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Hey Congrats from Dino to Patrick White and Ryan McDonagh
How many offers did these two turn down to play "up a level" and up there chances in the NHL. ????
Bottom line to me is this, STAY IN HIGH SCHOOL---if you are good enough they (NHL) will find you. McDonagh and White could have gone to a Junior team and met up with a coach or system that didnt like them and got buried deep in there line up (3rd - 4th lines)
Look at Jim OBrien (Gophs) probably a top 15 draft guy, but he got less ice time as a 3rd-4th liner for Minnesota--he goes 29th overall.
I know some of you YO YOs are going to come back at me with the guys that did leave High School and were drafted high, but really why would you want to miss your Senior year with all your real friends---McDonagh got another RING---baseball State Champs---

How about we say you do what is right for your situation?

McDonagh - Won State tournament with chance to repeat plus baseball

White - lost state championship chance to try again

If a kid has a chance to get in front of better coaching or eliminate bad influances he should leave, but don't come on here and praise 2 guys that had a good thing going in the first place. If you are good enough you might have to go prove it else where if you never get to be on stage. Scouts don't come and watch last place teams I don't care what you say. Both these guys where on the radar screen before senior season and had nothing else to prove.

Dino wrote:Hey Congrats from Dino to Patrick White and Ryan McDonagh
How many offers did these two turn down to play "up a level" and up there chances in the NHL. ????
Bottom line to me is this, STAY IN HIGH SCHOOL---if you are good enough they (NHL) will find you. McDonagh and White could have gone to a Junior team and met up with a coach or system that didnt like them and got buried deep in there line up (3rd - 4th lines)
Look at Jim OBrien (Gophs) probably a top 15 draft guy, but he got less ice time as a 3rd-4th liner for Minnesota--he goes 29th overall.
I know some of you YO YOs are going to come back at me with the guys that did leave High School and were drafted high, but really why would you want to miss your Senior year with all your real friends---McDonagh got another RING---baseball State Champs---

Frankly, I agree with Dino. I don't care what kind of team you are on. High school years are some of the best in your life.

I do believe if you are good enough they will find you.

Congrats to McDonagh and White!

I agree with you guys. There are lots of opportinites in today's hockey for kids to get seen by scouts. Model camp, the SSM camp, elites. If you are good the scouts will see you. If a guys is a late bloomer going to USHL after high school seems to work out well for kids also. It also never hurts to knock on some doors yourself if you are not getting noticed.

It's not a matter of whether scouts will find you or not. It is a matter of what is the best avenue for development for a given individual. There is more than one way to do it and it is ignorant to suggest there is only one "right way". What works for one guy may not be the right way for another.

Naturally, this board is going to have a bias toward one way but it shouldn't blind you to the fact that there are other ways of doing things. It certainly didn't hurt Erik Johnson, Kyle Okposo, and a number others to play junior hockey before they graduated.

Congrats to both. What an honor it has to be to get chosen in the first round of the NHL draft.

Both went to teams in Canada.

Gopher Blog wrote:It's not a matter of whether scouts will find you or not. It is a matter of what is the best avenue for development for a given individual. There is more than one way to do it and it is ignorant to suggest there is only one "right way". What works for one guy may not be the right way for another.

Naturally, this board is going to have a bias toward one way but it shouldn't blind you to the fact that there are other ways of doing things. It certainly didn't hurt Erik Johnson, Kyle Okposo, and a number others to play junior hockey before they graduated.

It's great that there are choices.

Great success stories about Johnson and Okposo as well. However, there are many kids that leave early and end up on the pine in JRs and die on the vine from a hockey perspective.

JR, like college is a business. Take in all the information before you decide to leave your program.

Again, congrats to McDonagh and White. Sticking with high school and playing in the Elite league worked for them.

breakout wrote:However, there are many kids that leave early and end up on the pine in JRs and die on the vine from a hockey perspective.

Like I said, every situation is unique and depends on the individual's circumstances. Some kids just aren't mentally cut out to leave home before graduating. Others are very much capable of it and thrive. I just don't care for the narrow minded attitude that there is only one "right way" and that way seems to be mostly perpetuated by those who don't like the fact that some MN kids thrive outside of the MNHSL.

The vast majority of kids that make a USHL roster prior to graduating high school end up making it to college hockey with a scholarship. They don't hand out roster spots to young guys in the USHL if they are scrubs with no future. Same with the NTDP. These kids almost always make it to the next level.

Gopher Blog wrote:

breakout wrote:However, there are many kids that leave early and end up on the pine in JRs and die on the vine from a hockey perspective.

Like I said, every situation is unique and depends on the individual's circumstances. Some kids just aren't mentally cut out to leave home before graduating. Others are very much capable of it and thrive. I just don't care for the narrow minded attitude that there is only one "right way" and that way seems to be mostly perpetuated by those who don't like the fact that some MN kids thrive outside of the MNHSL.

The vast majority of kids that make a USHL roster prior to graduating high school end up making it to college hockey with a scholarship. They don't hand out roster spots to young guys in the USHL if they are scrubs with no future. Same with the NTDP. These kids almost always make it to the next level.

You bring up good points.

My understanding, NTDP does a psychological test before bringing kids in. Probably expensive to do, but probably a worthwhile assessment tool to see if a kid is mentally ready for the challenge/opportunity.

I dont buy all of this "if you go to juniors your development will be accelerated" stuff. Why? How does anyone really know that?

We know that players skip senior year to go to juniors and then get college scholarships but that doesnt prove that they would not have had offers had they stayed in high school.

I think that every athlete needs to have an opportunty to develop and grow as a player and a person. However , I dont think that you have to have the maximum amount of opportunity nor the optimum program in order to grow and develop.

I have watched the kids mentioned play a number of times. Great players but they were challenged in high school. They didnt dominate every game.

They were on the ice a lot and had good coaches. One went number 12 overall n the NHL draft.

I agree with Dino and add that the choice they made was a good one. Both players developed a lot over their senior year.

packerboy wrote:I dont buy all of this "if you go to juniors your development will be accelerated" stuff. Why? How does anyone really know that?

If you think that a kid isn't pushed further developmentally by facing higher levels of competition, I don't think many will agree. We all love high school hockey but even the very best kids who have played in both will tell you that the USHL pushes them much harder than anything they faced in high school.

Yah , I know, thats the spin. I've heard it before.

But kids who play high school hockey put on a pair of skates every day. They practice, they play games and they play in tournaments. Most teams try to get together on an informal basis year round. They lift weghts and do other off ice traing.

Its not like its Mites.

Even if it were somehow proven that a player is measurably better off going to juniors, how long does that last?

I have been around youth hockey for a long time. I cant tell you the number of times I have seen kids show up in the Fall after a whole summer of hockey, looking great and ahead of the kids that have been having a normal summer and childhood.

Come January, things go back to where they were.

There are a lot of theories about athletic development that are just that...theories.

I find it funny that some of the same people who are agreeing in this thread are arguing against this same concept in other threads. You guys crack me up.

HShockeywatcher wrote:I find it funny that some of the same people who are agreeing in this thread are arguing against this same concept in other threads. You guys crack me up.

You crack everybody up!

It's like the circle of life

wbmd wrote:

HShockeywatcher wrote:I find it funny that some of the same people who are agreeing in this thread are arguing against this same concept in other threads. You guys crack me up.

You crack everybody up!

Easy to do if your cracked!

Neutron 14,
For starters, it'd be "you're cracked" but what does that even mean? And what's easy to do?