In May of 1997 the Hartford Whalers owner, Peter Karmanos announced that the team would be moving their franchise to Raliegh, North Carolina. While moving an ice hockey team from…
Scouting Reports
Select 16 USA Development Camp Rankings
The Neutral Zone staff was on hand for the Select 16 National Development Camp in Buffalo, NY. We saw every game as well as the All Star Game and put together a comprehensive scouting report based on what we saw. The players are put in the order we saw fit, but we decided not
Dartmouth Lands Prep Standout: The Shea Courtmanche Story
Dartmouth has a long track record of recruiting in the New England Prep School market with verbal commitments from some of the top defenders in the league in Sean…
Jimmy Dowd Jr. Commits to Penn State
Jimmy Dowd Jr., the son of 17-year NHL veteran Jim Dowd, made his college commitment to Penn State this week. The talented puck moving defenseman out of the NJ…
USA Select 17 Development Camp Rankings
Every year our scouts attend the Select Festivals in Buffalo, NY as a chance to see all of the country’s best players (excluding NTDP) on the ice at the same time. It’s an opportunity for NHL, CHL, NCAA and junior scouts to see how the USHL players compare to the CHL players or how
Ben Thomas Commits to Union
Ben Thomas made the decision yesterday afternoon that he will play his college hockey at Union. He has been a top echelon forward in the New England Prep ranks for the past…
Peyton Cullaton Commits to Northeastern for 2019
Peyton Cullaton’s love for hockey began early while growing up in Colorado and watching her dad play professionally. No longer a 9-year old new to the game, Peyton recently…
The College Hockey Landscape: A Study of the 21-year-old Freshman
The Big 10 this past year found themselves in a contentious debate when they attempted to bring the maximum age of freshman in hockey to 20. The implications were…
Atlantic Development Camp Top 80 (99-01)
Neutral Zone staff were in attendance at the recent USA Hockey Atlantic District tryout camp held at the Flyers Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ. As a whole, our scouts reported sort of a mixed bag in terms of both the level of competition and performances by individual players.
Rush Showcase Review & Scouting Report
Neutral Zone’s women’s scouting staff made it to the Rush Showcase in Brampton, Ontario over the weekend of June 5 – 8, marking the start of the summer scouting…
Kayla Martinez Commits to Lindenwood
Neutral Zone had a chance to chat with recent 2018 Lindenwood University commit, Kayla Martinez. At 4-years old, Martinez began her skating career and recognition of her burgeoning…
Ponytail Tournament Report
Neutral Zone recently spent two full days at the Ponytail Tournament in Toronto (Vaughan), focusing on evaluating the top 2001, 2002 and 2003 birth year players at the event….
Ethan DeStefani commits to Merrimack
Merrimack added its first recruit to the 2019 recruiting class with a verbal commitment from Ethan DeStefani, a power forward from Bedford, New Hampshire. DeStefani has been on the radar…
Moncada signs with Guelph Storm
It is somewhat rare to see a third round draft pick sign with an OHL team in June, but for Luke Moncada and the Guelph Storm it was the right fit at the right time. Moncada brings a power game to the Storm, a big, strong two-way forward with a high compete level. We caught up with the 42nd overall pick and asked how he came to sign with Guelph.
Top 5 College Hockey Recruiting Classes for 2016
Neutral Zone has created an algorithm-based ranking system for college hockey recruiting, a description of which can be found under the Team Rankings tab. Every player committed to a D1…
Aidan Dudas signs with Owen Sound
Aidan Dudas, the 10th overall pick in this year’s OHL Draft, signed with the Owen Sound Attack this past week. In many ways Dudas is a beacon of hope…
NYS 2001 Player Development Camp Top 25
Neutral Zone attended the New York State Development Camp for the 2001 birth years. Players from around the state of New York come to try out for the National Development Camp in Buffalo, NY where they would play against the best players from around the United States. We have included a report on the top 25 players at the tournament and put them into alphabetical order. We did not have enough time to concentrate on the goaltenders so we evaluated the forwards and defensemen.
Flanagan returns to the ECAC behind the Cornell Bench
For anyone scouting in the Northeast, you know Sean Flanagan. A tireless worker who is at every rink watching every game. A former player at St. Lawrence, he has since…
Against the Grain: Inside Mittelstadt’s decision to return to Eden Prairie
More than at any other point in history, the hockey landscape facing today’s generation of amateur players is defined by an ultra-competitive, accelerated, and stop-at-nothing culture where players and…
Neutral Zone to Launch Women’s Hockey Scouting Website
April 2016 marked the official launch of Neutral Zone (https://neutralzone.com), a first-of-its-kind amateur hockey scouting website. Since the organization was formed over a year ago, Neutral Zone staff have…
Dylan Seitz signs with Kitchener
The Kitchener Rangers come south of the border to sign one of their late round draft picks from the previous year’s draft in Dylan Seitz. The gritty, two-way forward…