When the 2022 USHL Futures Draft occurs Monday, the available 2006-born talent from around the world will hope to get a call from one of the league’s 15 teams in the 10-round online affair.
The USA’s only Tier 1 junior league uses the futures draft to secure the rights of up-and-coming talent, even if many of the prospects chosen are a year or more away from earning a spot in the league. New York and New Jersey have some quality players expected to be chosen in the event, also known as the Phase I draft.
The league’s teams will reconvene Tuesday for the phase 2/entry draft, where they will select players from the 2002-05 birth years whose USHL rights are not already owned. Clubs are also allowed to choose ’06 players in the phase 2 draft, often taking late-round flyers on those not taken on the first day.
New York boasts the top 2006-born prospect in Hauppauge native James Hagens, but the elite center is not available for the draft, as he will skate for the U.S. National Team Development Program under-17 in 2022-23. Joining him on Team USA from the area are Shattuck-St. Mary's defenseman John Whipple (Morristown, N.J.) and Hagens' Mount Saint Charles Academy teammate, goaltender Jack Parsons (Courtland, N.Y.).
New York Hockey Journal assesses many of the best area players from each position who are expected to be some of the 150 prospects chosen in Phase I of the USHL Draft.
