When all hope of a 2020-21 winter hockey season seemed lost as junior leagues across the country began to either postpone or cancel their seasons, the United States Premier Hockey League didn’t give up. It’s a good thing it didn’t.
Just ask 19-year-old South Shore Kings (NCDC) center Ryan Bottrill, one of more than 850 junior hockey players participating in the USPHL Hub City in Tampa, Fla.
“We’re so lucky,” Bottrill said. “I think it’s a big shoutout to the league for what they’ve done, bringing us down to Florida and having us play all of these games, because we see all of these other leagues and all of these other teams keep getting canceled and keep getting delayed, and for us to be playing is just … we’re lucky.”
As the novel coronavirus began its resurgence in the fall during the transition into winter, the prospect of a normal hockey season going off without a hitch in 2020-21 was bleak. For so many, a crucial year of development was passing them by.
Thanks to its Hub City initiative, however, the USPHL didn’t let that happen. The idea of a season might have been down, but it certainly wasn’t out. Instead of giving in to the regional effects of the virus, the league made a transition of its own, successfully doing what no other junior league in America had thought possible until that point — creating a bubble of sorts.
Living between Saddlebrook Resort and Spa and six host rinks in the area, the USPHL brought more than 40 teams from across the country, including all 13 NCDC teams, to one centralized location for six weeks of isolated hockey.
To ensure a safe space for the players, coaches, staff and all involved, a slew of logistical hurdles had to be dealt with first, but thanks to former commissioner Richard Gallant and his successor, Bob Turow, the idea of a hub city became reality.
So far, since starting on Jan. 6, it’s been just that. Kids are playing games, getting looks from scouts, and, most importantly, having fun playing the game they love.
“It was really weird the first two weeks or so, but since we’ve kind of gotten in the groove I think everyone really likes it,” Bottrill said. “Just having the freedom to know we’re always going to be playing, it’s been great. I think everyone loves it.”
For coach Drew Omicioli, aside from a precautionary 14-day shutdown early in the stay, it’s been an all-around positive experience in an otherwise negative past year.
“It’s one of these things where, you know, this is something that they will never experience again,” Omicioli said. “For me, in organized hockey since I was 6, 7 years old — we’re talking 33, 34 years — I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve played in the USHL, played in Division 1, played in the American League, played over in Europe. These guys will never get this type of opportunity again.”
After the months of uncertainty and disappointment amid the COVID pandemic, playing more than 300 games in a six-week span is quite the scheduling feat, too.
“Knock on wood, minus another pandemic or something like that, but, really, I tip my cap to Richard and Bob and all of the guys that put this together, because they really did it first class,” Omicioli said. “There are so many things behind the scenes like bus contract and renting vans so we can get everybody over and back and still be able to keep it safe by sanitizing everything. They’ve really done a great job.”
Outside of their time spent at the rinks around Wesley Chapel, Fla., teams spend all of their off days at the resort, which brings no shortage of entertainment value.
“It’s been great,” Omicioli, a Rhode Island native, Providence College alumni and former pro, said. “We’re having a blast down here. The guys — it’s pretty hard not to love the experience of having two 18-hole (golf) courses; they have the pools that they spend time at and a hot tub and whatnot, tennis courts, beach volleyball, a 50-yard football field. So, there’s a lot for them to do here while still keeping them healthy.”
“Just being able to be with the guys on the team 24/7, it’s pretty awesome,” said South Shore Kings 2000-born left winger Jack Luca (Milton, Mass.). “Just after a game, going back to your rooms and hanging out with 10 guys on your team or going down to the pool or playing golf with a bunch of different guys, it’s great. I think it’s also awesome that you’re getting to know a lot more kids in the league. A lot of the teams are kind of hanging out together, which has been a cool experience.”
Aside from the good times off the ice, the best part of the hub has been the simple act of playing hockey, which, Omicioli said, was almost taken for granted pre-2020.
“(The biggest positive) is just that: The kids are able to play and they’re able to play at a very high level,” Omicioli said. “The strength of the league has increased drastically.
