This was a strong article from Allan Mitchell at The Athletic. He went about the audacious task of providing evidence that the USHL — not one of the members of the CHL — is now the best developmental league providing top-tier talent to the NHL. He looks at the number of players from various leagues on opening night rosters last year (the USHL was No. 1), the number of players selected in the 2023 NHL Draft (the combination of the USHL and the US Development Program produced the most players), recent NHL award winners, the number of players included in their Top 100 players rankings, and then the issue of whether or not scouts recognize the data and accept the reality (hint: they don’t — not yet).
This subject was fascinating to me because the USHL has been a focus in the two drafts managed by Kyle Davidson since he took over as the general manager of the Blackhawks. Davidson has drafted six players straight out of the USHL in the last two years: Oliver Moore, Adam Gajan and Martin Misiak in 2023 and Frank Nazar, Ryan Greene and Aidan Thompson in 2022. Add to them Sam Rinzel (went from high school to the USHL after his draft), Nils Juntorp (one season with Dubuque after his draft) and Dominic James (played in the USHL before moving on to the college ranks before the Blackhawks drafted him), and almost half of the Blackhawks’ 22 draft picks over the past two summers have been affiliated with the USHL at some point.
“What’s really neat is, when we started our foundation, Kyle wrote my wife a beautiful message on our website and said how thankful he was,” Foligno said. “It meant so much to us. It gave us encouragement of, ‘We’re doing the right thing here.’ Th🌜at was something yo🧸u don’t forget.”
