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If a player has received invites to attend open tryouts for some USHL/NAHL teams, does he consider it a $$$$ for the team or does anybody know if he has a legitimate chance? At 200.00-300.00 a pop, it can add up. Anybody had any experience wit this? Thanks

That's a really good question, it appears the blast of these USHL letters went out just after the draft last week

So my guess is the next wave will be this week being the NAHL draft is today.

I'd be interested to hear what people say as well?

What are the teams people are receiving these letters from? Are they all doing it or just a select few teams?

Mnh0ckey wrote:What are the teams people are receiving these letters from? Are they all doing it or just a select few teams?

We've received one so far from Des Moines. I've heard of others receiving them from both Fargo and Des Moines.

GR3343 wrote:

Mnh0ckey wrote:What are the teams people are receiving these letters from? Are they all doing it or just a select few teams?

We've received one so far from Des Moines. I've heard of others receiving them from both Fargo and Des Moines.

We've received Des Moines, Fargo, Sioux Falls, Northern Iowa (NAHL) and a call from a Tier III.

We've heard from Des Moines USHL and Topeka NAHL.

Considering that each USHL team has 30 players on their protected list (currently post draft), the chance of cracking the final 23 is pretty slim. That would mean that at least 7 players would have to be cut from the current protected list to start to make room for kids coming in for tryouts. The math is not good. Not sure how things work with the NAHL but I am guessing it is pretty similar.

First off, these aren't "open tryouts", they're "invitational" tryouts. Difference, but not alot. Waterloo holds an open tryout before it's invite only.. and I think many of the NAHL teams do as well.

OK, it's HARD to make a team if you're not drafted, but it's NOT impossible. I can speak from experience of watching for the past couple of years that there are always a couple that stay on the roster that weren't drafted after the camps for many teams. Also, players sometimes get released after the start of a season, or even just before. That's when coaches go back and recheck their lists, and your kid might be that one that they remember.

If a player wants to move up, they can't take the attitude "it's just a fund raiser" as they need to get out there and see where they stand. After two games of a USHL tryout camp, you'll know if there is any chance of playing at this level or not. If you're just playing at it, and really don't think that you'll play in the USHL unless you're promised a spot, then save your money and go on to school.. Or go play Tier III and have some fun.

I also want to remind you guys.. Junior A hockey is a business, and it's handled very much like a professional organization, including how the players are taken care of. It's not youth or high school any more, and you have to perform every practice and every game.. and even then you might be traded or released. It's tough, but very rewarding if you can make it.

Good luck!!

Blue&Gold wrote:First off, these aren't "open tryouts", they're "invitational" tryouts. Difference, but not alot. Waterloo holds an open tryout before it's invite only.. and I think many of the NAHL teams do as well.

OK, it's HARD to make a team if you're not drafted, but it's NOT impossible. I can speak from experience of watching for the past couple of years that there are always a couple that stay on the roster that weren't drafted after the camps for many teams. Also, players sometimes get released after the start of a season, or even just before. That's when coaches go back and recheck their lists, and your kid might be that one that they remember.

If a player wants to move up, they can't take the attitude "it's just a fund raiser" as they need to get out there and see where they stand. After two games of a USHL tryout camp, you'll know if there is any chance of playing at this level or not. If you're just playing at it, and really don't think that you'll play in the USHL unless you're promised a spot, then save your money and go on to school.. Or go play Tier III and have some fun.

I also want to remind you guys.. Junior A hockey is a business, and it's handled very much like a professional organization, including how the players are taken care of. It's not youth or high school any more, and you have to perform every practice and every game.. and even then you might be traded or released. It's tough, but very rewarding if you can make it.

Good luck!!

Well said B & G it is a business and it is really tough to make it. In fact once you make a team it only get s harder to stay on. Good luck to all of the Boyz in this.

Des Moines, Fargo, North Iowa, Topeka.

Anyone have any idea why the Des Moines Invite Letter was an invite to the open camp, seems odd..

nipe87 wrote:Des Moines, Fargo, North Iowa, Topeka.

Anyone have any idea why the Des Moines Invite Letter was an invite to the open camp, seems odd..

New Coach and GM maybe wants to shake things up.

An open camp allows more players and therefore more money to be made. A stamp is cheap compared to the money spent to play in a camp, you can send out a lot of letters at .42 cents each and still make money on the camp.

I've been out of the league for a while now but this used to be common practice. Teams like Waterloo and Sioux City would hold a couple of open camps by invitation only, however they sent invitations to most HS seniors. They'd take some kids from those camps and total 40 or so for their real camp. Other teams like Rochester would invite about 60 kids but 35 or so were just there for the 25 team members to practice against. Things got ugly when more often than not the invited kids were better than the returnees and protected kids. Using an open camp prevents this as you can pick who you want at the real camp.

goldy313 wrote:An open camp allows more players and therefore more money to be made. A stamp is cheap compared to the money spent to play in a camp, you can send out a lot of letters at .42 cents each and still make money on the camp.

