Update: Shattuck's run to the National Championship

[YouthHockeyHub]

A quick update on the SSM quest in NY...a nice run for a team filled with 9 Minnesota kids.

http://youthhockeyhub.com

[O-townClown]

What does it mean to lose to a "Russian Wilkes Barre/Scranton" team? I noticed Wilkes Barre won a tournament today at USA Hockey nationals. Do you mean the kids aren't from that area of Pennsylvania.

Tier I youth hockey is really a joke. If these kids are from Russia and someone brought them to the states to play Bantam hockey....

[YouthHockeyHub]

OTC: yeah, the more I learn about tier 1 the more I scratch my head. I just think somehow MN will some how enter the Tier 1 equation sooner than later. Now that it is common place for summer AAA teams to travel all over North America, why won't the demand for National prominence enter eventually.

Lots of speculative questions arise from such thinking.

One of the biggest roadblocks to MN entering a team is our age difference (July cut off vs birth year). Another is the 16 and 18 divisions threaten our Prize Jewel state hockey tournament.

I believe the age cut off is in place in MN to protect the sanctity of the HS hockey tourney. Not sure if it's a conscious or calculated decision or not.

Think about it. If we switched our age to birth year squirts, Pw, and bantams and we sent 1 team to nationals (...say a 4 team region select tourney is our qualifier). Those kids then get exposed to the Scranton Russians and they win. They get national hardware and then start thinking, "...let's do this tier one thing in high school..." Good night state tourney...or at the very least it's another potential avenue of gutting our top end talent. Canadian juniors are poaching Minnesota kids, USA Dev is, SSM is...this could be another spot that could continue to water down the MN talent pool at the high school level.

Sorry to be the grim reaper to what could happen...but it is slowly happening every year and MN Hockey can do Little to stop it. When I found out 9 kids were from MN on the SSM bantam team and who they were (talent-wise) I was shocked at how much top end talent was poached from our association model by just one team (that charges $40k per year).

[O-townClown]

YHH:

You paint a far bleaker picture than I envision.

USA Hockey has done away with Pee Wee nationals. Their leadership takes a look at the tournaments it runs each Spring and holds its nose. If these kids are not from Eastern Pennsylvania, it sure won't help change the stance.

There is no doubt a Shattuck Bantam team easily beats one from a single community. But people aren't stupid, and the Shattuck track record of player development speaks for itself. Where are these kids? Guan Wang? Jordan Nickerson? Justin Lutsch? Paul Enders? Alec Seyb? Jacob Moore? Luke Moore? Brandon Peters? (They were teammates of 1st Round pick Emerson Etem on the Shattuck Bantam team.) It isn't like going there makes kids markedly better.

You say Minnesota Hockey can't do anything. Well, if they don't recognize Tier I teams... That's a long discussion that has been played out many, many times on these boards.

Finally, it is true that some players leave HS for Juniors. But that number has been on the decline from a decade ago and we're still seeing many top players choose to play HS hockey. Leddy, Gardiner, McDonagh, Budish, Rau, Bjugstad, Ness, and many others.

I want to hear more about this team from Scranton. My son played in a very low level tournament this year and one team of house league players had a boy that flew over from Russia. He was awesome. But I kept thinking, why? Why would a rag-tag group of locals kids be on the ice with a superstar from 4,000 miles away for a weekend in Florida in February. To win games? Who frickin' cares? These kids were 11 and 12.

Congratulations Scranton. I guess.

[YouthHockeyHub]

Nice post OTC.

The formula for a D1 schollie or the NHL draft is inexact at best.

And I hate to paint such a bleak picture. I just get a sense that the traditional MN model is being perceived by today's MN hockey parent as less "chic" as it once was.

As for Scranton...that just makes me shake my head.

Best,

Tony Scott

[InThePipes]

YHH:

I want to hear more about this team from Scranton. My son played in a very low level tournament this year and one team of house league players had a boy that flew over from Russia. He was awesome. But I kept thinking, why? Why would a rag-tag group of locals kids be on the ice with a superstar from 4,000 miles away for a weekend in Florida in February. To win games? Who frickin' cares? These kids were 11 and 12.

Congratulations Scranton. I guess.

That young man's father is on an expatriate work assignment for Dunder Mifflin...

[hockeyoldtimer]

My son's best friend throughout youth AAA hockey and now was one of the 9
Minnesota Boys on that team. They came up short, but had an amazing season and the Minnesota Boys had alot to do with it. All of us in Mn association hockey should be happy and proud of these boys and their hard work. These families decided to take the leap away from Mn association hockey but we should be no less proud of them.
Collin Saccoman(Mahotomedi youth hockey) and Jordan Klehr(Centennial)
the first line D and PP. Ryan Lindgren(Lakeville) and Sam Oden(Cambridge/Isanti youth) were strong 2nd and 3 rd D as well as PK.
Evan Robert(Tartan youth) set a new SSM record for 6 consecutive shutouts, the last 3 being Detroit Compuware, Ontario's #2 ranked Oakville Rangers, and Detroit Victory Honda. He had only 2 losses and 1 was to eventual National Champion Wilkes Barre Scranton. Rem Pitlick(Wayzata). Was the number 2 point getter and #1 in assists. Larry Yungwirth(Bloomington) was # 4 point getter. Tyler Bump(Prior Lake) was a second liner who I heard had several of this years most amazing game winning goals. Mitchell Dolter(Woodbury) and Jarrett Scheibel(New Ulm) finished out the big checking line and they were key in holding the line in late game leads and knocking the big Russians off the puck.
All counted there were 10 not 9 Minnesota boys who contributed all year. Many of them close friends of my son's in youth hockey. Many Minnesota Association
Players and coaches want to forget about these players because they left us, but I for one, hope everyone joins me in congratulating these" Minnesota boys" in a great season.

