Last years u17 team i was talking about
Ahhh gotcha, that makes more sense then. It was a rather poor performing team, so it does kind of make sense.
Cutting players after one season is not a very good look for the NTDP as they ask for two-year commitments from players with substantial penalties if players bolt.
Probably not, but it is what it is in a competitive hockey environment. I'm sure the dry spell with the U18s is weighing heavily on their minds. The probably don't want to roll into next season with a team that isn't very good if there are better players out there.
Truthfully, I'd like to see the U-17 team eliminated entirely and only keep the U-18 one.
The IIHF Rule (that is no doubt driven by Hockey Canada) about 2-years post age 12 to be eligible likely plays a bit of a role in it. Also the fact of high-end 16 year olds needing a spot to play and not wanting them to feel like they have to go to Canada.
There is a ton of development between the ages of 16 and 17 and many players are missed due to being late bloomers or a bit behind the curve. Have the best 16-year-olds play in the USHL or a cross between Prep/H.S. AAA and the USHL and then choose the best among them for the U-18 team the following year.
This is good in theory. In reality, most kids that don't make the USNTDP don't go into the USHL for their age 16 year and will stay in Prep/AAA. The USNTDP has been a good path for the "cream of the crop", while also being a disservice to the broader pool by pre-selecting the shining superstars when they are 15 and leading to a lot of inefficiency in putting a lot of resources into players that get passed up a year later.
I've said before, but if I were starting a system from scratch, I wouldn't go with the USNTDP model. The U.S. player pool is too broad right now that I don't think it's really necessary and it drains a lot of USA Hockey resources. It made a lot of sense when it first started because the state of Junior-aged Hockey in the U.S. was a hot mess and it really showed in the years that were being produced in that time (the crop that came after the prime-aged players in the WCOH in '96, but before the USNTDP aged players took off) which became somewhat of a lost generation (we're talking like Brian Rolston, Jay Pandolfo, Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta, Jamie Langenbrunner, Matt Cullen, Erik Cole are the best Forwards that you're churning out over a pretty long period of time).