Paul Cannata explains how youth hockey has changed over the last 20 years

Former Milton Academy star Chris Romaine (left) with Paul Cannata. (Milton Academy)

Paul Cannata recently wrapped up his 20-year run as the head boys hockey coach at Milton Academy. He’s had a front-row seat for some of the best prep hockey in the country over the course of that time.

He’s also had a front-row seat for how the hockey landscape has changed — and not just at the prep school level.

The youth levels have changed quite a bit in his 20 years as well.

On the latest RinkWise podcast, Cannata sat down with host Stephanie Wood to discuss these changes, as well as the state of prep hockey, his own career and what will come next.

Here are some of his most insightful answers on youth hockey.

On parents managing expectations 

Cannata: “Alluding to some of the better hockey players that are out there, you’re like ‘this kid is 15?’ and you see it on both sides — female and male now. That level of ability in all domains has gotten better at the elite level. And then now that leads you to caution that not everyone in the game is an elite player. Certainly, we know that not every player, no matter what they do, is going to reach a high level. It’s just the way it is. There’s a reason they call it elite. Looking at the NHL Draft recently too and scanning through the rankings and seeing some kids ranked sixth and seventh round, which is still phenomenal. But statistics tell you that your seventh-round pick…statistics tell you what they tell you. And knowing how good those kids are and how good they were two years ago or still are, it’s hard. All of us have to be careful — parents, coaches, etc. — to find that balance where we’re going to provide a quality program for you but let’s be realistic about where this might go. Most people I find are [realistic]. The high percentage of people get it. But that’s something we’re all managing.”

On the high-level coaches coaching in youth hockey

Cannata: “In a positive, you watch some youth practices, and if I were to walk into Merrimack College on a given night and you look out there and say ‘Wow they’re doing some really good things.’ Much different than they did 20 years ago. But where is the expectation? What’s reasonable to expect? Both at the youth level and the high school level. The kids are arriving at high school, most of them, having had some really good coaching. Whether that was ‘private’ coaching or their club team happened to have some people that were high level. The expectation now of your typical high school coach no matter where they are is much greater than it certainly was years ago. Is that fair? It’s a good question. Probably not fair in some ways. These people aren’t full-time coaches. They may be teachers as well, they may do other things.”

On youth sports being a business and its impact on other sports

Cannata: “Youth sports is a multi-billion dollar industry. People used to say we used to walk down to the park to play sports and then we took our bikes a little further to a further field and then we got driven in cars and now we fly to youth sports. That’s much more so with the baseball kids. Another positive-negative. New England baseball players are doing much better than 15 years ago playing in the Division 1 level and being drafted and all that good stuff. But now they’re flying down in October or November to Florida to pitch in front of the ACC coaches or SEC coaches. Not the worst thing. But what is the cost financially for a weekend to fly to Florida? And the other part of that is now some of those kids aren’t playing football or soccer now because they’ve got to do fall baseball and they’re not playing hockey in the winter. No different than our soccer players aren’t playing JV hockey in the winter anymore. They’re playing indoor soccer on turf. And the lacrosse players aren’t playing JV hockey anymore because they’re playing indoor lacrosse on turf. There’s a positive that the athletes in baseball, soccer and lacrosse become better because of that type of access and that type of training. But we’re losing those other aspects of the well-roundedness of maybe those kids and all the kids.”

Are we seeing a decline in the well-rounded student-athlete?

Cannata: “We’re definitely seeing an incline in the ability of the better players, both female and male. No question. Just like the wow factor of watching a musical performance or seeing some of the better athletes at the levels. But yeah, you just can’t … you have to make a decision. Families out there listening to this now, there just comes a point where your child is 10, 11, 12 and you’d love to be playing soccer in the fall, but you’ve got a Jr. Terriers game at 2 o’clock and a club soccer game at 2 o’clock in September. We didn’t used to start hockey in September. We do now. I recognize that these rinks, these people — the real estate in this area is expensive. So if you have a rink running, you’re running the Foxboro Ice Center, that’s a serious bill you have. The beauty too is the Foxboro Ice Center has three rinks, which I’m a part of in the summer, that provide three sheets of ice 12 months a year for our hockey players. That’s fantastic. But how do you play soccer and hockey? You can’t at some point. And then baseball and lacrosse get robbed and you have to make decisions, unfortunately.”

The RinkWise podcast can be streamed here and on major platforms, such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify.