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Scouting America There was a time when seeing an American player drafted was as rare as ice in Tahiti. But over the years, American players have steadily improved in the rankings, opening up another vein of talent for NHL teams and more roads to travel for the team's scouts. Fifty-nine American teenagers were selected at the 2003 Entry Draft, including seven in the first round. Among them was Brian Boyle, one of three first-round picks of the Los Angeles Kings and one of four players taken from St. Sebastian's, a prep school in Needham, Mass. The Kings aren't looking for Boyle to help them immediately. They're happy he's planning to attend Boston College, where they expect he'll show continued improvement playing against older, but not necessarily bigger, players. For when Boyle hits the NHL, he'll hit it hard. The defenseman stands 6-foot-6 and 225 pounds prior to his freshman season.
Boyle is illustrative of the options for American hockey players who comprised 14 percent of last year's opening-day lineups, 93 of the 714 players. Prep schools and juniors As an attractive hockey prospect, Boyle was lured from the public-school system to a quality prep school famed for its educational advantages, plus a longer hockey schedule than the public schools. Boyle and other talented Americans have other options while still in the high-school age bracket. Prep schools throughout the northern tier of the United States vie for talent. Top Catholic high schools like Matignon, Arlington Catholic, Boston College High and Catholic Memorial dominate Eastern Massachusetts hockey, while former public-school champions like Walpole, Norwood, Newton, Melrose and Needham have slipped. Some high-school players with NHL aspirations feel that even the prep schools don't give them enough games and sufficient opposition to hone their skills so they leave the United States to play junior hockey in the three Canadian Hockey Association leagues, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the Ontario Hockey League and the Western Hockey League. Others, wishing to retain NCAA eligibility, opt for American junior hockey leagues in New England and the Midwest or Tier II hockey in Canada. "There are two unfortunate scenarios for players in the Canadian major junior leagues," said NHL Central Scouting Service scout Gary Eggleston. "Once drafted, they must be signed within two years. A high-school kid has four years and the Europeans never have to do anything. The NHL teams can let the European play in the elite leagues until he's ready for the NHL. The major junior kids have to make it quick or fall by the wayside. The Canadian college teams are dotted with former major junior players who decided they'd be better off going to college. It's good to see in some respects, but given the proper opportunity they might have made it eventually. The deck is stacked against them in that regard." Forty-four American 16- and 17-year-olds are in the residential U.S. National team development program in Ann Arbor, Mich., playing a lengthy schedule against Junior A, college and international teams. From this group, USA Hockey selects the core of the team for the World Junior Championships. Danville Wings GM Josh Mervis of the United State Hockey League, a 12-team Midwestern circuit, pulls no punches in his insistence that playing in the USHL or staying is school is a better route than Canadian major junior. A graduate of St. Thomas College in Minnesota, he's done graduate work at Northwestern University and the University of Maine, where he was an assistant coach to the late Shawn Walsh. He has his teaching certificate and coaching-instruction certifications from both USA Hockey and the Canadian Hockey Association. His father, Lou, graduated magna cum laude from Indiana and spent 17 years on the Illinois Board of Education. Wings players have won USA Hockey's Community Service award the last five years running.
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