Toronto Maple Leafs prospects Matt Frattin and Jake Gardiner explain the benefits of playing US Division I College Hockey. Listening to these two young players talk about hockey and the more I think about it; if you're one of these hockey players that is a bit of a late bloomer; maybe you don't develop as fast as other players, Division I college Hockey would probably be a better option than Major Juniors. Not everyone is going to be like Sidney Crosby and play one or two years in Major Juniors before making the jump to the professional ranks.
The reality is that if you’re good enough to play hockey after you college hockey days are over, more than likely than not you're going to start out in the ECHL or the AHL and then “maybe” transition to fighting for a spot on the third or fourth line on an NHL club, if you’re lucky. Very few players are going to play in the NHL and the college education gives players an option to fall back on after they are done playing hockey.
Here is an awesome story on former Fighting Sioux forward Matt Frattin and how he has learned from his past mistakes. Apparently Frattin has a "decent chance" of making the Leafs out of training camp as well.
TORONTO — The rookie wants to be a role model.
He wants young people to know his story and how it changed him, made him a better hockey player and — ultimately — a responsible adult. Wants them to know that as a sophomore at the University of North Dakota, he made foolish decisions that resulted in him being kicked off the hockey team and working a blue-collar construction job.
And how it made Matt Frattin who he is today.
“It was a life experience that I kind of needed to happen,” says the Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, who is among those competing at a four-team rookie tournament in Oshawa, Ont., this weekend. “I wasn’t really living my life as though I wanted to be a professional. I was more a college kid. It happens. But it was probably good that I got caught in a couple of situations and it changed the way I am today.”
