How USA'S NTDP Became An NHL Draft Powerhouse

[DraftEligibleOHL]

Tony Ferarri at The Hockey News released an article about the US NTDP. Full article can be found here, with an excerpt below. https://thehockeynews.com/news/how-usas-ntdp-became-an-nhl-draft-powerhouse

“They do things so professionally while still being so focused on developing each and every one of us.”

That’s what USA Hockey National Team Development Program top prospect Will Smith told The Hockey News on what makes ‘The Program’ such an attractive and successful destination for the top players growing up in the United States.

The NTDP has produced several of the NHL’s biggest stars over the last decade, from Auston Matthews and Jack Hughes to Adam Fox and Quinn Hughes (there have been a lot of Hughes').

We have seen development revolutionized for kids in America. It has yielded amazing results for countless players, improving the quality of play and altering the landscape of the hockey world in a number of ways. We’ve seen the benefits at the NHL draft with multiple No. 1 picks – including Jack Hughes leading the record-setting 2019 draft class where the NTDP had 17 players selected.

The NTDP has developed a player selected in the top five every year since Brady Tkachuk went fourth overall in 2018. The last time they didn’t have a player selected in the top 20 was in 2009. ‘The Program’ – as it’s often referred to – is simply changing the game in the United States.

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[wetcoast]

Tony Ferarri at The Hockey News released an article about the US NTDP. Full article can be found here, with an excerpt below. https://thehockeynews.com/news/how-usas-ntdp-became-an-nhl-draft-powerhouse

Thanks that was a great read.

 

[razor ray]

Very interesting article. None of the kids that go through it have ever said a negative experience from it. Always positive….very few busts as well. US NTDP is definitely working.

 

[DraftEligibleOHL]

I'm Canadian but the way the Americans have closed the talent gap in the last 10-15 years is remarkable. The program has graduated surefire top line NHL'ers and as a fan of the game it's awesome to see and I hope it continues.

 

[Whalers Fan]

Thanks for posting the article. It was a good read. I have been a NTDP season ticket holder since the program moved here to Plymouth from nearby Ann Arbor in 2015 -- was a Plymouth Whalers (OHL) season ticket holder before then. The program really invested a lot of money in the facility after acquiring it from the Whalers, including a large addition that houses the training center / gym that's mentioned in the article. It's pretty cool watching these kids grow over their two seasons here. The U17 squad will usually struggle early on, as they are facing much older competition in the USHL. By the end of their first season, you can usually see quite a bit of improvement, and in their U18 season they really blossom.

 

[wetcoast]

I'm Canadian but the way the Americans have closed the talent gap in the last 10-15 years is remarkable. The program has graduated surefire top line NHL'ers and as a fan of the game it's awesome to see and I hope it continues.

I'm from out in BC, the lower mainland more specifically but the emergence of elite academies for players in their early teens has done wonders for the level of player coming out from these academies to higher levels.

 

[Whalers Fan]

Here is a long article on ESPN regarding the start of the NTDP. There were some interesting tidbits on the challenges in starting up the program.