I am not sure people really understand how bad USA Hockey was in the years 1991-1999 with regards to developing young players. This is the darkest period for USA Hockey that nearly set us back 10 years with no legitimate stars coming out of this 8 year span. Ironically it was the best period for us in international competition, World Cup/Canada Cup; as we could stand toe to toe with Canada in terms of high end talent for the first time ever.
But man were those drafts beyond brutal. Just look at some of the first and second rounds from those years. Some barely having any Americans, others having nothing but utter busts : Jason Bonsignore, Ryan Sittler (thought he would be a God),Brad Defauw, Nikos Tselios, David Wilkie, Chris O'Sullivan, Barrett Heisten, the Ferraro brothers, Peter Roed, Eric Chouinard (dual), Jeffrey Kealty, Ty Jones, Sean Haggerty, Deron Quint, Kevyn Adams, Rory Fitzpatrick, Joe Hulbig, etc, etc, etc....
Yes we did get Brian Gionta, Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Ryan Malone, Tim Connolly, David Legwand, Paul Mara, Erik Cole, Jay Pandolfo, Jamie Langenbrunner, Scott Lachance, Todd Marchant, Adam Deadmarsh, Steve Konowalchuk, Mike York, Jeff Halpern, Tom Poti, Bryan Berard, etc out of those drafts, but many were towards the 99 draft then the 1991 draft....where by 1999 the USNDP was in place. And yes Ryan Miller was drafted in 99, but it really wasnt until the 2000 draft that things started to change for USA Hockey. Also Jim Carey was solid for a few years, then kaboom....another bust.
In an 8 year span, the players I listed above where the best that our country produced in those drafts...if that isnt going to send things to a hault, not sure what will. Not a single star in that group imo outside of Miller and for a solid period Scott Gomez.
The US might not have a top 10 pick in the past three years, but just look back a decade and be damn thankful of what we are able to produce year in and year out. A bad year for the US now is 5 first round picks, and 45-50 players drafted overall. Go back to 91-96 and 5 first rounders would have been a block party, and with 9 to 12 rounds in those years, we probably still didnt hit over 50 players drafted overall.
Our birth years have high years and low years, and the past few years we have seen low in terms of pure highend talent. But the 2012,13,and 14 drafts should all have top 10 Americans in them in these early stages, and we should be right back on track to where we where in 2003 to 2008.
Ilike USA Hockey wanting more practice and training over games for our youth. i think that is the biggest change and it will be a huge positive for some of these kids. The lack of training and practicing on areas of weakness has been a long concern of mine for the past 10 years....glad to see a positive change here.
USA Hockey is and will be fine. We have some bumps in the road, but just look back to those years above and thank God we arent anything as bad as 91 to 99 was for this country.