I've been out of the league for a while now but this used to be common practice. Teams like Waterloo and Sioux City would hold a couple of open camps by invitation only, however they sent invitations to most HS seniors. They'd take some kids from those camps and total 40 or so for their real camp. Other teams like Rochester would invite about 60 kids but 35 or so were just there for the 25 team members to practice against. Things got ugly when more often than not the invited kids were better than the returnees and protected kids. Using an open camp prevents this as you can pick who you want at the real camp.

well, guess all I can do is work hard and play my game and see where that brings me.

Blue&Gold wrote:First off, these aren't "open tryouts", they're "invitational" tryouts. Difference, but not alot. Waterloo holds an open tryout before it's invite only.. and I think many of the NAHL teams do as well.

OK, it's HARD to make a team if you're not drafted, but it's NOT impossible. I can speak from experience of watching for the past couple of years that there are always a couple that stay on the roster that weren't drafted after the camps for many teams. Also, players sometimes get released after the start of a season, or even just before. That's when coaches go back and recheck their lists, and your kid might be that one that they remember.

If a player wants to move up, they can't take the attitude "it's just a fund raiser" as they need to get out there and see where they stand. After two games of a USHL tryout camp, you'll know if there is any chance of playing at this level or not. If you're just playing at it, and really don't think that you'll play in the USHL unless you're promised a spot, then save your money and go on to school.. Or go play Tier III and have some fun.

I also want to remind you guys.. Junior A hockey is a business, and it's handled very much like a professional organization, including how the players are taken care of. It's not youth or high school any more, and you have to perform every practice and every game.. and even then you might be traded or released. It's tough, but very rewarding if you can make it.

Good luck!!

Blue and Gold. Most teams run both open and invite camps. If you go to USHL.com and click on tryouts, you will see what each team is doing. Most of the open camps are fundraisers although the occasional kid will catch the eye of the evaluators. Invite only camps target those prospects each team feels may have a legitimate chance to one day play. It may be for the current year or a year or two down the road. At least that is my understanding as we are wading through all the info. NAHL is similar from what I can gather

davey wrote:

Blue&Gold wrote:First off, these aren't "open tryouts", they're "invitational" tryouts. Difference, but not alot. Waterloo holds an open tryout before it's invite only.. and I think many of the NAHL teams do as well.

OK, it's HARD to make a team if you're not drafted, but it's NOT impossible. I can speak from experience of watching for the past couple of years that there are always a couple that stay on the roster that weren't drafted after the camps for many teams. Also, players sometimes get released after the start of a season, or even just before. That's when coaches go back and recheck their lists, and your kid might be that one that they remember.

If a player wants to move up, they can't take the attitude "it's just a fund raiser" as they need to get out there and see where they stand. After two games of a USHL tryout camp, you'll know if there is any chance of playing at this level or not. If you're just playing at it, and really don't think that you'll play in the USHL unless you're promised a spot, then save your money and go on to school.. Or go play Tier III and have some fun.

I also want to remind you guys.. Junior A hockey is a business, and it's handled very much like a professional organization, including how the players are taken care of. It's not youth or high school any more, and you have to perform every practice and every game.. and even then you might be traded or released. It's tough, but very rewarding if you can make it.

Good luck!!

Blue and Gold. Most teams run both open and invite camps. If you go to USHL.com and click on tryouts, you will see what each team is doing. Most of the open camps are fundraisers although the occasional kid will catch the eye of the evaluators. Invite only camps target those prospects each team feels may have a legitimate chance to one day play. It may be for the current year or a year or two down the road. At least that is my understanding as we are wading through all the info. NAHL is similar from what I can gather

Let me give you a little info on Blue & Gold. He has a son that played a couple years in the USHL with much success. Enough success to get recruited and sign with a Division I school. I think he knows the ins and outs of Junior hockey better then most on the bored.

Makes sense. But I am still not clear. If a guy somehow makes it through the porcess and gets on a team, is there a chance for them to get a look from D1? Even if they were "under the radar" prior to this. It seems that most of the D1 players in these leagues were already identified by the big schools before they went to play on a junior team. This is sort of a developmental league for them. Also, there are an awful lot of guys on the MIAC rosters with one or two of these teams on their bios.
Lets be clear, I get there are no guarantees, nothing for free, you have to work hard etc..

Just want to better understand the potential here.

I still think it is unusual to get an invite to an open camp.

