Every year in Plymouth, the stakes are high.
The 2023-24 USHL regular season commenced this past weekend with the annual USHL Fall Classic, a two-day-long showcase event for all of the league’s teams to gain exposure and start off on the right foot in front of fans and a large contingent of the hockey community who may someday decide the futures of many participating players.
One team, though, faces slightly different expectations but nonetheless comes to win and send a message, even if there’s already a target on their backs.
It’s nothing new at USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program, where players annually seem to raise the bar and set team records that previously looked impossible to beat evidenced by Gabriel Perreault eclipsing Auston Matthews’ all-time points record last year.
It’s nothing new for head coach Nick Fohr, either, who is entering his 13th season as a coach at this level – his second as a head coach and his first as head coach of the NTDP Under-18 Team.
“You definitely get a sense for the bullseye, especially for the Under-18 Team,” Fohr said. “The U18 Team is usually bigger and stronger, so they match the strength of the rest of the league. We do feel that we get everybody’s best.”
The team won both of its games at the Fall Classic, by the way. Tomorrow (Friday), they host their first home games of the 2023-24 season, with the Under-17 Team making its home debut Friday and the Under-18 Team playing Saturday.
The NTDP is hosting a Welcome Back to Hockey Party before both of their first two homes this Friday and Saturday. Click the image above to learn more.
Preparing for the Road Ahead
It’s well-known how unique the NTDP’s setup is in hockey. USA Hockey fields two teams in the USHL – the Under-18 Team and the Under-17 Team – that split a regular-season schedule. Both teams will also participate in international tournaments at their respective age level. The Under-18 Team takes it one step further, as it plays NCAA Division 1 college programs before ending its season at the IIHF World Under-18 Championship, considered the premiere event for draft-eligible players.
So “Year 1” at the NTDP generally consists of adjusting the rigors of the USHL schedule. As a team of 16- and 17-year-olds, the NTDP Under-17 Team faces much more experienced lineups each game and players who are as old as 20, with up to three or four years of league experience already. Unlike other teams across junior hockey, they don’t have those veteran players to rely on in tough situations – they are essentially a all-rookie USHL squad.
“They end up having more success in Year 2 (the under-18 year) when they can let their skill come out a little more,” Fohr said. “The U17 Team is younger, and you almost feel sometimes that you sneak one by a team because it’s the U17 Team, and other teams can get a little bit sleepy. In Year 2, that definitely flips. We sense the intensity really quickly that other teams bring when they play us.”
A team coming through the NTDP will have the same coach for both years in Plymouth. Fohr, after being promoted to head coach at the start of last year, has moved with the 2006 birth-year class from the U17 Team to the U18 Team this fall. It’s a transition he knows well, however, as a longtime assistant coach with the program.
“It’s always interesting to see the differences in the players,” Fohr said. “They gain so much strength and confidence over the first year and through the summer. Some of them go home looking like boys, and they come back looking like men. It’s always an exciting part of the two-year process. We’re off-and-running and trying to keep guys at the high pace we want to practice at.”
Fohr estimated that the players on this year’s team gained 18 pounds of muscle on average from the beginning of last year to this year, making them much more suited to take on the older competition. It also allows the coaching staff to expand on the basics of the systems they put in place last season now that each player knows what to expect over the USHL schedule.
“They do their part by getting bigger, faster and stronger,” he said. “We will get into making the systems a little more thorough and tighten things down. Last year, it was trying to get them to understand the concepts: ‘your job is to get back and stop here. Here’s your general area to defend.’ This year, we’ll start to get more involved in the detail: ‘now that you understand what you’re supposed to do, let’s take it to the next level – move them to this area of the rink, don’t let them get here.’”
Over the summer, the coaches tend to be hands-off. The players know how important the second year is with Team USA, as most of the team will be first-year draft eligibles. The USHL annually is one of the NHL’s top-scouted leagues, and it’s common to see the list of drafted players from the NTDP reach double-digits. But Fohr knows that there’s more than just hockey at stake for this team.
“When they left [at the end of last year], I told them that this is really the last summer they have before they leave for good,” Fohr said. “It’s their last summer with their mom, dad and everyone else. Next summer, they’ve got the NHL Combine, the Draft, and team development camps. They’ve got colleges where they have to start taking classes. So this is it – enjoy your summer. I try to stay out of the way to allow them to do that.”
Managing Expectations
USA Hockey has enjoyed some high-profile success at recent NHL Entry Drafts. In the last five drafts alone, 21 first-round picks have come from the NTDP Under-18 Team. That makes Fohr a valuable resource for all of his players, beyond just his role as a coach. He has been involved with many of these players, some of whom are NHL superstars today.
“I really do rely on that a lot,” he said. “I have examples of when Auston Matthews was here, or Zach Werenski, Quinn Hughes or Charlie McAvoy. That’s good for the high-end guys that are thriving and doing well. I think they like those stories, it’s something they can utilize for themselves.”
“It’s not easy for everyone here, though,” Fohr continued. “It’s hard and some guys can struggle. To have stories of a guy like Matthew Tkachuk, who struggled here in his first year and didn’t come into his own until Year 2 – it’s nice to be able to tie to those players and realize that they’re not alone, this isn’t the first time this has happened.”
