It feels good to be back in the rink

Plus, what do you want us to dive into this season?

After what’s felt like a long summer, I was able to get back in the rink for work purposes last week.

The 2025 Under-17 Four Nations Tournament, featuring Czechia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and the United States, was held at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan.

Czechia won the tournament, defeating Team USA 5-3 in the championship on Saturday afternoon, leading to this pretty cool moment for those Czechia players, singing their national anthem as champions.

For me, it was the kick-off to my 2025-26 season. I filed in-person scouting reports on players from the tournament, which you can now read at Elite Prospects, and identified standouts with a way-too-early look at the 2027 NHL Draft.

In this weird, but great, hybrid life I live as a hockey writer for multiple outlets, I’ve been able to dabble further and further into scouting the past couple seasons.

It’s been a fascinating learning experience, and given me a greater perspective on the sport. I also hope, and believe, it’s better shaped my coverage at various places, most notably here at Shap Shots.

If you can better understand where the next generation of players are coming from, what they experience, you can better understand where the sport is going.

For example, watching the Under-17 Four Nations I was highly intrigued by Team USA’s Ethan Sung, a 15-year-old winger who currently plays at Shattuck St. Mary’s. Sung is 5-foot-7 and 165 pounds, which is small, but not too small for a 15-year-old, but was able to thrive in a tournament against much larger opponents.

Sung won battles and sought contact, he used his leverage and timing to unseat larger opponents. It reminded me of watching what Logan Stankoven does now with the Carolina Hurricanes as a 5-foot-8, 170 pounds winger in the NHL.

This isn’t to say Sung will reach the NHL. But studying an understanding how players learn to embrace these challenges as teenagers gives you a better idea of both the task ahead and what a player, like Stankoven, had to figure out before.

It’s the same reason, I believe, it’s ideal for writers covering this sport to spend some time watching and learning from lower levels. You learn more about the sport making the drive to watch the AHL, for example, while it also helps you create a better connection with players, at all levels, when you simply focus on the NHL.

I hope that makes sense, this is admittedly a rambling piece, but I wanted to share a little bit of that and open up conversation point for readers here at Shap Shots.

What do you want to learn about the game this season? What do you want me to dig into? How can we push curiosity, together?

For now, I’m just happy to be back in a rink and happy to learn more. Thanks for reading.