from Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe,

Whether the NTDP has produced elite talent, however, is not debatable. Jack Eichel, Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel, Dylan Larkin, Auston Matthews, Charlie McAvoy, and Zach Werenski are just some of today’s players who rolled through Ann Arbor. Generating the depth and breadth of American talent was the mandate in 1996 when the NTDP was launched under the watch of Ron DeGregorio, former USA Hockey president. Jeff Jackson, now Notre Dame’s coach, was the man behind the U-18 bench.

“We felt going forward, given what could be the growth of the game in our country, our population in this country, the fact that hockey had so much headroom to grow, that we should have a much higher percentage of Americans in the league,” said Dave Ogrean, former executive director of USA Hockey. “Now we do. It’s dramatically more than it was 10-15 years ago. Now to see a lot of these guys out there today like Jack Eichel, Patrick Kane, and Auston Matthews, it’s extremely exciting. It’s not just the number of players. But the number of impact players.”

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