The U.S. NTDP was once the No. 1 development path for American-born hockey players, but with changes to NCAA eligibility, it has lost its dominance and desperately needs to find a way to remain relevant.
The USA Hockey National Team Development Program has been the gold standard for player development in the United States.
The program has produced several stars, first-round picks and Olympic gold medallists.
But this off-season, the program is facing significant adversity, with players requesting releases.
At least six players departed the NTDP this off-season, including 2027 projected top-10 pick Carter Meyer, Kane Barch, Jake Boguniecki, Broden McArthur, and Alexander Milojevic, as the program experienced an unusual wave of exits after a very rough season.
If there was one defining moment that completely changed the NTDP, it came on June 21, 2019.
The NTDP made NHL draft history that night, producing eight first-round picks, which is the most ever from a single team in one draft. Jack Hughes went first overall to the New Jersey Devils, while Alex Turcotte (5th), Trevor Zegras (9th), Matthew Boldy (12th), Spencer Knight (13th), Cam York (14th), Cole Caufield (15th) and John Beecher (30th) all heard their names called before the first night was over.
By the end of the weekend, 17 players had been selected directly from the program, which was another NHL draft record.
This felt like the turning point for a program that was already rapidly producing NHL talent; it became simple: if you were an American hockey player, you hoped to make the development program, and then they turned you into a first-round pick. It was the clearest path to the pro level for Americans, but later on it wouldn't become the only great path to the NHL.
Although the NTDP isn’t what it once was, it’s still a great pipeline for future pros, but the decline was very rapid.
In 2024, the NTDP produced two first-round picks in Cole Eiserman and EJ Emery as part of a 13-player draft class. Two years later, the 2026 draft saw Wyatt Cullen become the only first-round selection, and Cullen wasn’t expected to be selected in that draft range before his growth spurt occurred. Those are strong results by most standards, but they also reflect a program that is no longer producing the top American players each season.
For years, the program offered America's top prospects a development path that was impossible for anyone else to match. Players received elite coaching, international competition, and a direct route to NCAA hockey without having to choose between college eligibility and major junior.
That equation changed in November 2024, when the NCAA voted to allow CHL players to play in college hockey beginning with the 2025-26 season. The decision shut down one of the NTDP's biggest recruiting advantages. Prospects no longer had to choose between playing in Canadian major junior and preserving their college eligibility.
One thing that has also hurt the program is the team's success in the USHL, where they’ve missed the playoffs the past three seasons and finished with a 17-40-5 record in the 2025-26 season.
What’s next for the NTDP lies in the hands of alumnus Kevin Porter, who was with the program from 2002 to 2004.
He was then a star at the University of Michigan, where he won the Hobey Baker Award in 2008 as the country’s best player. He bounced around the NHL a bit in his six seasons, where most of his time was spent in the AHL.
He eventually became a coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins affiliate team, the Wilkes-Barrie/Scranton Penguins, and then joined the NTDP in 2024 as an assistant coach. He also led the U.S. to the 2025 Hlinka Gretzky Cup championship, the country's first title at the tournament since 2004.
For Porter, his job may be convincing elite American prospects that the NTDP remains the best place to spend their draft-eligible seasons. With the CHL now offering NCAA eligibility and several high-end departures this off-season, Porter steps into a role that is arguably as much about recruiting and retaining talent as it is about coaching.
With that said, the NTDP isn't disappearing, and it remains one of the world's premier development programs. But the days when it stood alone atop American hockey may be over. The next few recruiting classes will determine whether this summer was just a tiny setback or the moment U.S. player development permanently shifted.
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