USHL Fall Classic Draws Scouts to Chicago as Players Embrace High-Stakes Spotlight

CHICAGO – At the USG Arena within the Chicago Blackhawks training facility on Wednesday, the Green Bay Gamblers faced the Sioux City Musketeers.

While the teams played, the arena was filled with people wearing quarter-zips and puffer vests adorned with various college logos. It was not a typical USHL crowd because this was not a typical USHL game.

The Musketeers, who won 8-3, and the Gamblers were playing in the USHL’s Fall Classic, an event that gathers all teams into one city for two games each. Now in its 25th year, the Classic also serves as a venue for scouts to evaluate USHL players and identify promising prospects early in the season. Youth teams also participate in a tournament in nearby rinks as part of the event.

“It draws a lot of attention from the highest levels of the game. You have every NHL team here. You have every college team here at the Division I level, so that really matters for us,” said Glenn Hefferan, the USHL commissioner. “When the youth players come through this building and they see all of this, they realize, ‘Oh wow, the USHL is really about advancing us as players.’”

This is the first year Chicago is hosting the event. The Blackhawks recently expanded their facility to add rinks, lounges, concessions, and the 2,000-seat USG Arena.

The Fall Classic is the first large event hosted at the four-rink facility. Every USHL player is getting the chance to play down the hall from where Patrick Kane is training and walk by memorabilia celebrating Chicago’s six Stanley Cup wins.

“It gets me fired up seeing all the [Stanley Cup] stuff and all that. Especially growing up watching them, just cool to be around the stadium and all see all that,” said Drew Fox, a Muskegon Lumberjack forward from Hickory Creek, Texas.

Since USHL teams are spread across the Midwest, Chicago is easier to travel to. Scouts told Hefferan that the size of the facility also makes their job easier.

“There’s a lot more scouts here because they know there’s room,” Hefferan said. “That matters to them. They want to be comfortable when they do their work. They want to be able to leave their seat and come back and have a seat to go to when they come back. Having the capacity here makes a big difference.”

Providing a place where scouts can get a good look at up-and-coming players is a key part of the USHL’s mission, as the league aims to develop players for the next level of play, whether that is college or the NHL.

The league has succeeded on that front, boasting 185 alumni on NHL opening-night rosters at the beginning of the 2025-26 season.

Hefferan said he hears from collegiate and NHL coaches that USHL alumni arrive at the next level ready to play.

“This is hard what we do here, but it’s very methodical. You play Friday, Saturday, you’re off Sunday. You train Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Friday, you’re back at it,” Hefferan said. “There’s no junior league that practices more than we do in their home building. We get them ready.”

Playing in front of an arena full of scouts is another way the USHL pushes its players to be ready for the more pressure-filled games they hope to play in as their hockey careers continue.

“From a pressure situation, every NHL team is here,” Hefferan said. “Every college team is here, in some cases two or three times over, and they see every guy or gal with a piece of paper and a pen. They’re taking notes, and they’re taking notes about them. That is pressure.”

But for players who have collegiate and professional hockey dreams for their future, this scenario is giving them exactly what they want.

“It’s a dream come true. Honestly, just getting the notice from everyone and just like being a part of a team here. It’s really cool,” said Aiden Janz, a forward for Muskegon from Northville, Michigan. “Culture is definitely a really important part of the league. There’s a lot of teams with good culture, and so Muskegon’s got a great culture here. It’s just having fun with the game as well. It’s a very important part of it.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.