The National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC) held its annual Futures Draft yesterday, in which teams were allowed to select players who will be of 16U age next year.
NCDC 2020 Futures Draft
Almost all payers selected were 2004 birth year kids, but there were some 2005 players also selected. Players born between 2001 and 2003 are eligible to be selected in the NCDC Entry Draft on May 15, 2020. As is the case with other leagues, being drafted or signing a tender only assigns a player’s rights to a specific team within that league. It does not bind a player to play or try out for that team or stay in that league.
As is tradition, the NCDC released the players in alphabetical order, by team, as opposed to the order the players were actually drafted.
As 12 organizations made picks it confirms that Rochester is no longer going to be part of the NCDC, and it plans to enter the 2020-21 season with the participating programs. The Philadelphia Hockey Club, as previously reports by TJHP, has purchased the Boston Bandits NCDC franchise and will begin play next year.
Forty-eight of the 72 players selected are currently at the AAA level. One player — Logan Ganz of the Affton Americans in Missouri — plays at the AA level and was drafted by the Connecticut Junior Rangers. The remaining 23 players are Prep/High School players in the Northeast.
The Junior Bruins, who have been the No. 1 or 2 team in the standings since Day One of the NCDC, continued its pattern of leaning toward prep/high school players by selecting seven of eight players from those ranks (they acquired two extra picks via trades). South Shore and Twin City both picked exclusively from the prep/high school pool.
A reminder that 2004 and 2005 birth year players who are already in organizations that have an NCDC team do not need to be drafted. They are already “organizational assets” of those organizations and their rights belong to their own NCDC team.
You can view the NCDC Futures Draft results here: NCDC FUTURES DRAFT
Jeff Nygaard is the editor of The Junior Hockey Podcast. He covers Junior and college-bound hockey as a traditional “beat,” in addition to breaking news stories during the course of the year.
He has a vast amount of experience on the business and organizational side of the sport as a former owner-operator of two Junior organizations two youth clubs and has served as executive director or commissioner of the Eastern Hockey League and the United States Premier Hockey League.
A Fergus Falls, Minn., native, Nygaard grew up playing for the Fergus Falls Youth Hockey Association, Fergus Falls High School, Fergus Falls Community College and North Dakota State University programs. He can be reached at info@juniorhockeyhub.com for questions, story ideas, and anonymous tips.
