The older a hockey player gets, the faster the drop out rate will be. As kids age other things become more important, school, girls, other sports etc. Every one who started out playing hockey will not end up playing hockey. This fact is inevitable. How long you want to play and how long you can play may be two different lengths.

 

Think of the levels of hockey like a pyramid. The NHL is at the top, and then it branches down to the AHL, the ECHL, some European leagues, the CHL, UHL, SPHL, and MAHL etc. These are just the pro leagues. You then have to add in the amateur levels such as college, JR. A, high school, and more. As you go downward the levels spread. This is significant in more than one way. First of all the more the pyramid expands, the larger and potentially the more “Watered down” the competition will be. Secondly, it reduces the number of scouts who will be looking at players due to the vast quantity. Third, it drives the associations to keep expanding making new leagues and teams, which ties back into the first issue of watered down competition.

 

Knowing where to play, where to be, and at what time, will dramatically increase your chances of playing as long as you want and can. I know just as well as anyone what it takes to continue playing past what “everyone else does” as I was just tendered by the Wooster Warriors in the MAHL. I have been through the ranks and seen some of my colleges go on to Division 1, minor pro, pro, and some who quit. It all boils down to getting the most amount of exposure as possible. I was once told “if you are good enough they will find you”. The days of this philosophy are over. There are way too many places to be scouted for you to be found.

 

So how do you get to be in the right place in the right time? What is the fastest and most direct route to the NHL if you are good enough? Most of this depends on you location. I am most familiar with the Midwest. The east coast has differences, which I will talk about later. In the next few paragraphs I will break down the best and worst places to get scouted from, from personal experience as well as from a scout/coach me.

 

The first area I would like to discuss is my own territory, the Midwest, Michigan and the tri-state areas. There is no secret to the way hockey is run. There are a lot of politics involved because there are a lot of power hungry people. The optimal route in my opinion is simply AAA. Most people will come to me and tell me that it isn’t worth it, too much money, time, etc. Some may have a point. You don’t have to be AAA at age 7, but you can’t wait until you are 15. The way the great programs work is through development. They do not pick a new team each and every year. They pick a group of kids young and develop them together as a team. This is why you can’t wait until you are 15. Honey Baked is a great example. They start the kids young and they always have a powerhouse. The reason AAA is so important is that Jr. A team knows that the talent is there in one place. AAA also plays a Jr. A schedule so the players are more mature and in shape. It is not a big jump to make from AAA midget major to Jr. A. Watch the NAHL and the USHL drafts, a majority of players will come from AAA, others come from areas I will go into later. From AAA you simply have to play Jr. A hockey. No one will ever make the jump from AAA to division 1 college or to pro, Jr. A has to be the bridge to make the gap. The USHL is the best Jr. A league to play in. It is Tier 1 and gets the most amount of scouts. Following this is NAHL. This league is not far behind in many aspects. Any type of Tier 3 Jr. A simply wont cut it. From Jr. A you have a few choices, most of the time Jr. A player want to go to college, some want to go straight to the pros and do. If you go the Division 1 route any school in NCAA hockey will provide adequate opportunity to move on. Beyond college hockey is only pro. NCAA hockey should give you the tools you need to by pass any lower level of pro hockey and go to the ECHL or even better the AHL. This of course is if you are not drafted. Most of the time I do this talk as a lecture in a classroom which is much more in-depth.

 

The biggest mistake kids make is high school hockey. On the East coast or prep school hockey you have a good chance, schools like Culver Academy, and Shattuck St. Mary’s always put out good players. Keep in mind they run their program like a Jr. A program. The biggest problem with high school hockey is not the talent pool. High school hockey does have some very talented players; it is the schedule and development. High school hockey plays half the schedule that AAA does. It requires only half the commitment. Again it is NOT the talent issue. I don’t want people emailing me telling me I have something against high school hockey. The jump to Jr. A is usually too great because of this. Players go from skating 2-3 times a week with 1-2 games a week for 5-6 months, to a Jr. program having 60+ games in 9 months skating 6-7 days a week with off ice training and training camp at the beginning of each season. You can see why Jr. scouts go to AAA over high school hockey now.

 

My favorite example of high school vs. AAA is when I played in Traverse City. The first half of the season the team was doing very well. Everyone was producing good numbers. After Christmas break everything changed. The high school players had nothing left and it showed. We were 20 plus points ahead of Alpena and they came with in 5 points of taking our playoff spot by years end. In our play off series against the U-17 team, none of the high school players performed. The only people to score were the Jr. B players and some veterans. Again I am not saying that high school is bad or that you can’t make it playing high school hockey. Patrick Nagorsen is going to WMU in the CCHA and he played for Orchard Lake St. Mary’s then two years with T.C. North stars. All I am giving is the percentages. Your best bet is AAA to Jr. A, then to where you want to go D1 or Pro.

 

The East coast hockey is much different then here in the Midwest. I am not going to spend too much time on it as I pretty well covered it in the previous paragraphs. On the east coast, most Division 1 teams scout from prep school hockey again like Culver and Shattuck. The reason is again the schedule. These schools play and train at a Jr. A level and beyond. They treat their programs like most football programs in Texas. It is easy for kids to make the jump to Division 1 from prep school on the east coast.

 

Finally an area I want to touch on is Canada. Canadian hockey is different from U.S. hockey. Most of the time Canadians want to go straight to professional hockey. This is due to the lack of high-level collegiate hockey. The system in Canada is Jr’s to the OHL, which will give you your best chance. This is also why Canada still has full service gas stations. If you play in the OHL or some league like it, your chances of making it big increase, but you have nothing to fall back on. Some OHL teams are beginning to make deals such as they will pay your schooling for as many years as you play for them. They are trying to improve their system but again it is a high-risk high reward area. You loose all eligibility to play NCAA but your chances of getting noticed increase.

 

I have touched very briefly on the best and fastest route to go as far as you decide you want to go. Again this is brief, if you have further questions please email me and I will be happy to clear up any gray areas and help out in any way possible. This article again is not a rule but more of a guideline that I put together from personal experience as well as coaching and scouting experience.