Minor Leagues, Big Gains

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Chris Peters

Those of us that were lucky enough to have grown up in or near a city with a major professional hockey team might not realize just how spoiled we were. Having the greatest hockey players in the world in your own backyard is pretty great.

However, thanks to a large number of minor-professional teams spread out across the country, even the most marginal of fans has a chance to get that hockey fix. Even though its not the highest level of hockey, the game is still being played and the fans are engaged.

After growing up in Chicago, with not only the Blackhawks, but the Chicago Wolves (IHL, AHL) and for a very brief period of my youth, the University of Illinois at Chicago (NCAA DI), I was lucky to have had so many options of high-level hockey.

After my recent move to Muscatine, Iowa, which is 20 minutes south of Davenport (one of the “Quad Cities”), my options are limited, but luckily, I have options.

The Quad City Mallards, of the Central Hockey League (maybe just a notch below the ECHL), has existed in a variety of leagues and even switched names for a short bit. In its current form, the Mallards are near the top of their division, and people are starting to notice.

Hockey doesn’t have the strongest hold over the Quad City area, but there is a tradition with the Mallards, and people know that its there. The market is not saturated with many other sporting opportunities, so hockey is a viable entertainment option for many in the area.

Continue reading →

Posted in Grow the Game, Minor League Hockey | 3 Comments

NBC’s Hockey Day in America Great for U.S. Hockey Fans — Afternoon Links

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Chris Peters

We’re just a month away from USA Hockey’s celebratory Hockey Weekend Across America. This year, NBC has gotten into the act and on Sunday, Feb. 20, it will have SIX HOURS of hockey coverage.

With three regional NHL broadcasts and a national game at 3:30 p.m. EST between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks (arguably two of the NHL’s most popular U.S.-based teams), hockey fans will easily get their fix.

However, what has got me very excited is this tidbit of information provided by an NBC press release (via Pro Hockey Talk):

With six hours of coverage (Noon-6 p.m. ET) – which will include four NHL games – hosted from McCormick Tribune Ice Rink in Chicago’s Millennium Park, NBC Sports will tell the stories that demonstrate this country’s affinity for hockey – from hockey parents who chauffeur pee wees to practice before sunrise to the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships in Minnesota, played by amateurs amidst arctic temperatures, to ‘celebrity’ hockey played by actors and producers in Los Angeles to inner-city hockey in Washington, D.C. that has made a difference in the lives of countless children and young adults.

Hockey is gaining steam in this country, showing stories about the game’s influence in different parts of the U.S. is going to be awfully fun to watch for us hockey people. Not only that, but for the marginal hockey fans that will tune in, it should be an eye-opening experience.

As great as the NHL is, there’s so much more to the game in the United States. Events like the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships and celebrity hockey is going to get eaten up by anyone watching.

I believe the Washington, D.C., story will be about Neal Henderson’s Fort Dupont hockey club. If it is, perpare to be inspired. Henderson is a true ambassador of the game, and my first year at USA Hockey, he was given the organization’s highest honor, the Wm. Thayer Tutt Award. He is a very nice man who has impacted hundreds of lives through hockey.

To have a day completely dedicated to hockey, during the time of year where hockey has less competition in the sports landscape, is going to have a large impact. I’m sure USA Hockey couldn’t be happier with the coverage the game will receive in the U.S., and I’m glad that NBC has stepped up in such a way to help promote hockey.

The partnership between NBC and the NHL has been a pretty good one, for the most part, however providing coverage like this in the middle of the season is great for the game, great for the NHL and great for us.

I will have some Hockey Weekend Across America-related content throughout that weekend. It’s a really great initiative that grows every year. With NBC’s involvement this season, it’s only going to get bigger.

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It’s been a while since I put out some links, so let’s fix that:

If you haven’t read Sean Leahy’s piece about the young boy battling disease that moved from Albany to Charlotte to follow his favorite AHL team, go read it now. Also, watch the linked YouTube videos in the story. Great stuff, from the Checkers.

Seth Jones is featured in this great Vancouver Sun piece about hockey players that have fathers that were successful in other sports. Jones’s dad is former NBA player and current coach, Popeye Jones.

