NTDP Tryout Camp Roster Announced for 1997s

[icehornet]

He lives in Minnesota a majority of the year if he's going to boarding school.

Sure, but you would never say he's "from" MN and count him as being a MN kid on this list. He's a kid from NY going to school in MN.....for hockey.

[dleogallag]

Congrats to these players huge accomplishment!

Does anyone know the story with Colin Gallagher?
I didn't see his name on the list for Advancing to St Cloud's Summer Camp last year. Maybe injured during tryouts? Maybe he just moved to MN? Pretty remarkable if the young man wasn't picked as one of the top 38 Defenseman in the state, and then is invited to NTDP.

Last year, he missed several sessions of the Reebok Program due to conflicts with school and other sports - I assume this was contributing factor, although we'll never know if he WOULD have made it, obviously, it was possible..

[roundhead]

Congrats to these players huge accomplishment!

Does anyone know the story with Colin Gallagher?
I didn't see his name on the list for Advancing to St Cloud's Summer Camp last year. Maybe injured during tryouts? Maybe he just moved to MN? Pretty remarkable if the young man wasn't picked as one of the top 38 Defenseman in the state, and then is invited to NTDP.

Last year, he missed several sessions of the Reebok Program due to conflicts with school and other sports - I assume this was contributing factor, although we'll never know if he WOULD have made it, obviously, it was possible..

Yeah, it says right in the instructions/rules that complete attendance is a must to complete the program.

[DekeDangler]

[quote="notahockeyguy"]I wonder if people know that there is a 50000.00 buyout if you quit before you are done. You leave for any reason before your class graduates and you pay.[/quote]

You could ask this question then too. Do people know that they will be offered $50,000? My guess is that they do know and are made fully aware of the money that must be returned because of an early out. With that type of money, if you don't know about it right away, it sure won't be long before you do find out. It's one of those things that doesn't go unmentioned.

[almostashappy]

This post from another thread was worth bumping this topic:

Well with the great 8 and U-18's wrapping up this weekend it's time to shift focus to the Elite Spring HP Programs. Read a nice article on the 1997 MN Group in Let's Play Hockey:

A first look at the Class of 1997

By Tom Lynn


For some of our 15-year-old Minnesota hockey players, this spring is the time when they will go from accomplished youth hockey players or local high school phenoms to true national prospects. The Reebok High Performance camps in April are the first step, and then a good number of those players will go on to the USA Hockey National Camp in Rochester. The best of those will play for Team USA in the Five Nations Cup in the Czech Republic in August (and there were five Minnesotans on that team last year). Also in the mix will be the National Team Development Program Evaluation Camp in March, a tryout for players to be invited to join USA Hockey’s NTDP program in Ann Arbor, Mich., for the next two years.

It is important to note, however, that these camps and tryouts are not all-inclusive, and do not necessarily uncover all of the players who will be highly-ranked for the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. This “Class of 1997” (the birth year for the 2015 NHL Draft) is still young. USA Hockey points out that there is a 40-percent turnover in the players invited to the 15-year-old National Camp to the 16-year-old National Camp each summer, and the same happens for the National 17 Camp. Players at this age are rapidly changing physically, which means not only that some grow later, but also some develop their physical skills later.

Throw in other variables such as injuries and commitments to other sports in the spring, and it is not only possible, but likely that players not “in the mix” this spring and summer will emerge as true prospects over the next two years. Looking at the upcoming Draft in June, two of the most highly regarded Minnesota players are Burnsville’s Teemu Kivihalme and Minnetonka’s Tommy Vannelli. Kivihalme was a relatively unknown skinny young ninth grader playing for his dad two years ago, not invited to USA National Camp (and went to Finland’s instead). Vannelli was on the junior varsity team at Tonka two years ago after transferring from Holy Family (yes, that was JV). So we must expect some of the 1997 players whose names are not out there now will be burgeoning stars by their draft year.