[O-townClown]

Oldtimer, that's great. I really want to hear more about this team from Scranton. The newspaper congratulated them online yesterday. It was something like the 6th time a team from Pennsy won a USA Hockey national championship. There are some kids on the team from Moscow, it's a town just a few miles away from W-B/S.

But what about these kids?

Denis Smirnov
Ivan Provorov
Nikita Pavlychev
Nikita Anistratenko
Eugene Fadyeyev

When the full story comes out - and it will - it's going to be a great one.

[Bluewhitefan]

My son's best friend throughout youth AAA hockey and now was one of the 9
Minnesota Boys on that team. They came up short, but had an amazing season and the Minnesota Boys had alot to do with it. All of us in Mn association hockey should be happy and proud of these boys and their hard work. These families decided to take the leap away from Mn association hockey but we should be no less proud of them.
Collin Saccoman(Mahotomedi youth hockey) and Jordan Klehr(Centennial)
the first line D and PP. Ryan Lindgren(Lakeville) and Sam Oden(Cambridge/Isanti youth) were strong 2nd and 3 rd D as well as PK.
Evan Robert(Tartan youth) set a new SSM record for 6 consecutive shutouts, the last 3 being Detroit Compuware, Ontario's #2 ranked Oakville Rangers, and Detroit Victory Honda. He had only 2 losses and 1 was to eventual National Champion Wilkes Barre Scranton. Rem Pitlick(Wayzata). Was the number 2 point getter and #1 in assists. Larry Yungwirth(Bloomington) was # 4 point getter. Tyler Bump(Prior Lake) was a second liner who I heard had several of this years most amazing game winning goals. Mitchell Dolter(Woodbury) and Jarrett Scheibel(New Ulm) finished out the big checking line and they were key in holding the line in late game leads and knocking the big Russians off the puck.
All counted there were 10 not 9 Minnesota boys who contributed all year. Many of them close friends of my son's in youth hockey. Many Minnesota Association
Players and coaches want to forget about these players because they left us, but I for one, hope everyone joins me in congratulating these" Minnesota boys" in a great season.

Not that it really matters, and I could be mistaken, but calling Oden a product of Cambridge/Isanti hockey is a bit of a stretch. I beieve he played for the 97 Fire for most of his youth.

[hockeyoldtimer]

OTC:
From my son's friend, what he heard at Silverstick tourney was that wealthy WBS parent got Russian "assistant" coach to come and he brought with him 4 boys from Russia and 1 from Czech republic. In addition the took a huge Inuit Indian boy from Canada. They put them up in wealthy WBS "billet homes" and enrolled them in school. The SSM boys said 3 of them had full beards! We laughed thinking SSM just complaining because they lost to them but I have heard of forged birth certificates before!

BlueWhiteFan,
Of course Oden left Cambridge/Isanti early. So did Robert and Saccoman. The last of the 97 Fire. They are all 3 still Minnesota boys and whether a product of the Blades, Machine, or Fire we should be proud of their accomplishments.

[Bluewhitefan]

OTC:
From my son's friend, what he heard at Silverstick tourney was that wealthy WBS parent got Russian "assistant" coach to come and he brought with him 4 boys from Russia and 1 from Czech republic. In addition the took a huge Inuit Indian boy from Canada. They put them up in wealthy WBS "billet homes" and enrolled them in school. The SSM boys said 3 of them had full beards! We laughed thinking SSM just complaining because they lost to them but I have heard of forged birth certificates before!

BlueWhiteFan,
Of course Oden left Cambridge/Isanti early. So did Robert and Saccoman. The last of the 97 Fire. They are all 3 still Minnesota boys and whether a product of the Blades, Machine, or Fire we should be proud of their accomplishments.

Stop telling us who we should be proud of- I don't even know these kids. I was simply pointing out that some of these kids have no connection to ANY youth prgram, and your post implies they do.

[O-townClown]

Thanks Oldtimer. The guy in some of the USA Hockey videos that talks like a leprauchan has warned, "don't confuse adults' ability to organize," with true player development. Shattuck's roster lists a Bantam that is something like 6'4" and 185 pounds from a small town about 2 hours from Ottawa and Montreal. I reckon he was a pretty good player before he got there!

Last year's wealthy Pee Wee parent saw the team he assembled lose 3-0 in the final. Somehow that seemed fitting. (I know nothing about the New Jersey team they lost to.)

Our state has a guy that sells the Magic Jack put a lot of resources behind his daughter's soccer team. They're pretty much unbeatable in Florida. Same guy also bought a women's professional team and made himself the coach.

I wonder how long this guy will be able to keep his Bantam team together.