USA Hockey's National Team Development Program (NTDP) has effectively become an NHL player factory, and that was especially true at the 2019 NHL Draft.
The NTDP set a record that year for the most players taken from a single team, with a whopping 17 players chosen at the draft in Vancouver. Among those 17 players were eight first-round picks, including the first overall selection by the New Jersey Devils, Jack Hughes.
That was a proud day for John Wroblewski, the new head coach of the AHL's Ontario Reign, who was the head coach that helped develop those players with the NTDP. Wroblewski, who has coached in the USHL, ECHL, and AHL, has now coached 13 players that went on to become first-round draft picks.
Speaking at the 2020 NHLCA Global Coaches' Clinic, Wroblewski gave a presentation on line rush theory, which he says was the calling card of that 2001 NTDP class that made headlines in 2019.
Wroblewski outlined attacking options and how to practice them, while supporting his beliefs with methodology and video. The goal is to get behind the opponent, which sometimes means dumping the puck in he says -- though he prefers to call it "depositing" the puck, because everything is done with a purpose.