
Earlier this month, the U.S. National Team Development Program welcomed the 2008-born class for orientation. Nick Fohr, who coached the U18s this past season, will be the boss of the '08s when they begin as U17 players in the fall.
He showed the '08s clips of goals from his U18 team, especially from the line of James Hagens centering Teddy Stiga and Brodie Ziemer.
A lot of them were highlight-reel goals. Sure enough, that's what the kids watching took away from them.
But Fohr had a different reason for showing them these videos.
"Back it up 10 seconds and look what happened and how it happened?" Fohr said. "It was Teddy Stiga chasing a guy down and stripping the puck. ...That's what I loved about Teddy. He just attacked. He'd get a puck and we're going towards their net and going to try to score now."
Stiga didn't just attack pucks and opposing players — he attacked a vital U18 season and catapulted himself from the back of the 2024 NHL Draft class to the front.