Neutral Zone is pleased to announce that we will be hosting a live broadcast during the USHL Phase I and Phase II Drafts. This will be a live feed with several of our scouts talking about the drafted prospects to give both hockey professionals and hockey fans an inside look at this years talent pool.
“This year has been unprecedented because of the impacts of COVID-19 and it has effected each region a little differently,” said Brendan Collins Director of Scouting. “Despite that, our scouts have gone wherever hockey is being played and with our coverage this year complimented by previous years we feel confident in our preparation for both the Phase I and Phase II Drafts.”
The scouting staff had at least one scout covering each age group at USA Hockey Nationals, Minnesota State Tournament, Midget/Bantam showcases through the season from Arizona to Massachusetts and been thoroughly covering junior hockey. Brian Murphy, Vice President and Director of US Scouting, says there are two more stops on the scouting trail before publishing their 2005 Prospect Rankings. NZ will attend US NTDP Evaluation Camp in Plymouth, MI May 10-13 and USHL Combine in Green Bay, WI May 20-23rd and plan to release their Top 250 Prospects on May 24th; two days before the draft.
“We have a rough draft of our list but we are making tweaks and edits after just seeing these players at US Nationals in Texas and Missouri and then we’ll give a hard look at both NTDP Camp and USHL Combine before we release the final rankings,” said Murphy. “Our scouts have put in the work under difficult travel restrictions to get eyes on these prospects. Our depth of coverage is really showing in a year like this where admittedly some teams have told us their board only has 100 or some names on it while we’ve evaluated over 1,000 prospects for the 2005 birth year and over 5,000 prospects in the 2001-2004 birth years for Phase II.”
The Phase I Draft is exclusively 2005 birth years and goes for 10 rounds. The Phase II Draft is for birth years 2001-2005 and goes beyond 20 rounds. Historically speaking the Phase I USHL Draft is the teams future prospects; a combination of best-player-available mentality and likelihood of reporting to camp; no different than the CHL. The Phase II Draft is older prospects (typically) who can help your team right away. Some teams in the league spend more emphasis on the Phase I because they can get better prospects in that draft while others spend more resources on Phase II where they look to fill immediate holes and get prospects who can jump right in and make a difference.
There are a lot of question swirling this year with the upcoming draft. How will the NCAA’s decision to allow 5th year to players in the NCAA or the overwhelming list of players in the NCAA Transfer portal trickle down into USHL? Will the CHL, in particular the OHL, not having a season impact the USHL Draft? Will there be more selections out of Canada with the uncertainty of return to play or will there be less selections as shutdowns and restrictions have made it impossible to scout a large percentage of the player pool this season? Will the Chicago Steel’s success this year (and prior two years) impact some of the traditional norms of the draft as they lead the league in prep players and don’t have an active player from two of the biggest feeder markets in the USHL – Michigan and Illinois? NZ’s scouting staff will discuss these questions and many more in our Draft Coverage and take people behind the scenes of how scouting lists are put together, where these players come from and breakdown their game.
“Most players on the board whether it’s Phase I or Phase II we have been evaluating since bantams so we can provide historical perspective of how the player is trending and what they could potentially bring to the organization that drafts them,” said Murphy. “We’ll share stories from the road, we’ll provide some historical analytics on the draft and make it fun and informative.”
The USHL Phase I Draft will kick off on May 26th followed by the Phase II on May 27th.
