Scout Passes now available, broadcasters named for 2018 NAHL Top Prospects
The North American Hockey League (NAHL) has announced that scout passes for the 2018 NAHL Top Prospects Tournament are now on sale. The 2018 NAHL Top Prospects Tournament will be held from February 27-28, 2018 at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan.
Passes for the event are $60 and can be purchased online here
The scout pass for the event includes: a pass for entrance into the USA Hockey Arena for both days of the event, access to the scout room, which will include catered food and beverage throughout the event, a tournament program, and line charts/rosters for each game. Passes are valid for all NAHL and NA3HL Top Prospects games.
A 2018 Top Prospects Tournament schedule will be announced later this week.
The NAHL has also announced the play-by-play broadcasters for the 2018 NAHL Top Prospects Tournament. The league has named Nick Marek from the Lone Star Brahmas and Ken Oda from the Minot Minotauros as the two broadcasters who will be calling and doing play-by-play of the games live in HD on HockeyTV. Marek and Oda were selected to do the play-by-play for the event by the rest of their NAHL broadcasting peers, who participated in a league-wide vote.
The NAHL Top Prospects Tournament is one of the most highly scouted events of its kind. Last season, over 250 scouts attended the event, which featured almost every NHL team and NCAA Division I school. The event continues to provide the hundreds of NHL and NCAA scouts in attendance with a look at the top uncommitted players the NAHL has to offer, as well as, some potential NHL Draft picks. It continues to be an important part of the NAHL event model, which is inclusive of the NAHL Showcase in September and the NAHL Robertson Cup National Championship in May.
120 total players from the NAHL will be spread amongst six teams, who will play in two games each during the event. The event will feature teams that represent the four divisions in the NAHL: Central, East, Midwest and South, along with two NAHL Selects teams. Only those NAHL players without an NCAA commitment are eligible to participate in the 2018 NAHL Top Prospects Tournament, with the exception of those who will be playing on the NAHL Selects teams. Each of the teams will consist of a 20-man roster (12 forwards, 6 defensemen, 2 goaltenders). Each team will play two games at the event.
The NAHL Standings will be frozen on Monday, February 5th at 5:00pm (central). Teams will then be seeded within their division based on win percentage. Nomination forms will be emailed out to all NAHL Head Coaches. Each Head Coach must submit the names of 3 forwards, 2 defensemen, and 1 goalie from their rosters for consideration for the Top Prospect Tournament.
Broadcaster Bios
Nick Marek: Marek is the play-by-play announcer & media coordinator for the Lone Star Brahmas & Texas Brahmas hockey teams. One thing to know about Nick is that he is passionate about sports, whether he is playing, watching, broadcasting or refereeing. Nick attended the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
Ken Oda: Oda moved to Minot from Chicago to join the Minot Minotauros staff in August of 2012. Prior to that Ken was the media director for the Chicago Hitmen in both the NAHL and NA3HL. Prior to working for the Hitmen, Ken was the broadcast voice of the Chicago Blaze of the All-American Hockey League.