The NCAA has tweaked its Pairwise Ranking system and Chris Dilks of Western College Hockey Blog hates it. I can’t say I’m a fan either.

Here’s a new hockey blog for you Junior hockey nuts out there. Ryan Clark, of the Fargo Forum started a blog about the USHL’s Fargo Force called Slightly Chilled. Ryan is a great up and coming hockey journalist, so check it out.

If you missed Brad Elliot Schlossman’s outstanding story on the last 10 years of the North Dakota hockey program, it’s a great read. Comprehensive and well written, it’s a fantastic look inside what has made the Fighting Sioux one of the finest programs in the country and the impact of the Ralph Engelstad Arena.

From the department of self promotion (Sorry, this won’t happen often):

Aside from the blog, I’m also a freelance feature writer. I wrote a story for USAHockey.com about Jake Dowell of the Chicago Blackhawks on his decision at age 16 to learn how to become a two-way forward. He was a go-to scorer at the high school level, but when he went to the NTDP, he had to adapt. The reason I’ve linked it is because it’s a great message for young hockey players that want to make it to the next level.

Lastly, I did a story about Nick Jenkins, a 10-year-old sled hockey player from Southern California. Through the Pepsi Refresh Everything Project, Nick’s sled hockey program is up for a $25,000 grant to buy new sleds. It’s based entirely on votes, so please click this link and vote for SoCal sled hockey. You can vote once a day, so help these guys out!

Posted in Grow the Game, NCAA, NHL, Youth Hockey | Comments Off on NBC’s Hockey Day in America Great for U.S. Hockey Fans — Afternoon Links

Burlington Ready to Welcome World in 2012

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Chris Peters

USA Hockey today announced that Burlington, Vt., has been selected to host the 2012 International Ice Hockey Federation World Women’s Championship.

The tournament will be held April 7-14, with the University of Vermont’s Gutterson Fieldhouse serving as the primary site for the tournament. Cairns Arena in South Burlington will serve as the secondary site.

There will be 22 total games, with all of Team USA’s and Team Canada’s games being played at Gutterson.

According to Executive Director Dave Ogrean, Burlington beat out the Twin Cities, Hartford, Conn., and Rochester, N.Y. The Burlington Free Press also mentioned Kalamazoo, Mich., was also among the finalists.

Continue reading →

Posted in Grow the Game, U.S. National Teams, Women's Hockey | Comments Off on Burlington Ready to Welcome World in 2012

REPORT: Burlington To Host 2012 World Women’s Championship

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Chris Peters

The Burlington Free Press is reporting that Burlington, Vt., will host the 2012 International Ice Hockey Federation World Women’s Championship.

USA Hockey sent out a media advisory on Monday stating “A major announcement from USA Hockey regarding an upcoming international event” is to be made at the Burlington-based University of Vermont on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.

Speakers at the presser include Dave Ogrean, executive director of USA Hockey; Angela Ruggiero, four-time U.S. Olympian; Vermont Gov. Pete Shulmin; Daniel Mark Fogel, University of Vermont president; and University of Vermont AD Robert Corran.

Also part of the report from the Free Press:

Preliminary plans obtained by the Burlington Free Press call for games to be played at UVM’s Gutterson’s Field House, with Cairns Arena in South Burlington as a secondary site. Several South Burlington hotels will serve as hosts because of their close proximity to both skating arenas.

This will be just the third time in the 20-year history of the World Women’s Championship that it will be hosted on U.S. soil. It was previously held in Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1994 and Minnesota (Blaine, Fridley, St. Cloud, Minneapolis, Plymouth and Rochester).

According to the Free Press:

Burlington was one of five finalists for the 2012 women’s championships. The others were Rochester, N.Y., Hartford, Conn., Minneapolis, Minn. and Kalamazoo, Mich.

I’ll have more info after the press conference, including quotes from the attendees. So check back later Wednesday afternoon.

