Whalers Fan
Go Habs!
There are pros and cons to each team. With the OHL, we were guaranteed to see elite level talent every season. In the past decade or so, we saw such players as Patrick Kane, Steven Stamkos, John Tavares, Taylor Hall, Connor McDavid and Aaron Ekblad playing for opposing teams, and had Tyler Seguin, Rickard Rakell, James Neal, Vincent Trocheck and others playing for the home team Whalers. There was also postseason play -- the Whalers qualified for the OHL playoffs for 25 straight seasons -- and much larger crowds. The arena has a capacity of about 3,500, and we would occasionally get over 4,000 people with standing room. For the NTDP, other than for a special event most nights the attendance is usually somewhere between 800 - 1,500.
With the NTDP, the program will sometimes have an elite talent like Patrick Kane, Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews or now Jack Hughes, but you do not see that type of elite talent on the opposing USHL teams -- that is the biggest difference between the OHL and USHL, IMO. The USHL gets a lot of its players drafted by the NHL, but rarely in the first round (other than from the NTDP). The 1st round is loaded with OHL players.
With the NTDP we do get to see players being developed for Team USA, which is very cool. The international tournaments are unique, as well. Since the program relocated here, it's hosted a 5 Nations tournament every season (sometimes U18, other times U17), two IIHF U20 World Showcase tournaments in August, and the IIHF Women's World Championship last spring. They are hoping to get the IIHF U18 World Championship here in the future, too.
USA Hockey has also invested a lot of money in the facility since purchasing it in early 2015. They built a multi-million dollar addition with modern training facilities, expanded and remodeled the locker rooms, spent $1 million for new boards and glass, updated the sound system and installed video replay screens.
Last edited:
