With just over three weeks to go until this year's Young Stars tournament kicks off in Penticton, it's worth reviewing how NCAA amateur-status rules impact player participation in NHL training camps.
The short version: it's forbidden.
Because of their ongoing commitment to U.S. colleges, we won't see goaltender Thatcher Demko or tantalizing 2015 first-rounder Brock Boeser on the ice at the South Okanagan Events Centre, or at the Canucks main training camp.
Both players were at the prospects camp at Shawnigan Lake earlier this summer, though Demko did not take part in on-ice activities as he recovers from hip surgery.
Under the terms of their amateur status, they were required to play their own way. From
CollegeHockeyInc.com:
Q: Can I attend a testing session with an NHL team and retain my college eligibility?
A: NCAA regulations allow student-athletes (or prospective student-athletes) to take part in one testing or tryout session per NHL team, at the team's expense, for up to 48 hours. An exception is if a player takes part in the NHL Draft Combine or the NHL Research and Development Camp - those events are considered tryouts for all 30 teams. A player could participate in another tryout beyond those events, but would need to pay his own way.
Q: Can I attend an NHL team's summer development camp?
A: NCAA prospects or current players may attend NHL summer development camps, or prospect camps, but must pay their own way (transportation, lodging, food, etc.) and current players may not miss class to do so.
There is an opportunity, similar to the 48-hour rule (see above), to have an NHL team pay a portion of a player's stay at development camp on a one-time-per-team basis. The 48-hour period begins when you arrive at the team's facility and ends exactly 48 hours later. While in attendance the team can supply you with expenses that include travel, hotel, food, equipment, and all costs associated with practice and off-ice training. A player would have to cover all costs after that 48-hour period, including return transportation home.
The fall semester at Boeser's University of North Dakota starts next week, on August 24, so that's when he locks into college life—with the possible exception of World Juniors.
Boeser's basically in the same position that the Detroit Red Wings' Dylan Larkin was in last season. After being drafted 15th overall in 2014, Larkin did not participate in the Red Wings' prospects camp or training camp. He spent the 2014-15 season at Michigan.
He did play as an amateur for Team USA at the 2015 World Junior Championships over the Christmas season and at the World Championships in Prague last spring, where he won a bronze medal as part of the American squad.
After the World Championships, Larkin signed his three-year entry-level contract with the Detroit Red Wings and immediately joined the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins for the Calder Cup playoffs. Larkin just turned 19 in July, so he won't be AHL-eligible for the upcoming season—he'll be trying to grab a full-time spot on the Red Wings.
Bottom line: the Canucks will still ice a very intriguing lineup in Penticton. We'll get a chance to gauge the progress of players like Jake Virtanen, Hunter Shinkaruk, Brendan Gaunce, Cole Cassels, Jordan Subban and hopefully Jared McCann if he's recovered from that head shot he took in the World Junior Summer Showcase series.
But we won't see Boeser or Demko, who will be preparing for their upcoming seasons at the University of North Dakota and Boston College, respectively.
A goalie like Demko will take longer to develop. He's entering his junior year at B.C. But there's a good chance that a blue-chipper like Boeser will take a similar path to Larkin's, leaving college after a year or two when he's basically assured that he'll be able to step straight into the NHL.
Insight from Mike Futa Into Developing Young Players
I came across
this interview over the weekend by Josh Cooper over at Puck Daddy with the Los Angeles Kings' vice president of hockey operations and director of player personnel Mike Futa.
Futa's name was in the mix last spring when the Canucks were conducting their search for a new general manager, but the Kings declined to give him permission to interview for the position—instead, offering him a promotion and a raise. Add those incentives to two Stanley Cup wins, and it's easy to see why Futa chose to stay put.
The Kings have also established a very strong development system that, it's hoped, will allow them to keep re-stocking their roster without having to go into rebuild mode for the foreseeable future.
Anyone who watched L.A.'s farm team, the Manchester Monarchs, roll over the Utica Comets in last spring's Calder Cup final would be impressed with the talent that has been assembled and how it's deployed.
The whole interview's a good read—Futa's very candid.
In terms of the Canucks and their prospects, I was most interested to hear him say that, knowing they won't be drafting high, the Kings scout with player development in mind:
We have been fortunate that way that we as a group go into rinks and we look for things now that we like, if we covet, whether it be hockey sense, or character or NHL assets. And then you look at things and areas of game that need improvement, we have such a good feeling for what our development team can fix. So we’re more looking for kids that are willing to fix and willing to put in the work because we know the synergy we have with our development teams is off the charts as far as what they can bring and the different parts of the game they can improve upon.
That being said if we look at kids where maybe puck protection is a bit of an issue or their release is a bit of an issue, we just know our development team is going to step in and take charge and I think that’s incredible.
I'm not sure if our new regime is at the stage yet where it can pinpoint specific weaknesses that it thinks it can develop at the minor-league level, but Futa's comments offer a very precise insight into how a team becomes successful at re-stocking itself with draft picks.
This has been a problem for the Canucks over the past decade. As NHL.com's Arpon Basu pointed out on Twitter today:
A few other Canucks draft picks are still in the NHL: Jordan Schroeder and Kevin Connauton from 2009, Cody Hodgson from 2008, Michael Grabner from 2006 and Mason Raymond from 2005.
But compare that with the list of players that the Kings have developed into NHLers since Futa joined the team as co-director of amateur scouting in 2007:
2012: Tanner Pearson
2011: Andy Andreoff, Nick Shore
2010: Tyler Toffoli
2009: Brayden Schenn, Kyle Clifford, Linden Vey, Jordan Nolan
2008: Drew Doughty, Slava Voynov, Andrei Loktionov
2007: Thomas Hickey, Wayne Simmonds, Alec Martinez, Dwight King
L.A. wasn't doing too badly in the two years before Futa arrived, either:
2006: Jonathan Bernier, Trevor Lewis
2005: Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Quick
Canucks fans can only hope that the foundations that Trevor Linden and company are putting in place for the Canucks organization can yield such impressive rewards in the years to come.
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