B&G has posted many good points on this topic, search his posts and you will get some good info, or PM him he's been more the happy to share his experience .

Sure they send out invites to open camps, but I would think they want keep the talent level as high as possible to test their new draft choices, and possibly find a couple players that might not have all the hype, but have the skills needed to play, hype will only carry you so far, then it's all hard work.
I know a lot of players that will be Jr's and Sr's that are not getting the invites as well.
Also if it was an all out money grab, I think we'd have heard a lot more negative comments about it already. JMO

Can't Never Tried wrote:B&G has posted many good points on this topic, search his posts and you will get some good info, or PM him he's been more the happy to share his experience .

Sure they send out invites to open camps, but I would think they want keep the talent level as high as possible to test their new draft choices, and possibly find a couple players that might not have all the hype, but have the skills needed to play, hype will only carry you so far, then it's all hard work.
I know a lot of players that will be Jr's and Sr's that are not getting the invites as well.
Also if it was an all out money grab, I think we'd have heard a lot more negative comments about it already. JMO

Heard Indiana is having 8 teams in their tryouts...I have seen invites from Green Bay, Chicago, Des Moines, North Iowa, Indiana and Topeka. The Green Bay invite is for "Main camp" if that makes a difference I am not sure.

HOFam'r wrote:

Can't Never Tried wrote:B&G has posted many good points on this topic, search his posts and you will get some good info, or PM him he's been more the happy to share his experience .

Sure they send out invites to open camps, but I would think they want keep the talent level as high as possible to test their new draft choices, and possibly find a couple players that might not have all the hype, but have the skills needed to play, hype will only carry you so far, then it's all hard work.
I know a lot of players that will be Jr's and Sr's that are not getting the invites as well.
Also if it was an all out money grab, I think we'd have heard a lot more negative comments about it already. JMO

Heard Indiana is having 8 teams in their tryouts...I have seen invites from Green Bay, Chicago, Des Moines, North Iowa, Indiana and Topeka. The Green Bay invite is for "Main camp" if that makes a difference I am not sure.

Not sure on this, so if anyone knows for sure throw it out here.
But if I'm correct the open camps are fee paid by the participants, and I thought I heard the main camp (or invite only) are no pay.... can anyone confirm this? or correct me if I'm wrong.

Some USHL teams use the "Open Camp" as a money maker while some simply have one "Main Camp": http://ushl.com/tryouts/

Cedar Rapids, Lincoln, Sioux City, Green Bay, Sioux Falls have the one main camp and if you are invited to one of those camps you have as good a chance as anyone there (unless you are very young and invited to be looked at for the future).

If you are invited to an open camp there is still a chance of working your way throught the open camp to the main camp and on the team. I have seen it happen but it is very rare.

Some have a futures camp and they are potential money makers. They do allow teams to identify and talk with players on a more personal level.

Junior hockey is a business and on one hand certain teams use the open camp to draw additional revenue (usually for a second assistant coach). But that being said it is a business and the coaches want to win like anyone else. If a player performs well and fits the teams needs they will be picked.

The USHL draft is a very inexact science. The scouting/recruiting budgets are small and many teams rely on conversations with college and pro scouts to determine many of the players they draft. How else do 2 college players get drafted 1, 2 this year.

So if you are an undrafted high school player who has shown an ability to score and played in the elite league (It helps) you stand a very good chance of competing for a job.

If you are going to be a 4th liner or 7th D and in and out of the line up you would be better served with PP and PK time in the NAHL. Then look to the USHL the following year. Players with Junior experience are a valuable asset to USHL teams when they draft.

All that being said you need to look at your situation individually. Both financially and playing for a team or program that wants you.

One last thing.......

There was a player this season who was leading the USHL in goal scoring. He would have broken the league record for goals in a season if he would have not enrolled at school second semester.

He was an undrafted Midget player who recieved 2 camp invites. Went to one camp, made the team, now is a D1 player.

The knock on him was size.....but he had shown an ability to score at the Midget level.

Point being.....some quality players get overlooked.....and you never know what can happen unless you give it everything you have.

Note: fighting at camp can't hurt either. I wish I did not have to say it but many are impressed by a high school player taking the initiative to drop the gloves. If you ankle burn around the ice and try to fight you may as well save the $. You still need to be able to play!

chiperdeep wrote:One last thing.......

There was a player this season who was leading the USHL in goal scoring. He would have broken the league record for goals in a season if he would have not enrolled at school second semester.

He was an undrafted Midget player who recieved 2 camp invites. Went to one camp, made the team, now is a D1 player.

The knock on him was size.....but he had shown an ability to score at the Midget level.

Point being.....some quality players get overlooked.....and you never know what can happen unless you give it everything you have.

