Thursday, January 19, 2012

NAHL Top Prospects coaches, team breakdown announced

Press Release

The North American Hockey League (NAHL) has announced the number of players that will represent each team at next month’s NAHL Top Prospects Tournament, presented by Combat Hockey, which will be held from February 20-22, 2012 at the Troy Sports Center in Troy, Michigan, along with the teams’ coaches.

The number of players each NAHL team can to send to the tournament, in which five teams from each division: Central, Midwest, North, South, West and a special sixth NAHL 18U Selects team, will each play three games, is based on each team’s winning percentage within their division as of January 16, 2012.?

In the Central Division, the Bismarck Bobcats (.847) will send five players, the Alexandria Blizzard (.676) will send four, the Austin Bruins (.611) and Aberdeen Wings (.554) will each send three and the Minot Minotauros (.135) will send two. The head coach of the Central team will be Layne Sedevie from the Bismarck Bobcats and the assistant will be Doc DelCastillo from the Alexandria Blizzard.

In the Midwest Division, the Janesville Jets (.770) will send five players, the St. Louis Bandits (.694) will send four, the Springfield Jr. Blues (.432) and Coulee Region Chill (.388) will each send three and the Chicago Hitmen (.222) will send two. The head coach of the Midwest team will be Dane Litke from the Janesville Jets and the assistant will be Jeff Brown from the St. Louis Bandits.

In the North Division, the Port Huron Fighting Falcons (.688) will send five players, the Kalamazoo Jr. K-Wings (.629) will send four, the Traverse City North Stars (.578) and Michigan Warriors (.474) will each send three and the Jamestown Ironmen (.417) will send two. The head coach of the North team will be Bill Warren from the Port Huron Fighting Falcons and the assistant will be Marc Fakler from the Kalamazoo Jr. K-Wings.

In the South Division, the Amarillo Bulls (.838) will send five players, the Topeka RoadRunners (.684) and Texas Tornado (.675) will each send four, the Corpus Christi IceRays (.528), Odessa Jackalopes (.414) and Wichita Falls Wildcats (.355) will each send three and the New Mexico Mustangs (.351) will send two. The head coach of the South team will be Dennis Williams from the Amarillo Bulls and the assistant will be Scott Langer from the Topeka RoadRunners.

Finally, in the West Division, the Fairbanks Ice Dogs (.681) will send five players, the Alaska Avalanche (.663) will send four, the Wenatchee Wild (.647), Kenai River Brown Bears (.578) and Fresno Monsters (.556) will each send three and the Dawson Creek Rage (.237) will send two. The head coach of the West team will be Trevor Stewart from the Fairbanks Ice Dogs and the assistant will be Corey Millen from the Alaska Avalanche.

All NAHL players are eligible to participate in the Top Prospects Tournament, regardless if they’ve committed to an NCAA school. Each of the teams will consist of a 20-man roster (12 forwards, 6 defensemen, 2 goaltenders), with minor player divisional crossover amongst the six teams. Top Prospects rosters for all teams will be formerly announced on Tuesday, January 24th at 11am (cst) on nahl.com and nahltopprospects.com.

In conjunction with the NAHL Top Prospects Tournament, all North American Prospects Hockey League (PHL) teams - Midget Major, Midget Minor and Bantam Major - will compete in the PHL Championship Tournament Series for the right to be crowned league champions. That event will run from February 17-20, also at the Troy Sports Center in Troy, Michigan.

The North American 3 Hockey League (3HL) will also have representation at the Top Prospects Tournament, as eight of the league’s 16 teams (Battle Creek, Cleveland, Flint, Metro, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Queen City and Toledo) will play four regular season games from February 19-22 at the Troy Sports Center in Troy, Michigan.

For more information on the NAHL Top Prospects Tournament, visit http://www.nahltopprospects.com/.

To view the 2012 NAHL Top Prospects schedule, click here.

For more information on the NAPHL, visit http://www.naphl.com/.

For more information on the NA3HL, visit http://www.na3hl.com/.

(Nathan can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

in the five team divisions the number of players allowed only adds up to 17 and they say that each team has 20. 12 forwards, 6 D and 2 goalies