Words of Wisdom to stand out HS hockey players

[Observer85]

Sounds like sour grapes here. Your son must not have been pampered the way you wanted or the way he was used to. The USHL is stockpiled with very good players and coaches are generally going to treat them all alike. I totally agree that if a young man has that D1 scholarship locked up, he should stay and finish his high school career playing with his buddies. Regardless, you can't tell me that all is bad with playing juniors. These teams are run like any other business and they need to make money, but that's not what it's all about. The majority of the coaches take a lot of pride in developing players and helping them attain their goal of someday playing college hockey. If it wasn't for junior hockey you'd see quite a drop-off in the number of American players getting free rides, meaning there'd be far more Canadiens and Europeans taking up roster spots. Most players coming out of high school are just not far enough along in their development or physical maturity to play college.

No sour grapes here, just reality from first hand experience. At one time I was naive like it sounds like you are and believed junior hockey was there for the best interest of the player.

Junior hockey has it purpose but making the general statement that "The majority of the coaches take a lot of pride in developing players and helping them attain their goal of someday playing college hockey.", is hard for me to swallow. Yea, they love to take credit for the player even if the player was already pretty good before they even got to the junior level. It feeds their egos.

Do you have a kid that has played juniors, already having his D1 commitment secured? If so then maybe your experience was different.

Like Blue & Gold states above, his junior experience was a good one. His kid was already developed when he went to the USHL. But where he was playing HS was not going to get him further exposure or development. By going to the USHL, his kid is now living the dream and that junior coach takes all the credit even though he did very little for the young man (strictly in my opinion).

[Blue&Gold]

Sounds like sour grapes here. Your son must not have been pampered the way you wanted or the way he was used to. The USHL is stockpiled with very good players and coaches are generally going to treat them all alike. I totally agree that if a young man has that D1 scholarship locked up, he should stay and finish his high school career playing with his buddies. Regardless, you can't tell me that all is bad with playing juniors. These teams are run like any other business and they need to make money, but that's not what it's all about. The majority of the coaches take a lot of pride in developing players and helping them attain their goal of someday playing college hockey. If it wasn't for junior hockey you'd see quite a drop-off in the number of American players getting free rides, meaning there'd be far more Canadiens and Europeans taking up roster spots. Most players coming out of high school are just not far enough along in their development or physical maturity to play college.

No sour grapes here, just reality from first hand experience. At one time I was naive like it sounds like you are and believed junior hockey was there for the best interest of the player.

Junior hockey has it purpose but making the general statement that "The majority of the coaches take a lot of pride in developing players and helping them attain their goal of someday playing college hockey.", is hard for me to swallow. Yea, they love to take credit for the player even if the player was already pretty good before they even got to the junior level. It feeds their egos.

Do you have a kid that has played juniors, already having his D1 commitment secured? If so then maybe your experience was different.

Like Blue & Gold states above, his junior experience was a good one. His kid was already developed when he went to the USHL. But where he was playing HS was not going to get him further exposure or development. By going to the USHL, his kid is now living the dream and that junior coach takes all the credit even though he did very little for the young man (strictly in my opinion).

Observer, you are correct. Now, let me make MY "absolute" statement: The USHL, NAHL and other junior programs ARE A BUSINESS. They talk development, but if a player doesn't develop quickly enough, or to the style that the coach wants, then it's trade/release time.

We had a good experience in the USHL, but I did a lot or research, we asked a lot of questions, and we were prepared with backup plans. No promises were made, but at the tryouts I was honest with how I saw my son's play. I watched how he fit in with the veterans on the ice. If there was any chance in either my, or my son's eyes that the wasn't going to play regularly, he would have stayed back in high school. (He was NOT going to go to the NAHL his senior year.)

The coaches take pride in talking about how they develop players, but what they really do is give a player chances to play in front of many scouts while playing against top competition. If you think that there is a lot of player development in the junior programs, then you will be very unhappy at the results.

Going to the juniors, whether as a junior, senior, or the season after graduation is a player-by-player decision. It is NOT an easy place to be, and there are as many stories about the bad situations as there are the good stories. Do a lot of homework and do NOT listen to someone who has not experienced it. Observer and I are people with that experience.

I guess I get frustrated reading about how this should never happen, by someone who probably couldn't have played at this level, nor their kids.. (those that have experienced it, I apologize... )

[juniorhockey]

"No promises were made, but at the tryouts I was honest with how I saw my son's play. I watched how he fit in with the veterans on the ice. If there was any chance in either my, or my son's eyes that the wasn't going to play regularly, he would have stayed back in high school."

Worlds first objective hockey parent!!

[breakout]

a prominent MN hockey legend and NHL scout told me last spring when we were discussing kids leaving HS and playing juniors instead, that the WORST thing a stand out hockey player can do is leave high school early to play juniors if you have ALL READY committed to a Division 1 program. Players should play juniors that need to get noticed still. If you are on the radar of college and NHL teams, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT leave HS to play juniors, it CANNOT help your chances, it will only hurt you and is something more players than not that have left early have come to regret later, when its too late of course. I did not play juniors, nor was I a highschool standout, but this comes from and undisclosed source whom I will not name due to the nature of his job.

I think college coaches encouraging future players to go play juniors carries a little more weight than your phantom source.

Unless the player is truly an exception, like Ness for example coaches want the player to have one to two years of Jr. experience. That being noted, coaches typically don't care when that experience happens. It can happen the season after high school hockey.

I spoke to a high level scout not long ago. He made a good point. There are players in the WJL, OJL, etc. that would be considered "A prospects" by Central Scouting if they played in Minnesota high school hockey. Basically, players can become buried in the layers of junior hockey.

The fact is, Minnesota high school hockey and the Elite League in particular are highly scouted. I can only imagine that there is a reason for that.

There was a standout player that left his talented high school hockey team before his Jr. year. He is committed to a D1 school. Year 1 in Jr. he doesn't get a lot of playing time and he gets hurt. At his high school team he would have been on the ice all of the time, including PP & PK. To date, he has 9 points in 42 games for his Jr. team. Was it a good idea to send him to Jr.? Certainly, we all have our opinions on that.

Jr. is a business, you need to ask a lot of questions before going that route.