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Born In The USHL

By Peter Odney, 08/17/17, 1:30PM CDT

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Minneapolis standout Jake Hale will move to the USHL for the 2017-2018 season.


Dev McCabe of St. Paul Academy will join the USHL's Lincoln Stars this year.

Andy Johnson of the Sioux City Musketeers

Andy Johnson’s professional roadmap puts him in a unique position to make judgment calls on players. 

Johnson’s winding road to his position of Director of Scouting for the United States Hockey League’s Sioux City Musketeers has featured stops in Muskegon, Waterloo and NHL Central Scouting after getting a start on the reporters’ side of the puck. 

“I kind of worked the journalism side for awhile,” Johnson said. 

“I had such a desire to cover prospects that I was in the rinks all the time by myself and the Muskegon Lumberjacks reached out to me,” Johnson continued. 

“I jumped at the chance and put the journalism thing on hold for awhile.”

Johnson’s “awhile” has stretched nearly six years now, but he doesn’t see his time as a scout coming to an end any time soon. 

His motivation is fueled by finding players that have flown under the radar, and discerning which of those players has the drive to continue at the next level.

“The thing I’m constantly looking for is kids who compete,” Johnson said of his primary factor as both a junior and NHL scout.

“Kids who compete day in and day out, even if they don’t have the highest skill (level) or highest skating (ability) or whatever, you know that you can rely on them,” Johnson continued.

Johnson added that the extended seasons at both the junior and professional levels serve as de facto litmus tests for determine which players can sustain a high level of competitiveness.

“I think skill is great, speed, skating, hockey sense, but at the end of the day a kid who competes is definitely the first thing I look for.”

Like Eric Fink of the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks, Johnson said that poor body language and bad attitude are two factors that can overshadow even the most talented of players. 

“When we build teams we look at the fact that these guys are going to be around each for nine to ten months, and if we get a guy (with a poor attitude), he can bring the entire locker room down,” Johnson said. 

For the 2017-2018 season, St. Paul Academy and Minneapolis standouts Devlin McCabe and Jake Hale will both move on from the Minnesota high school ranks early to play for their respective USHL teams. 

Both players are Minnesota-Duluth commits, and McCabe will head to Lincoln while Hale will take his talents to Dubuque. 

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