Preparing for the Top Prospects tournament
By Matt Mackinder –
This time next month, the best of the best will be in Troy.
From Feb. 17-20, the top North American Hockey League players hit the ice at the Troy Sports Center for the annual Top Prospects Tournament – one of the league’s signature events for player exposure and the NCAA college scouts looking to piggyback off that exposure.
“We know what to expect when we come to Michigan and that’s hundreds of college and professional coaches and scouts who have a serious interest in our student-athletes,” said NAHL commissioner Mark Frankenfeld. “It’s another outstanding event for our league and one that keeps getting bigger and better year after year, both in terms of exposure for our players and prestige throughout the entire hockey community.”
At the event, six teams comprised of the NAHL’s top committed and uncommitted college players, including those recognized on the NHL Central Scouting Bureau’s “Players to Watch” list for 2012 draft-eligible players, which was released in October, will play a three-game round robin. Five teams will be comprised of players of each of the five divisions in the NAHL that are nominated by their coaches. The sixth team will be a ‘Young Guns’ team, featuring some of the best younger talent (1993, 1994, 1995 birthdays) currently playing in the NAHL.
The North American 3 Hockey League will also have representation in Troy, as eight teams from the NA3HL’s Eastern Conference will play four regular season games in their own Eastern Showcase.
The event will also feature the North American Prospects Hockey League championship tournament series, in which all Midget Major, Midget Minor and Bantam Major teams will compete for a league championship in their respective divisions.
“The NAHL continues to put together quality events that showcase their players to scouts and recruiters and this is another great opportunity to see some of the top uncommitted players together in one setting,” said Robert Morris University head coach Derek Schooley. “The NAHL continues to provide quality players to the NCAA because of tournaments like these.”
This will be the first year the showcase will be held in Troy after four straight years at the Ice Cube in Ann Arbor.
Each spring, it seems more and more NAHL players make their commitments for the fall shortly after the Top Prospects Tournament.
“We pride ourselves on our unique events schedule with the sole purpose of elevating our players’ visibility in the college and professional scouting circles,” added Frankenfeld. “That’s the mission set forth by every one of our owners and given our successful track record, one we’re focused on strengthening even more.”
For more information, including a schedule and a roster of the competing players, go to www.nahltopprospects.com.
NA3HL TRIO SIGNS NAHL TENDERS
The St. Louis Jr. Blues announced recently that two of their players have signed NAHL tenders for next season, while the Waterford-based Metro Jets have another hoping to play up a level next season.
In St. Louis, forward Trace Jablin has signed a tender to play for the Kenai River Brown Bears, while forward Daniel Rosse has signed with the St. Louis Bandits.
A tender is a contract of sorts a player signs announcing his intentions to play for that particular NAHL team and that NAHL team only.
“(Jablin) brings the full package from skating ability and puck handling ability to grit and ability to play in the corners,” said St. Louis coach J.P. Beilsten. “Daniel has had a tremendous season for us to this point. After we signed him, we watched him skate with the Bandits in their main camp and he did well.”
Metro Jets defenseman Adam Reid has excelled in his first season in the NA3HL and the New Mexico Mustangs have taken notice.
“The tender opportunity came up at the showcase in Chicago the first week of December,” said Reid, a Kalamazoo native who lived the past 14 years in Texas. “After our first game against Quad City, (Jets coach Jason) Cirone said that New Mexico was inquiring about me and that they’d be watching me again in our game the next day. After the second game, their scout and assistant coach Nick Shackford approached me with the offer.”
Reid played just four games last year with the Russell Stover Midget Major team before missing the rest of the season with concussion issues, but now symptom-free, has a chance to move up the hockey ladder.
“We’re in the business of developing and advancing our players and I think this speaks volumes in Adam’s case,” said Jets coach Jason Cirone. “He came in this year and has been one of our most consistent defensemen.”
NAPHL HOSTS SUCCESSFUL EVENT IN TEXAS
Just prior to the calendar changing to 2012, the NAPHL traveled to the Dallas area for a three-day showcase event.
According to NAPHL commissioner Denny Scanlon, the event was nothing short of a successful venture.
“I was very pleased with how the event went,” said Scanlon. “We had a lot of scouts there from the South Division of the NAHL and we’re starting to see upward movement of a great deal of our PHL players. We’re seeing more and more activity on the recruiting front and that’s what we’re in the business for – to develop players to move up to higher levels of hockey.”
All three NAPHL divisions (18U, 16U, 14U) took part in the event. A local high school all-star team also participated and that team had Scanlon raising his eyebrows.
“That high school team was very, very competitive,” Scanlon beamed. “It showed the high-quality players in the Dallas area and I can honestly say I was very impressed.”