“With all of the signings and commitments, it’s great because we’re actually able to showcase our product where I think it’s an eye-opener for a lot of these players that have played in other leagues that are wowed not only by the speed of our game, but the physicality as well. I think that’s what differentiates our league from some of the other leagues is that physical aspect of it. It’s a heavy game, but it’s a fast game.”
While some have the obligation and others don’t, school remains a top priority in the hub, as kids finish up high school courses or aim to get ahead on college credits before enrolling in the fall.
For 2000-born Kings goalie Evan Szary, his homework in the hub is a bit different than the rest. After wowing scouts with his hub city performance, posting the second-most wins (17) and minutes played (1,641) with a .925 save percentage, as of Feb. 4, Szary officially committed to Army West Point last week.
Now, between his time at the rink and the resort, he’s working to finalize the details of his application.
“We didn’t really know what we were coming into down here,” Szary (Nashville, Tenn.) said. “Obviously, we knew it was a nice resort and that we were coming into a good situation where we weren’t going to have to worry about getting shut down or anything like that, so it’s been great. The resort has everything we need, and the facilities down here are actually unbelievable. We don’t do a whole lot other than play hockey and sit down by the pool, but there’s definitely worse places to be.”
With more than 20 games in 44 days, the use of readily available, top-of-the-line Octane Performance recovery equipment has been a major factor in the Kings’ success, Szary said.
“It’s been awesome,” he said. “I don’t think if we didn’t have that, that we’d be able to withstand our schedule and continue playing the way we’ve been down here.”
With so many programs around the U.S. still not participating in their usual winter seasons due to lingering government restrictions, players from all over have joined in on the hub instead of staying at their local preps schools or moving on to other junior leagues, like the BCHL, which has made for some increasingly stout competition in Tampa.
In total, more than 50 players in the hub are Division 1 college commits, while 13 of them appear on NHL Central Scouting’s Preliminary Players to Watch List.
Although he remains uncommitted at the moment, Bottrill, the Kings’ first-line center and leading scorer, has been one of the top prospects in the hub, garnering interest from several colleges along the way with his standout play.
In January alone — with 13 games in 26 days — Bottrill appeared on each of those 13 games’ scoresheets in the assist or goals columns, amassing 22 points on seven goals in that span as the Kings went 10-3 for the month and shot up the standings.
Entering February, the 19-year-old owned a stat line of 11-20-31 in 25 games, including a 16-game point streak throughout the early gauntlet of games. For his efforts during the opening month, he was one of three forwards to receive the league’s Players of the Month award. He also was named to both NCDC NHL Prospects All-Star teams.
The bubble situation has bred some high-caliber chemistry for the Luca-Bottrill-Chikara Hanzawa line, which has been a major factor in his scoring frenzy, Bottrill said.
“We’ve been playing together for about four months now and I think we really figured out where each other are going to be on the ice. The chemistry is definitely there,” Bottrill said. “I just think everyone’s really comfortable in this bubble and once we kind of got rolling, it was like, ‘Yeah, there’s no real stopping us.’
“We know that we’re a top team in this league and once we showed that and proved that to ourselves, I think that it was really just like, ‘Yeah, the only way is up now.’ ”
With things beginning to wind down on the hub city experiment — the last NCDC game is scheduled for Feb. 17 — a potential playoff looms on the horizon for when teams return up north. But as the region knows all too well, nothing is certain right now.
“Hopefully, we can take advantage of everything in the next week and a half or so but obviously we want to do our best to win out and hopefully make the playoffs and then make a run at it this year,” Luca, an assistant captain, said. “We’ve gotten a lot better from last year and where we’re at in the standings, we’ve made some good strides down here. Hopefully, we can make a run at it and win the whole thing.”
All games in Hub City Tampa can be livestreamed online with HockeyTV services.
Liam Flaherty can be reached at liam.flaherty@hockeyjournal.com and on Twitter @_LiamFlaherty.
