Quote:
Originally Posted by David Struch
Question:
What is the difference between the NCAA and the USHL?
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USHL is a Tier I hockey league, with player ages ranging from 16 to 20. Typical level of play is around the level of a Canadian Major Junior league like the WHL or QMJHL, although scoring tends to be lower because there are less 19 and 20 year old high-end scorers. In addition, a lot of the best US prospects play together for the US NTDP, so again the highest-end star talent tends to be diluted.
Since the USHL is considered an amateur league by the NCAA (the CHL - OHL/WHL/QMJHL - is considered a pro league), when high-end scorers are old enough to play college hockey, they usually get recruited to do so. So you had Gaudreau play in the USHL at age 17 and get recruited to play in the NCAA Division I at age 18. The NCAA, which is a college hockey league, is split up into divisions, but usually only Div I players make it to the pro level.
There are still twenty year olds in the USHL, but it's probably less culturally acceptable to take gap years to play hockey in the states than it is in Canada. Either way, you'll still have a guy like Joe Pavelski who played in the USHL at age 19 and then graduated to the NCAA at age 20. This tends to happen because a lot of US hockey players are only playing high school hockey through to age 17 or 18, and the USHL is a good stepping stone between high school hockey and college hockey.
In the case of the NCAA, typical player ages range from 20 to 25-ish. The 18 and 19 year olds who are successful are usually the really special NHL prospects, guys like McAvoy, Gaudreau, Eichel, Connor, Larkin, Toews. More typically younger players will be redshirted - which means they practice with the team but are basically healthy scratched until seniors graduate. A few quality young players are stuck in the limbo between redshirting and instant star status - that's where you have a guy like Jankowski in his teens who was playing some bottom six minutes but generally just treated differently from the graduating seniors in terms of ice time.
So on that note, because the NCAA is an older league, the younger guys who succeed are essentially succeeding against grown men. In the USHL and CHL, a successful player is playing well against his agegroup peers, but an 18 year old dominating the NCAA is usually doing so against physically mature 22, 23 year olds. For instance Garnet Hathaway and Austin Czarnik were both 22 years old in their senior years of college. Spencer Foo played half his senior year as a 23 year old.
But that's just the better players. How about a twenty year old graduating from the USHL who is entering his freshman year at 21? He's probably closer to "average age" than anything in the NCAA. In the USHL or CHL, the average age is probably closer to 18.
Finally the NCAA has only 35-40 games per season whereas the USHL has around 70. So players play more games in the USHL. It means more experience. But the flip side is that NCAA players have more off-time to spend in the weight room. This could help future professionals bulk up to be readier for the pro game. When Jankowski was drafted he weighted around 170lbs which at 6'4 made him a twig. He added around 40lbs during his four years of college hockey which I don't think would have been as easy to do playing a heavier schedule. But also means he is developmentally not as experienced as some of his age group peers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden
From what I understand the USHL is similar to the AJHL.
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The US equivalent to the AJHL would be the NAHL, which is the US Tier II league.