Tune into any scene in the movie “Fargo” and you will see some painfully accurate stereotypes of Minnesotans.  My favorite scene is when the female police officer interviews two women on her investigative trail.  The one woman says, “I’m from Chaska, but I went to high school in White Bear Lake. Go Bears!”

At the recent NAHL Showcase, we met several NHL, College and Junior scouts.  During discussions around the rink we asked these coaches and scouts about Minnesota players and what they’ve come to expect when looking at a Minnesota kid. Some are good, some are bad and some are just a reality.

Here are five that we were able to dig up from our week at the Showcase.  Note: the research we did for this article was isolated and not empirical in any way.  Simple questions given to several scouts.  The result was a lot of great quotes for thought.

The Gophers – Ski U Mah.  Division I scouts number one criticism of Minnesota kids is their desire to play for Minnesota. One coach from a major conference coach summed it up best, “If you have a kid you like from Minnesota, the Gophers will always be a hurdle.” Not exactly big news, but in the grand scheme of things…this stereotype can often be used against a kid from the Land of 10,000 lakes. One coach went on to say, “the Gophers call the shots when it comes to Minnesota kids, every kid in Minnesota dreams of playing there…Minnesota kids won’t say yes to you until the Gophers say no to them.”

Great Defensemen…that can’t defend – When speaking to an Eastern Conference NHL scout, he said, “They grow defensemen on trees here. They’re fast and are all great puck handlers.  I just wish they had forwards this good.” Recent success of Minnesota born defensemen in the NHL is well documented.  Young guns Leddy, Gardiner, and McDonagh coupled with veterans Leopold, Martin and Goligoski to name just a few. However, one of the knocks is that they cannot defend. They spend a lot of time controlling the puck, but lack the important skill of defending.  A WHL scout said, “the best place to see Minnesota defensemen defend is a the Elite League.  At the Elite League you see kids forced into defending unlike you see at the high school level.” One stereotype breaker is Minnesota native and former Gopher, Erik Johnson, not a slick puck rusher but a great stay at home D-man.

Minnesota Nice – one of the most common themes while talking to scouts was the lack of gritty Minnesota kids. One USHL scout said of Minnesota kids, “great skill players, but zero toughness.” Another Hockey East school coach said, “we rarely scout Minnesota kids, first of all the top kids are never interested and the next level kid isn’t mean enough to spend a lot of time on.” I could dedicate an entire blog making fun of how Minnesota people are too nice.  This stereotype has obviously filtered down to our hockey as well.

No Snipers – For years Minnesota has been stocking colleges with Division I and III talent, the Junior Leagues with players and to some degree the NHL with top end players, but Minnesota has never really delivered an NHL goal scorer.  I asked several College and NHL scouts why.  The best response was from a Western Conference NHL scout of Canadian descent, “Canadian players are taught to shoot first, create second.  American hockey players are the opposite, they learn at a very young age to share the puck…and Minnesota players are the epitome of that.”

Too Much Hockey – The last label Minnesota kids get is they play too much hockey.  In Minnesota, it seems they never take a break.  One scout said of Minnesota, “one nice thing about scouting Minnesota is there is always a game, no matter what time of year, I can find 15 good kids to watch…” He went on to say he and others think Minnesota kids over do it, especially too early in their development.  Why? I asked.  The scouts answer was pretty simple.  He said, “hockey is so cheap in Minnesota, their minor hockey is cheap, their rinks are subsidized, and if that’s not enough, they have a ton of free outdoor ice. In some ways that’s a good thing, in others it can be bad.  A lot of these kids are burnt out by the time they hit Juniors…”