Posted in U.S. National Teams, Women's Hockey | Comments Off on REPORT: Burlington To Host 2012 World Women’s Championship

USA Hockey Report: Membership Continues to Climb

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Chris Peters

According to USA Hockey’s most recent Facebook update, membership is on its way up:

Registration for the 2010-11 season continues to outpace last season! As of Dec. 20, there were just over 464K players and 52K coaches registered with USA Hockey – participation is up at every age level with the largest increases coming in the 8U and adult categories. Congratulations to all of our member programs for outstanding work in growing the game!

With more people still registering as the season goes along, we won’t know the final numbers for some time, but to already have more than 464,000 players signed up is pretty impressive.

Just to give you a point of reference: USA Hockey has gone from 446,000+ players in 2002-03, to 474,952 in 2009-10, a mark that is looking like it could be eclipsed this year. Nearly 30,000 more players in a span of seven seasons?

That means, despite economic hardships in the U.S., hockey is not only growing, but many people are sticking with it. While growth is important, it’s retention that is key for the long term.

If you can get a kid hooked on hockey at a young age, odds are, he or she is going to stick with it for a while. At least, that’s the hope. Even if that young boy or girl ever stops playing hockey at any point, there’s still a good shot that he or she will be a hockey fan for life, and may one day come back to the game either as as a coach, an official, or an adult player.

The continued growth in adult membership is also a positive. As I mentioned, it means that there are likely some people coming back to hockey, but there are a lot of first-year adult players out there too.

I’ve played on a few men’s league teams with guys who never played until they were adults. Most of those guys were sick of seeing their kids have all the fun, some others just loved watching the game, so it was time for them to lace ’em up. To see continued growth in membership among adults has got to be satisfying for USA Hockey.

USA Hockey’s total membership (players, coaches and officials) at the end of the 2009-10 season stood at 558,476. There’s no reason to think that number can’t continue to grow, as its looking like it will this season.

You don’t have to play hockey to be a fan, but the USA Hockey membership numbers tell us a lot about how many people are getting actively involved in the sport. A lot of people out there are becoming invested in the game on a deeper level.

It all starts from the ground up. Hats off to the folks at USA Hockey, particularly in its three-year-old Membership Development department, and all of the youth hockey associations across the country for the continued efforts to grow the game.

Throughout the year, I’ll examine whats being done across the country, as well as what’s happening in the USA Hockey offices, to keep expanding hockey’s influence in the United States.

Posted in Grow the Game, Youth Hockey | Comments Off on USA Hockey Report: Membership Continues to Climb

Where Do They Come From? A Look at Americans in the NHL

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Chris Peters

Earlier in the week, I wrote a piece on where the American players listed on Central Scouting’s mid-term rankings were getting scouted from. Today, I wanted to take a look at the Americans currently playing in the NHL, and where they all came from.

We know the vast majority of Canadians play in the Canadian hockey league, and many of the European players skated with local clubs until they were ready for the NHL. For Americans, the options vary greatly.

It seems that the American player is constantly getting pulled in various directions by the NCAA, the CHL, the USHL, NTDP, high school teams and other various entities.

So to get an idea of the current numbers on where players have played seemed like a fun thing to do on a Friday. It’s an important topic that will continue to gain steam over the next several years as the race to develop players continues to intensify.

There’s no analysis on the numbers, just facts. So take a look and maybe develop some of your own theories. I will be breaking down these numbers over the course of the next few weeks to let you in on what I think they tell us.

For now, let’s just take a look at the data, shall we? (After the jump)

Continue reading →

Posted in Grow the Game, Junior Hockey, NCAA, NHL | 2 Comments

Mr. USA Hockey

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Chris Peters

Since I started the blog, I’ve been asking myself what player best embodies American hockey today. Who is the guy that I think of first when I think of USA Hockey

Yesterday I posed the question on this blog and on Twitter:

When you think of USA Hockey, what current player comes to mind first?

I got a few replies on the blog, but an avalanche of responses on Twitter gave me some great results. So here is how the players rank, based on your votes:

1. Ryan Miller; 2. Zach Parise; 3. Patrick Kane; 4. Ryan Kesler T-5. Bobby Ryan and John Carlson; 6. Jack Campbell; T-8. Mike Modano, Jack Johnson and David Backes; T-11. Ryan Malone, Rocco Grimaldi and Julie Chu.

