The Growth of USA Hockey: An Overview

Over the past week we've been taking a look at the growth of hockey in the United States, and the number of places that are starting to produce players. It's a great time for American hockey, and when you look around the NHL, you see a large number of young, top-line players (Patrick Kane, Zach Parise, Ryan Miller, Ryan Suter, Phil Kessel, etc.), while the national team has had tremendous success on the international stage, earning a silver medal at the 2010 Olympics, while the junior team took home gold during the 2010 World Junior Championships.

The 2010 NHL draft saw a record-tying 10 American-born players go in the first round (plus defenseman Cam Fowler, who has dual citizenship with the U.S. and Canada) and 59 overall.

It wasn't that long ago that just about every American-born player was from either Michigan, Minnesota, Buffalo or Boston. Today? They're coming from all over, traditional markets, non-traditional markets, and everywhere in between.

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Earlier this summer I had an opportunity to chat with Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Ray Shero, who is also a part of the USA National Hockey Team Advisory Group, and asked him about the growth of the game.

"Kids are coming from everywhere and I think that has to do with expansion and where the game has grown. ... It's great for USA hockey, and the growth of USA hockey over the past 10-15 years has been dramatic."
-- Ray Shero "I've got a couple of kids in youth hockey and they're playing teams from California, Phoenix and Georgia, and of course Minnesota and Michigan, Boston," said Shero. "But these other pockets, so much of this has to do with expansion of hockey. You look back to '67 when we expanded to 12 teams, when we got the L.A. market, and of course Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Kids are coming from everywhere and I think that has to do with expansion and where the game has grown. It takes some time to see the benefits and see the kids from California, like a Beau Bennett, he actually played a lot of roller hockey growing up. It's great for USA hockey, and the growth of USA hockey over the past 10-15 years has been dramatic."

Prior to taking over the hockey operations in Pittsburgh, Shero spent eight years in the Nashville Predators front office and saw first-hand how much impact the game can have, and used Blake Geoffrion, the 2010 Hobey Baker Award winner (college hockey's answer to the Heisman Trophy) and Nashville native, as an example.

"I was in Nashville for eight years and we saw programs that came down to that area," he said. "When I was down there I remember Blake Geoffrion as a kid. Blake was growing up in Nashville and the next thing you know he's going to Wisconsin, then he's getting drafted in the second round by Nashville, then he wins the Hobey Baker Award as the top college player, and now he just signed his first pro contract with the Predators. It's a great story."

Dirk Hoag runs the Nashville Predators blog On The Forecheck, and also talked about how the Predators have been a part of helping to further the game, including their GOAL (Get Out And Learn) program for kids age 4-7.

"Before the Predators came to Nashville, there were really just two rinks in the area," said Hoag via e-mail. "At the Municipal Arena, and a sports complex run by the city. If you search some of the articles about Blake Geoffrion when he signed his pro contract a couple months ago, he talks about what it was like back then, having team practices where two teams had to share the ice due to limited space. Once the Preds arrived, they added a practice rink to that complex, and a privately-run two-rink facility also opened out in the suburbs. With the Municipal Arena rink no longer used, that means we've pretty much got four sheets of ice in the Nashville area, and they're usually kept busy between youth league and adult recreational hockey."

And while that may not seem like a lot of rinks, it's certainly an improvement from the pre-NHL days, and as Hoag explained, there's hope for even more improvements in the near future.

"There's optimism moving forward for the hockey community here, as a new two-rink facility is due to open soon in Murfressboro (about 30 minutes southeast of Nashville), and the Preds' new CEO, Jeff Cogen, has talked a lot about his work in Dallas, which involved supporting the development of new facilities there. Another two to four sheets of ice strategically placed around town would fill up very quickly, and help the Nashville hockey crowd take a big step forward."

The NHL's expansion into these newer markets hasn't been without its share of critics, and while some of them may be viewed as failures, there's no question an impact has been made. It may not be an enormous impact (yet), but it's very real.

When looking at the number of prospects that are starting to emerge from places like California and Dallas, it's also hard to ignore. If you look at the 2009-10 rosters for the Under-18 and Under-17 US National teams you see players coming from Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and California, and it's unlikely you would be seeing that had it not been for the presence of the NHL.