USHL Fall Classic Gives Youth Players a Front-Row Seat to Their Potential Future
CHICAGO — The Windy City hosted hockey at every level this past weekend.
At the Blackhawks Ice Center on the city’s near west side, the Chicago Blackhawks prepared for the upcoming NHL season. Down the hall, the USHL kicked off its season with the Fall Classic, a chance for every USHL team to get in two games in front of NHL and college scouts.
Meanwhile, at seven different ice rinks around Chicago’s suburbs, the USHL’s Fall Classic youth tournaments brought in more than 100 teams.
These tournaments come with an extra perk: Many of the youth players aspire to play in the USHL, but their busy schedules make it hard to actually get to a USHL game. Therefore, the league brought players to the Fall Classic so they can see the next level of hockey in person and perhaps envision a path to one day play in the USHL themselves.
“A lot of youth players nowadays aspire to play in the USHL, but have never seen a USHL game,” said Frank Butler, the USHL’s senior director of player personnel. “In conjunction with our season kicking off for the USHL, we provide this opportunity to run a youth tournament where the kids can come out and play really good competition with kids from all over the country, and then they can get to a USHL game and see the level of competition and experience. Every NHL team’s scouts are there, every college team’s scouts are there. It’s a cool experience, and it’s twofold where they get to see the competition and how good the players are in our league.”
Youth players get a chance to see a possible future in the USHL, and in some cases, they see former teammates playing at the next level. Muskegon’s Drew Fox and Aiden Janz and Sioux City’s Dominik Bednar all played in the youth tournament last season, and their former teammates were able to watch them play and cheer them on.
“This is the fourth year there’s kids playing in the Fall Classic,” Butler said. “Bednar is playing for Sioux City. He was playing with Seacoast Performance Academy last year, and they come to all of our events. They’ve been to the Fall Classic numerous years. He had a really good day [on Thursday] and ended up scoring a hat trick. Some of the guys came and supported him. It’s cool to kind of see players work their way up the developmental pipeline.”
The Fall Classic is also an important weekend for the youth players looking to make the move to the USHL, as scouts for every team attend the youth games with an eye on prospects.
It’s also a trip to Chicago for busy hockey families, and Butler hopes they make the most out of it.
“We lose sight of a little bit, but it’s still an experience, right?” Butler said. “Not every day a kid gets to come out to Chicago.”
Butler coaches a youth hockey team, and some of his players enjoyed going to a Cubs game last week.
“There’s so much to do in Chicago, so making sure we’re here for hockey and it’s important, but enjoy the experience as well. For some families, this is a dad and his son or a mother and her son coming out to Chicago, that’s a neat little bond that people lose sight of a little bit. Enjoy the moment. Don’t worry about the wins and losses. Just enjoy the experience and play hard and play good competition.”
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
