, the USHL will only continue to grow and become a staple in the development of NHL talent.