NAHL Showcase: The Heart of the League’s Core DNA
BLAINE, Minn. — This year marked the 11th time Bryan Erikson has coached the Northeast Generals at the NAHL Showcase.
With more than 300 NCAA and NHL scouts at the Showcase, Erikson is aware of the spotlight his players are under during the event. He emphasizes keeping it fun so they can play loose in a high-stakes early-season faceoff.
“The emotional gymnastics that these kids put themselves through is crazy,” Erikson said. “We try to tell them just try to win hockey games and not focus on all the other nonsense.”
All 36 NAHL teams traveled to the NSC Super Rink in Blaine for the annual Showcase, held Sep. 23-26. Each team played three regular-season games in front of hundreds of scouts and thousands of fans.
“It’s the Super Bowl of showcases in the beginning of the season,” NAHL commissioner Mark Frankenfeld said.
The league commissioner since 2007, Frankenfeld calls the showcase part of the league’s “core DNA” for helping players go to the next level. He emphasized the team owners’ investment in making the Showcase possible each year.
“The showcase costs money,” Frankenfeld said. “There’s gate revenue, there’s the teams traveling. But the whole goal is to bring these players under one roof and bring the scouts in.”
Scouts are seeing these teams in their developing stages where rosters are still taking shape.
For example, New Hampshire Mountain Kings head coach Cam Robichaud started a different goalie in all three games his team played during the showcase. The Mountain Kings also brought an extra forward and defenseman to the event and used different lineups in each game.
“We wanted to make sure that we had everybody fresh because it’s three games in three days, but also to kind of get a look at everybody before we had to make some decisions and get down to that 24-man roster,” Robichaud said.
New Hampshire went 3-0 during the event, as did the Lone Star Brahmas. Lone Star head coach Dan Wildfong said his players really benefit from the exposure, especially being geographically far from any Division I programs in Texas.
“It’s unbelievably important for these kids to get noticed, to get on a Division I list, to get on a Division III list,” Wildfong said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to get a commitment right away, but you get on that list, and they continue to follow you.”
Lone Star has a Division I commit in forward Vincenzo Capano, who committed to Army in February. Though his recruitment happened before the showcase, he gets what his teammates were going through mentally with hundreds of scouts watching.
“Everyone just has to play their game,” Capano said. “You can’t really worry about recruiting while you’re playing. You just have to do your best for the team.”
Fellow Lone Star forward Jackson Vaites has played in the showcase twice now, and he said it has helped him gain the attention of Division I schools. He also said facing teams from different regions allows for a change of pace.
“Especially playing down South and then playing teams from the East. You get to see different styles and different things that you have to overcome,” Vaites said.
For the scouts, it’s an ideal setup to see hundreds of hockey players in a four-day span. The Super Rink features eight hockey rinks, so scouts can see multiple games in a short amount of time, and Frankenfeld said the event is designed to give the scouts an easy-access opportunity to get a broad look at young talent across the country.
“They like the organization; they like the service; they like the information, they like the food; they like the amount of players,” Frankenfeld said.
This past weekend also won’t be the last trip to Blaine for a couple of teams. The NAHL will host the Robertson Cup Championship this upcoming May at Fogarty Arena, just south of the Super Rink.
“The only goal we have for the season is to get back to Minnesota,” Erikson said.
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
