Earlier this month, the U.S. National Team Development Program welcomed the 2008-born class for orientation. Nick Fohr, who coached the U18s this past season, will be the boss of the '08s when they begin as U17 players in the fall.
He showed the '08s clips of goals from his U18 team, especially from the line of James Hagens centering Teddy Stiga and Brodie Ziemer.
A lot of them were highlight-reel goals. Sure enough, that's what the kids watching took away from them.
But Fohr had a different reason for showing them these videos.
"Back it up 10 seconds and look what happened and how it happened?" Fohr said. "It was Teddy Stiga chasing a guy down and stripping the puck. ...That's what I loved about Teddy. He just attacked. He'd get a puck and we're going towards their net and going to try to score now."
Stiga didn't just attack pucks and opposing players — he attacked a vital U18 season and catapulted himself from the back of the 2024 NHL Draft class to the front. Stiga will learn his fate when the NHL convenes for the draft starting on Friday.
The Belmont Hill product went from posting 21 points in an injury-shortened U17 season to notching 36 goals and 79 points in 61 games as a U18.
"Man, did he take off," Fohr said. "Every two-year process I've gone through, there's always that one guy or two guys that make major strides from year one to year two. Matthew Tkachuk did it, Jimmy Snuggerud did it. Some of the guys really struggles as 17s and make a huge jump into their 18 year. You sit there in the summertime and wonder who that guy is going to be.
"That was Teddy."
Stiga opened the year labeled as a sixth- or seventh-round candidate by NHL Central Scouting. He finished as the 44th-ranked North American skater, as the scouting service labeled him a second-round candidate.
Others are even higher on Stiga. In Daily Faceoff's top 120 NHL Draft prospects, Stiga was at No. 17. Dobber Prospects placed him at No. 20. Sportsnet ranked him at No. 28 earlier this month. Most rankings, however, have him somewhere in the second-round range.
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It still begs the question: Will Stiga go in the first round?
"For a guy like him to go in the first round of the draft, it would probably take a team that's got multiple picks and they're going to take a flier on a guy that they really like that they don't think they're going to get a chance at if they don't take him," Fohr said.
The San Jose Sharks, Chicago Blackhawks, Anaheim Ducks, Montreal Canadiens, Calgary Flames and Philadelphia Flyers are all picking inside the top 12 and have multiple first-round picks. The local Boston Bruins just picked up the 25th pick.
"It would not totally shock me if he went in the first," one NHL scout said. "More likely to go in the first than the third. ...He probably goes in the 25-40 range."
The biggest reason why Stiga most likely gets taken in the second round instead of the first is his size. The winger stands at 5-foot-10 and 176 pounds.
"I see someone taking him mid-second round," another NHL scout said. "I think his size scares people."
While there's nothing wrong with that stature (that is my exact height and weight, too; I must defend it), players at that size who aren't game-breakers are more likely to go in the second round.
"He's always been good but not like this year," an NHL scout said. "Is it a one time thing? Can he do it in college and at the pro level? Lots of questions."
One of the big reasons why Stiga experienced such a jump this season was due to how he recovered from spraining his MCL during his U17 year. He spent a large amount of time in the gym putting on muscle.
"Skating and strength," one NHL scout mentioned when asked what the biggest areas of growth in Stiga's game were. "He used his time while he was injured to get stronger and faster."
That same NHL scout was asked if playing with Hagens, a candidate to go No. 1 in the 2025 NHL Draft, would hurt his draft stock in that teams would view Stiga's success largely because of his line.
"I don't think so," the scout said. "Stiga makes the line go."
Stiga's playmaking abilities were a big reason for that. So, too, was his consistency and the motor New England hockey fans have watched since his Boston Jr. Eagles days.
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"He became a really good all-around player for us," Fohr said. "Consistency was probably the biggest thing. Just how consistent he was night after night after night. From a compete perspective, he was always involved and he would make plays whether he ended up on the scoresheet or not."
Stiga projects to be a fixture in Boston College's top six this fall. The Eagles hope the ingredients of Stiga's game translate to Comm. Ave.
The odds are good.
