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Friday, August 21, 2009
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Players must pay price at Minnesota Hockey Camps Hockey By NATHAN BROWN Sports Writer The route for a fledgling hockey player to capitalize on his marginal chances of reaching the NHL vary as much as one player to the next.
Players have the opportunity to play four years of high school before playing in college. They can leave early and play in junior leagues. They can even attempt to play overseas before their ultimate goal is realized.
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Taking a break from training last week were former Brainerd Warrior Joey Frazer (left), former Little Falls standouts Jared Festler and Ben Hanowski and former Warrior Ryan Peltoma. The local players were participating in a training program through Minnesota Hockey Camps at Brainerd Area Civic Center. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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Despite the numerous decisions a player must make in their attempted route into the NHL one thing is certain - the only route that matters is the one filled with sacrifice, determination, and discipline.
Former St. Cloud State hockey standout and current Tampa Bay Lightning wing Ryan Malone had that concept ingrained into him as a teenager.
"My dad always told me sacrifice is the biggest thing," Malone said while participating in Minnesota Hockey Camps. "Some kids go on spring break and I'd have to go work out. During summer everyone is out on the lake, but here (at MHC) everyone is in (the gym) working out."
Malone, one of the regular faces at the Nisswa-based camp, was joined this season by four area high school standouts - Brainerd's Ryan Peltoma and Joey Frazer, and Little Falls' Ben Hanowski and Jared Festler - in preparation for their upcoming seasons.
"It's really exciting," Hanowski said of playing with NHL players, "but you try not to get too excited about it because you can get a little nervous when these guys are here. It's fun just to be able to play against those guys and see where you're at."
Hanowski, in his fourth year at the camp, is preparing to make the transition from high school, where he became Minnesota's all-time points leader (196 goals, 209 assists, 405 points), to Division I hockey at St. Cloud State.
"(Hanowski) had a great high school career, but high school compared to D-I is a huge step up," MHC strength and conditioning coach Joe Ciardelli said. "This is going to get him close to that."
Hanowski, drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins, has been pegged by NHL scouts as being a weak skater. But he has taken great strides at improving his skating in an attempt to ease the transition from high school to college.
"The knock on Hanowski is that his skating is not great," MHC hockey director Dean Grillo said. "We tested him so we knew that he wasn't (a bad skater). He had to bring it down some, but he was never as bad as people said he was."
At the beginning of the summer Hanowski took 3.39 seconds to race 50 feet from a dead stop. The average NHL player takes 3.33 seconds. After seven weeks of workouts, Hanowski dropped that time to 3.31.
In real time, 0.08 seconds is virtually insignificant, but on the ice it equates to covering roughly six feet of ice.
Festler, who made the transition from Little Falls to juniors to St. Cloud State last season, resonated the difference between high school and college players.
"It's definitely a grind," Festler said. "You play the same amount of games, but you pick it up four notches in speed and the guys are bigger. It's definitely a transition."
After playing 27 games as a freshman for the Huskies, Festler joined MHC this summer looking to improve on his freshman season, which he finished with seven goals and 10 assists.
"They told me (the camp) was hard," said Festler, who likens the camp to a full-time job, "but I had no clue how hard it was really going to be."
Frazer, a second-year player with the Medicine Hat Tigers of the World Hockey League, attributes the success he's had and his opportunity to play for the Tigers to the time he devoted to the camp.
"If I wouldn't have come to this camp," Frazer said, "I wouldn't be where I am with speed or playing in the WHL."
The bottom line that each of these players has learned is that it doesn't matter where you play, but how you practice that makes you better.
"You get what you put into (the camp)," Frazer said. "If you're willing to work, you're going to get a lot out of it."
"It's a grind," Hanowski said of the discipline and effort he's put in, "but you have to pay the price if you want to get where (Malone and those (NHL) guys are at."
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