04/20/24
July 19, 2009
Kai Kantola a North Carolina hockey trailblazer: After the Whalers moved south to North Carolina and became the Hurricanes, youth leagues saw explosive growth. Led by Kai Kantola, there now several prospects from the Triangle area that moving up the game's ladder, getting closer to playing in the NHL.
The growth in youth hockey directly correlates to the success of the area's team. In the greater Boston area, hockey has long been popular, but youth hockey was never a big deal until the Bruins' success of the late '60s and early '70s. All of a sudden there were leagues everywhere, and everybody's kid wanted to be Bobby Orr or Phil Esposito or even Gerry Cheevers. (I well remember my older sister dragging my 2 nephews around to the local rinks at all sorts of odd hours.) As it turned out, the kids who had talent got enough ice time to develop it, and the local colleges were the beneficiaries. Thanks to NHL expansion, the best of the best managed to have some nice careers. While the popularity of the youth game has seen some cyclic change, it has never really come close to expiring, and at least the New England area continues to feed local players into professional hockey. I would bet that if the Hurricanes maintain their success, that youth hockey will grow in popularity and there will be players from that region moving higher up the chain. It's all good.
posted by Howard_T at 03:36 PM on July 20, 2009
See now, they could have just stayed in Hartford and drafted Chris Drury, then Mr. DeCock he he, cock could have written about something interesting, like NASCAR or college basketball.
Just kidding, I love reading about the southward proliferation of youth hockey. It would be great if a local boy like Kantola could make the team.