What happened to the little defensemen from Dexter who went out to the USHL? It was his draft year wasn't it? Did he get drafted?

Most undersized D don't get drafted, though they do get signed as free agents, you should remember that when your kid is pumping gas into that kids car.

I'm pretty sure he'll either be serving me pints or running skills for my grand kids...

You sound like a happy person. Anonymously making fun of teanagers is cool.

Yup, wouldn't be the dboard without disgruntled dads rooting against everyone else except their own kid. And we wonder why kids have no concept of team anymore.

I think I know who you're talking about, whatever. I was working for two Jr. teams a few years ago one in the US and one in Canada and I went out to see a kid play. The kid I went to go see got maybe three or four shifts the entire game while this kid took as many as he wanted - I think he told the coaches when he was going to go onto the ice, no lie. A big liability on the ice and underwhelmed for sure but a bigger question was how do these high school coaches coach? How often can primadonnas tell H.S. coaches when they will take to the ice?

The last time I checked there was, aaaaaaaah one Tory Krug

I do think many youth and high school coaches are now caught up in the four man attack that they see the pros utilizing and they think it translates to the younger game so they force it.

A couple problems with it is you then need 3-4 responsible defensemen to cover for the little misplaced centermen that is now a 'defensemen' and he's skating all over the ice. Most teams have a hard time finding two ultra responsible defensemen let alone 3-4 and what do you do when one of them is in the penalty box? Put the misplaced centermen out on the P.K.?

The other is the little June Bug puck carrying 'defensemen' who floats deep into the offensive zone and into the corners. Well now you have him in essence working the corners at both ends of the ice and it becomes a durability factor as well. If he get's the tar beat out of him all game who is to say it will last?

Also the difference in the pros and high-end college is what they are trying to do by having a four man attack is to move the defense from a zone to man-to-man to create mismatches (big D puck carrier now getting a usually smaller wing or center) to try to stop them. No kiddie team or high school team is able to switch-up offensive schemes (kids don't have all of the skills) so at the younger level you need to teach and maintain position play.

Look what happened when the kid switched high schools the school he left was 1000% better off with kids that played their roles & positions. Bigger, longer reach, responsible defensemen that can move the puck (willingly) will ALWAYS produce better results until the players & systems can get more adaptable. Teach the game and play the game the way it was meant to be played....there's plenty of time later on to introduce blind risk taking and selfishness.

Blind risk taking and selfishness? Let me guess, your guy is both unskilled, huge and slow?

You're no spring chicken yourself are you? Sound stuck in the 70's. FYI: as much as we all loved him for everything he accomplished and stood for, the game has evolved and there isn't any room for the next Terry O'Reilly.