An example like Tkachuk should be eye-opening for any young player. The pressure of playing in front of scouts is certainly immense, and wondering how a slump is affecting future opportunities could weigh heavily. But there’s nobody in the hockey world still thinking of how Tkachuk performed with the NTDP Under-17s after he lit the NHL on fire this year and became one of the breakout stars of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“All these kids, that ‘alone’ feeling can be really hard,” Fohr said. “A lot of them have moved away from home for the first time, and they move into billet families which is great, but their mom and dad aren’t there every day. There can be a lonely feeling at times. To understand that piece of it is really crucial.”
The coaching staff is also responsible for managing the hype around the team. There are no shortage of scouts in any USHL building, but Team USA certainly draws their share. Some of that is due to location – with seven college teams, two USHL teams, two OHL teams, a bevy of youth programs and an airport 20 minutes away, Michigan is a great base for an amateur scout. But the high-profile nature of the top players on the team usually draws scouts, assistant general managers and sometimes general managers to USA Hockey Arena, especially for teams expecting to pick high in the first round.
“The players see all the rankings,” Fohr said. “Rankings come out all the time, that stuff’s in their face a lot. We try to talk to them about not being distracted – they have to learn how to manage expectations for the draft. We try to get out in front of it and keep them focused on the day-to-day. We talk a lot about being present where you are, to soak in each day here.
“The Draft is just a snapshot in time. Yeah, it’s cool if you can get drafted in the first round. None of it really means a whole lot. Everybody that you talk to who’s been through it says, ‘man, the real work didn’t start until after I got drafted.’ It’s something we discuss with our guys a lot, and they all get more and more comfortable with it as the year goes.”
Players to Watch
There are always risks in anointing any player of anything at this point in the hockey calendar. A lot can change from September until June when players start marching across the stage at the NHL Entry Draft. But the hype is high already for several players on Team USA, including a few who were called up to the Under-18 Team from the Under-17 Team last season. Cole Eiserman scored 43 goals in 42 games across all competitions last season, and the Newburyport, Mass., native has found himself generally ranked near the top of 2024 draft lists.
“Cole is such a driven scorer,” Fohr said. “He’s as good of a scorer as I’ve seen come through here in 13 years. It’s just natural for him. There’s an ‘it factor,’ and he has it. It’s really cool to see on a daily basis. He’s just so driven to score, and he’s so good at it.”
The other top scorer on last year’s Under-17 Team, James Hagens, is actually not draft-eligible until 2025 due to his late birthday. However, the product of Nauppauge, N.Y. but has drawn equally impressive reviews from the hockey community.
“James is such a high-energy player,” Fohr said. “He makes his teammates better all around the rink. He can see the ice so well – his vision, his skating, his edges, and he has a little bit of an edge to him. He’s a lot of fun to coach. Like all the best kids that come through here, he wants to get better. They all want to be the best, and they’re driven to constantly work and get better. It’s pretty fun to watch [Eiserman and Hagens] specifically do that.”
A standout pair of defensemen, Cole Hutson (Chicago, Ill.) and Will Skahan Woodbury, Minn.), are also commonly listed among current first-round rankings for next summer’s draft. Fohr had complimentary things to say about each of them, even though their styles differ greatly.
“They’re really polar opposites,” Fohr said. “Hutson is a very shifty offensive defenseman. He makes a lot of really smart plays. He sends a lot of deception to the opposing team, which makes it really hard to defend him. His vision is great – finding teammates, finding lanes, making lanes open up. He’s a really special player.
“Will’s very different. He’s big – he’s 6’4”, strong, defensive and a hard-nosed type of kid that can move pucks up to the forwards. He plays a little bit more of a simple and defensive-minded game. In the end, everyone in the NHL loves that because they all need those guys.”
Of local note, there are three Michigan natives on the Under-18 Team roster. Dakoda Rheaume-Mullen, a Northville native, is a defenseman committed to the University of Michigan, while a pair of forwards are committed to Michigan State in Austin Baker (White Lake) and Lucas Van Vliet (Livonia).
Forward Kristian Epperson of Mequon, Wisc., is a verbal pledge to the University of Michigan, as well, giving Michigan fans two players to watch on the roster.
Meanwhile, Michigan State has the commitments of Pittsburgh native Christian Humphreys and St. Louis native Shane Vanasaghi. Despite already checking in at 6-foot-2 and 188 pounds, Vanasaghi is another late birth-year skater who is not eligible for the NHL Draft until 2025.
Asked if Fohr may have another Tkachuk on his hands who will soon make the same climb up the draft rankings, Fohr thinks there probably is. But there’s a long season ahead, and he’d understandably rather keep the hype at bay and let his players prove themselves on the ice.
“It’s hard to single anyone out yet,” he said. “There hasn’t been enough time. There’s always somebody who [rises up the draft rankings]. I have a couple of frontrunners, but I’ll keep them to myself for now. It’ll be interesting to see as the year goes on how those guys take steps forward.”
Despite the additional spotlight the Team USA status may bring, Fohr knows there’s a long road ahead, which all starts this weekend in Pennsylvania. The NTDP Under-18 Team already knows they’ll end the season playing for a gold medal at the World Under-18 Championship, held this year in Finland, but first have a daunting USHL slate and exhibition games against the likes of Michigan, Michigan State, Boston University and North Dakota to contend with. It’s a unique schedule that provides a unique stage for Team USA’s players.
“We love it, honestly,” Fohr said. “Everyone wants to win, but we’re really here to drive these kids and make them better. We do it daily in practice, and we get to go do those things in a game against kids from around the country – and world, with how many international kids play in the USHL. They really push our team hard. It’s a good test for our guys, it really helps harden them as we go through the process and try to lead to an Under-18 World Championship at the end.”