Note: fighting at camp can't hurt either. I wish I did not have to say it but many are impressed by a high school player taking the initiative to drop the gloves. If you ankle burn around the ice and try to fight you may as well save the $. You still need to be able to play!

This player being referenced is Andy Miele - http://www.pointstreak.com/prostats/pla ... sonid=2212

All he did in a half a year at Miami of Ohio is play 18 games and have 6 goals and 8 assists - http://www.collegehockeynews.com/players/?pd=24872 - which is pretty impressive considering he came into a situation on a college team that was already playing and doing well (Miami was ranked in the top 5 pretty much all year).

NOTE: Many of the USHL junior tryout camps do not allow fighting. This is not the case with many NAHL tryout camps. Coaches will usually spell out the ground rules on the 1st day of the tryouts.

I also concur with the comments by Blue & Gold. His understanding of the junior hockey world is pretty indepth. His son had minimal interest from colleges when he went to the USHL and he was able to parlay that into more than one full ride scholarship opportunity. Also pretty impressive.

As a junior tier III coach, this is what I tell all of my players when they are deciding on which teams to try out for.

1st- Do your research. Look at the college list for each team and see how many players they have returning. Then look at their draft lists and see how many guys they will have at their try-out that have been tendered, drafted and returning at your position. Choose the teams with the lowest amount of these guys and that finished lowest to the standings because these teams will most likely be more willing to part ways with a veteran player that didn't produce the year before.

2nd- Have your coaches talk to the head or assistant coach of the teams you've decided on trying out for and see if they could possibly get you invited to their main camp to save you some money. It's doubtful but its not impossible. Also this way, these coaches might be on the look-out for you just because they know you're coming.

3rd- Play your game. When you go to try out don't do things you're not comfortable with. If you play center, play center. Don't let another kid play center the entire time and you play wing. If you do this, you might as well stay home. Also, (This is HUGE) don't run your mouth to players if you don't want to fight. Most of the time, the fighters will know who the other fighters are and those guys will set up a fight to show off their "skills". If you just play hockey then you probably won't have to fight.

Other than that I would say don't hold back. Alot of coaches look for guys who will get scrappy in front of the net and get into those corners. That type of player is hard to find and it is a huge part of junior and college hockey.

alright so i had pretty long talks with about six of the ushl assistant coaches/head scouts this weekend and a brief talk with bob turow, director of central scouting.

i asked a few questions that people on here may be wondering:

1) why did i receive an invite letter to the "open camp"?

2) how good of a chance do you have to make it thru the open camp to the invite camp to the fall classic team and then onto the final team?

in short, this is how they put it:

1) the open camps are not really "open" as the title makes it seem. they said that 90 percent of the players at these camps are invited by them. the other 10 percent are kids who did sign up for the camp without being invited (to get in though previous experience must be high quality and they more times than not talk to your coaches to make sure you even stand a chance with the competition).

2) they also said that this is how the process works. you will start out (usually, some teams are different) with 80 kids at the "open" or first camp. after being evaluated individually, they will take about 15-30 players to move on to the second camp. those kids are joined by the 30 players on the protected list and the future prospects for that team. from there, it is all up for grabs on who makes the 30 man list at the end of that camp, though drafted players and returning players usually have the advantage, they said that every year there are 4-6 kids that snag a spot from someone who was protected, and 2-3 of them end up making the final team after the fall classic.

**they also said to note, in cases where there is a new head coach or a team that had a very poor previous season, that those teams usually start blank at these camps and select many unprotected players as they try to begin a new era for that team also known as a "rebuilding year."

Can't Never Tried wrote:

HOFam'r wrote:

Can't Never Tried wrote:B&G has posted many good points on this topic, search his posts and you will get some good info, or PM him he's been more the happy to share his experience .

Sure they send out invites to open camps, but I would think they want keep the talent level as high as possible to test their new draft choices, and possibly find a couple players that might not have all the hype, but have the skills needed to play, hype will only carry you so far, then it's all hard work.
I know a lot of players that will be Jr's and Sr's that are not getting the invites as well.
Also if it was an all out money grab, I think we'd have heard a lot more negative comments about it already. JMO

Heard Indiana is having 8 teams in their tryouts...I have seen invites from Green Bay, Chicago, Des Moines, North Iowa, Indiana and Topeka. The Green Bay invite is for "Main camp" if that makes a difference I am not sure.

Not sure on this, so if anyone knows for sure throw it out here.
But if I'm correct the open camps are fee paid by the participants, and I thought I heard the main camp (or invite only) are no pay.... can anyone confirm this? or correct me if I'm wrong.

My son got an invite to the Green Bay camp - less expensive than the others, but not free.