Interview With USHL Director Of Communications Brian Werger

We were fortunate enough to spend some time with Brian Werger, the Director of Communications, from the United States Hockey League. Brian started with the league in April of 2009 and gave us some background on the league that can be described as one of hockey’s best kept secrets.

What exactly is the USHL and what should someone expect who has never experienced the league.

You know, that’s the best question and that’s a question I had to answer myself when I came to this league. The USHL is basically the top junior league in the US. Its the only Tier I junior league in the US. It is a developmental league for the next level and we have nearly 200 kids in our league that are going to move on. We have kids that have Division I college scholarships and there’ll be some of the kids that will get drafted in the NHL. It really is a stepping stone for kids that want to move on in their careers.

Is there a benefit for a player that wants to play junior hockey to play in the USHL as compared to a Canadian junior hockey league?

Absolutely, we are NCAA protected so kids can play and develop their hockey skills and still have the option to go to college. Not to disparage Major Junior in Canada, but you have a kid that goes up there, he is making a decision at 13, 16, 17 at times that is going to affect the rest of his career, because once he steps on the ice in that league he is ineligible to play college hockey due to NCAA standards. We are really proud of the fact that protect these kids options that play in this league.

In the thirty years of the league’s existence, has the level of talent increased?

To be quite honest, the league has been in this form only since 2002. That is not to take anything away from people prior to that, 2002 was when USHL and USA Hockey worked together and that is when the USHL earned the recognition for it to be the only Tier 1 league. We are the only league that can meet the standards and have the policies in place to accommodate such a league. Since that time, the league was on its way to becoming iconic because we were putting kids in college and putting kids in the pros. But, in the past two, three, four years it has really grown to what it has become.

The level of talent that the league has cannot be understated. We tout ourselves as the pinnacle of the American development model and American hockey has really gotten better. We saw that in one of the crowning moments with the 2010 World Junior Championships. The American team won their first gold medal since 2004 and a former USHL player scored the winning goal in overtime. There are moments like that, that says hockey in the US is getting better and we are a big part of that. Five, ten years ago, you may not have been able to say that and there may not have been any USHL players playing in that game. We are just really proud of the part that we play in the American development model and just really helped build American hockey in general.

You guys have the luxury of having the US National Team Development Program playing in your league as well. What is that relationship like for the league?

It has been a great relationship for the USHL and NTDP. That team used to be in our league before and now they are back. This is the first year that they have been back as a full time team. It has been great on a number of levels and it has brought additional recognition to our league and for the first time you have all the great players in the US playing in one league. The U17’s were a bit outmatched early on but they have grown and developed and playing the competition in our league has helped them in international competition. They just recently won an international tournament and they attribute most of that success to playing in night in and night out in the USHL preparing them for the competition. It has been a great relationship, we are really happy to have them and it has been great for both sides and a relationship that were hoping to continue to grow moving forward.

Looking forward, is the league looking to expand out of the Midwest and possibly expand into other areas?

Expansion is always something that we are going to look at. The league has been very smart about controlled growth. This year we have 14 teams and we have already announced the 15th team for next year with the addition of Dubuque, IA which used to be a team in the league. There is going to be an announcement of another team in the next ten days or so. To be quite honest, we are just going to see where we are from there. Just in the span in a little more than a year, we are going to go from 12 teams to 16 teams and that is tremendous growth, especially in tough economic times. That just goes to show that the level of hockey is getting better in the US. To get back to your question, we are definitely going to look but our owners are going to be smart about controlled expansion and controlled growth. Obviously, there is the hockey aspect and also the business aspect that we have to look at with scheduling and travel. We are going to try and stay within our footprint but at the same time maybe in the next three years bridge the gap, maybe go a little further east. Youngstown, OH is in the first year in our league and they are right now our bridge to the east.

If you were able to go to one event in the USHL, what would it be?

That is a tough question for me to answer. This is my first year in the league and I have seen a lot of games in the league. This may sound cliché but we just had our all-star game this past Tuesday and it was an unbelievable game. It was the best all-star game that I have ever seen at any level. These kids were competing like crazy, hitting and scoring goals all at a high skill level. We always say that when it comes down to it, ever single game is an all-star game because you have the top players in the US and around the globe playing night in and night out. I can’t really say that there is one game or one event that outdoes the next. We have a lot of showcase events, we have the Fall Classic early on which is a preseason event, where more than 200 scouts from college and the NHL are watching all 14 teams play in a preseason tournament. I can’t really say though, that one is better than the other because I have been impressed with the hockey night in and night out.

With the NHL Draft coming in the next couple of months, are there any top undrafted prospects in the league that we should watch for?

If you go down the rankings this year, there are going to be in addition to several of the players from the NTDP that are going to be drafted and are on the radar, there are a few players that stick out. One that could be drafted pretty high is Jaden Schwartz who plays with Tri-City. Here is a guy that comes from Western Canada and got a lot of interest from the WHL and decided that he wanted to go to college and wants to have the education. His brother is currently playing with Colorado College and he is committed to Colorado College. He is second in the league in scoring right now.

You have some of the top 50, defenseman playing for the Chicago Steel, Kevin Lind, he his committed to Notre Dame and is highly ranked by NHL Central Scouting. Connor Brickley, a forward in Des Moines, Kevin Gravel from Sioux City. The list goes on and on and I can sit and talk for an hour about all of the kids that are on the NHL radar.

Are there any specific team traditions or quirks that a fan should know about. College hockey has the pep bands and chants that allow a crowd to really get into the action, do the teams in the USHL have anything like that?

As you go around the nation, every hockey market is unique and that holds true in our league. Just a couple of examples would be in Waterloo and Lincoln. If you go to Waterloo, the arena is going to be sold out every night and fans there have these cowbells that they ring non-stop. It is one of those buildings that seats about 3,000 and is pretty much standing room only all the time. When those fans ring those cowbells, you go home the next day and your ears are still ringing from those cowbells. Then you go to Lincoln, Nebraska which is not exactly known as a hockey hotbed. You pull into the fairgrounds there and you go to this building which is a converted horse barn, and you know some people chuckle and wonder where they are going and once you get there it is a wonderful hockey atmosphere. It seats 4,600 and routinely they are over 4,000 fans and they are loud. The team puts on an unbelievable pre game light show and production and the fans are behind their team. Those are just two examples of our unbelievable fans and markets that our teams are in and on top of the great hockey it adds to the success and our proud we are of the league.

We want to thank Brian again for taking the time out to sit down with us and if you happen to be in a town with a USHL franchise, take the time out to experience American junior hockey at its finest.