A pretty wide range of players, from a variety of places. I was intrigued with the responses I received.

I also posed the following question on Twitter: Who is your favorite American player? The results were mixed. I got a bunch of answers. Here are the top 5:

1. Tim Gleason (Apparently I have a few very influential Hurricanes followers); T-2. Ryan Miller and David Backes; 4. Patrick Kane; T-5. Zach Parise, Ryan Kesler and Jack Johnson.

The second question was more for fun, and produced a wide array of answers, which was great to see. However, the first question was the one I really wanted to know.

The results were right about where I thought they’d be for my first question. I knew the answers would be different than mine, for the most part. There were only a handful of people that have the same choice as me.

(Coming up after the jump, the player I think of first…)

Continue reading →

Posted in NHL, U.S. National Teams | Comments Off on Mr. USA Hockey

When You Think of USA Hockey….

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Chris Peters

Hello readers,

I have a question that I need your help on. I’ve been racking my brain over the last few weeks trying to figure out what the identity of American hockey is. I have an idea in my mind of who I think best exemplifies modern American hockey, but I wanted to know what fans think.

So, I recently posed the question on Twitter, and I will pose it again here:

When you think of USA Hockey, or American hockey in general, who is the first CURRENT player that comes to mind? Additionally, your answers may be the same for this question, but I’m equally interested: Who is your favorite current American born player and why?

I’d love to hear your answers, so please leave your thoughts in the comments section. I’ll share the results from my unofficial Twitter and Blog polls and give you my own thoughts on who I think of first and why.

So comment away!

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Where Do They Come From? A Look Inside the Numbers

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Chris Peters

Now that Central Scouting has given us a guide of who the top players to watch for the NHL Draft are, let’s dig a little deeper.

One of the big questions I’ve had every year is where are all of these American players coming from? This post is part of a bigger project I’m working on (I’ll have more on that this week), but I figured it gives a good idea of where the top prospects are thriving in 2011. Remember, the rankings are merely a guide, they don’t necessarily show where these players will be drafted. Still, it’s nice to see where top talent is getting scouted from.

I took a look at each of the American skaters listed by Central Scouting in their North American rankings (Goaltenders are not included in this study. Sorry, goalies!). I have it broken down in a few different ways:

First off, there were 87 American players listed out of the 210 (+2 listed as LV) North American skaters ranked by Central Scouting. So close to 41% of the listed skaters are American, a pretty solid number in what is considered a weaker draft year.

Listed below are the leagues in which you will find the 87 ranked Americans, with the NTDP separated into it’s own category:

USHL – 24; NTDP – 16; MN-HS – 8; NCAA – 7; CT-HS 7; OHL – 6; MA-HS – 5; EJHL – 4; WHL – 4; NJ-HS 3; QMJHL – 1; WI-HS – 1

To break that down even further, here’s a look at the Top 100, in which 33 American players were ranked:

NTDP – 8; NCAA – 6; USHL – 5; OHL – 4; MA-HS – 3; MN-HS – 3; WHL – 2; CT-HS – 1; NJ-HS – 1.

Coming up after the jump, I dig a little deeper into what the numbers tell us.

Continue reading →

Posted in American Prospects, Junior Hockey, NCAA, NHL, NHL Draft, NTDP | Comments Off on Where Do They Come From? A Look Inside the Numbers

Other Notables in the Mid-Term Rankings

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Chris Peters

The great thing about mid-term rankings is the discussion it brings about. There are a lot of folks out there who might look at this list and say, well he’s way too low, or he’s too high. That’s part of the reason for releasing those rankings.

The more people talk about it, the better. There’s a lot to look forward to for the NHL, and while this year projects to be one of the weaker draft years in recent memory, overall, there are still a ton of players worth watching out for, especially Americans.

Remember, there’s still half a season, so a lot can, and probably will change.

After the jump, I list some of the American prospects that found themselves outside of the top 30, but are still worth keeping an eye on. I also note which players are most likely to rise from the mid-term rankings:  Continue reading →

Posted in American Prospects, Junior Hockey, NCAA, NHL, NHL Draft, NTDP | Comments Off on Other Notables in the Mid-Term Rankings