A quick word on the NTDP tryouts – although the staff would never admit it, there is a quota on Minnesota players invited to the Evaluation Camp. USA Hockey cannot collect dues from hockey associations across the country, and then spend that money on a program with a third of the players from one state (at least not without significant blowback). There is also a sentiment that if a prospect from a non-hockey area is missed, he is missed “for good,” while a Minnesota kid may well develop into a future USA Hockey National Team player or Olympian while continuing to play for his high school team as a teenager.

This is why a player like Edina’s Dylan Malmquist, one of the top 10 1996 forwards in the country, was not invited (and there are others in each year). There also seems to be a focus on positional needs in the tryout invitations – you are not going to see three big, physical defensemen from Minnesota invited in the same year, or three small, playmaking left wings, even if they are the three top players. So these tryouts invitation lists, although a great honor, are not conclusive as to the best 1997-born players in Minnesota....

I hadn't thought about the geographical politics that might place an unofficial quota on the number of invites sent to Minnesota kids, but it makes perfect sense.

[bemused]

This post from another thread was worth bumping this topic:

Well with the great 8 and U-18's wrapping up this weekend it's time to shift focus to the Elite Spring HP Programs. Read a nice article on the 1997 MN Group in Let's Play Hockey:

A first look at the Class of 1997

By Tom Lynn


For some of our 15-year-old Minnesota hockey players, this spring is the time when they will go from accomplished youth hockey players or local high school phenoms to true national prospects. The Reebok High Performance camps in April are the first step, and then a good number of those players will go on to the USA Hockey National Camp in Rochester. The best of those will play for Team USA in the Five Nations Cup in the Czech Republic in August (and there were five Minnesotans on that team last year). Also in the mix will be the National Team Development Program Evaluation Camp in March, a tryout for players to be invited to join USA Hockey’s NTDP program in Ann Arbor, Mich., for the next two years.

It is important to note, however, that these camps and tryouts are not all-inclusive, and do not necessarily uncover all of the players who will be highly-ranked for the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. This “Class of 1997” (the birth year for the 2015 NHL Draft) is still young. USA Hockey points out that there is a 40-percent turnover in the players invited to the 15-year-old National Camp to the 16-year-old National Camp each summer, and the same happens for the National 17 Camp. Players at this age are rapidly changing physically, which means not only that some grow later, but also some develop their physical skills later.

Throw in other variables such as injuries and commitments to other sports in the spring, and it is not only possible, but likely that players not “in the mix” this spring and summer will emerge as true prospects over the next two years. Looking at the upcoming Draft in June, two of the most highly regarded Minnesota players are Burnsville’s Teemu Kivihalme and Minnetonka’s Tommy Vannelli. Kivihalme was a relatively unknown skinny young ninth grader playing for his dad two years ago, not invited to USA National Camp (and went to Finland’s instead). Vannelli was on the junior varsity team at Tonka two years ago after transferring from Holy Family (yes, that was JV). So we must expect some of the 1997 players whose names are not out there now will be burgeoning stars by their draft year.

A quick word on the NTDP tryouts – although the staff would never admit it, there is a quota on Minnesota players invited to the Evaluation Camp. USA Hockey cannot collect dues from hockey associations across the country, and then spend that money on a program with a third of the players from one state (at least not without significant blowback). There is also a sentiment that if a prospect from a non-hockey area is missed, he is missed “for good,” while a Minnesota kid may well develop into a future USA Hockey National Team player or Olympian while continuing to play for his high school team as a teenager.

This is why a player like Edina’s Dylan Malmquist, one of the top 10 1996 forwards in the country, was not invited (and there are others in each year). There also seems to be a focus on positional needs in the tryout invitations – you are not going to see three big, physical defensemen from Minnesota invited in the same year, or three small, playmaking left wings, even if they are the three top players. So these tryouts invitation lists, although a great honor, are not conclusive as to the best 1997-born players in Minnesota....

I hadn't thought about the geographical politics that might place an unofficial quota on the number of invites sent to Minnesota kids, but it makes perfect sense.

Before you buy in too deep to what is obviously a polished answer to why somebody did not make it..the only Minnesota kids that they took last year were ( after Gersich and Poganski turned them down) two big d-men from the same SCHOOL!