You could hear an audible groan across Massachusetts when the U.S. National Team Development Program's Evaluation Camp roster was announced mid-March.
"Only three kids from Massachusetts?"
Yes. Just three players who were brought up playing hockey in Massachusetts were selected to try out to wear the Red, White and Blue.
But these weren't just any three players. It was Carter Meyer, Finn Sears and Sam Pandolfo. The three have become synonymous with each other. Playing on a line with the Boston Junior Eagles for many years, followed by flying high as a line with Rivers for the past two seasons. They've accomplished a lot.
The latest accomplishment: All three made the NTDP squad. They will begin playing in Plymouth, Mich., this fall.
There is no doubt that the trio has had some advantages that many young hockey players don't get.
Meyer is the son of former NHL defenseman Freddy Meyer, who spent eight seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes and Atlanta Thrashers. Meyer is currently the head coach at Rivers and the owner and skills guru of Dream Big Hockey. Pandolfo is the son of former NHL forward and two-time Stanley Cup champion Jay Pandolfo, who played 13 seasons for the New Jersey Devils and then two with the Islanders and Boston Bruins. He is now the head coach at Boston University.
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A lot comes with that. It's not an accident that Carter Meyer and Sam Pandolfo have elite hockey sense. Where do you think that started? Meyer has NHL poise and swagger, while Pandolfo is already 6-foot-4 — Jay, his father, is 6-foot-1.
But that tells less than half the story. There's a lot more to it.
Meyer, Sears and Pandolfo have played together since their mite major season in 2017. While that may feel like yesterday, they've logged eight years together. They have made each other better in every possible way. If you watched one shift of the three at Rivers this season, you would've seen it.
Pandolfo knew how to find his linemates in transition and on the cycle. Sears knew the soft spots to get into for scoring chances. Meyer rarely made the predictable play with the puck — the only two on the ice ready for it were Pandolfo and Sears.
That's what happens when you play eight years together.
It's become increasingly rare for players to stick in one spot through youth hockey. It's the norm to jump around for better opportunities from ages 8-13. The result: talent spreads and the higher levels get watered down.
That Sears never jumped ship is something to take note of. While Meyer and Pandolfo are from Winchester, Mass., Sears is from Medford. His father is a firefighter. His upbringing is undoubtedly the most relatable of the three. You could be him.
When Sears was younger, the Boston Junior Terriers regularly beat the Junior Eagles. The Terriers had a slew of Sears' best friends, too. In most cases, Sears would've switched jerseys.
He didn't.
"That would be kind of cool to go over there. We'd probably be even better," Sears said of those days. "But I knew I probably wasn't going to get better development anywhere else. And I felt like Carter and Sam are just so special and we'd been doing so well that there was no reason to leave."
Instead, Sears stuck with the Junior Eagles. He got coaching from Freddy Meyer and Jay Pandolfo, who were two big reasons why he made the switch from the Valley Junior Warriors to the Junior Eagles in 2017, and continued battling with Carter Meyer and Sam Pandolfo.
"He taught me so much that I know. I give him a lot of credit for the player that I've become," Sears said of Freddy Meyer. "With Jay, he used to run the forwards, so he'd always be telling me stuff on the bench that would help my game so much. It's the little things they know that can separate players."
Sears stuck with his crew when picking a prep school in sixth grade. Meyer was always going to Rivers given that his father was the coach and his brother was there, too. But Sears also applied to Dexter Southfield along with Rivers. He preferred Rivers to stick with Meyer and Pandolfo, who eventually landed there in eighth grade for similar reasons.
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"I felt like I was going to have a better opportunity to play my eighth grade year at Rivers," Sears said. "At the time when I first got in and played in eighth grade, the plan was five years of varsity."
Meyer, Sears and Pandolfo started on different lines at the beginning of their eighth-grade season in 2023-24. But Freddy Meyer quickly put them back together, and they never separated.
Come the end of this season, Meyer posted 59 goals and 109 points in 58 prep games. Sears had 35 goals and 87 points in the same number of games. Pandolfo had 14 goals and 61 points in 55 games.
This was all before they even turned 16 years old.
"Just getting those opportunities in those big-time minutes at such a young age helped me mature a lot," Sears said. "By the end of last year, I knew I had a lot of experience on some other freshmen who were coming in that didn't really have those opportunities."
Opportunity is the key word there. Sure, Meyer, Sears and Pandolfo are all high-end players. But there are so few (if any) prep schools where the numbers would've worked out to put three eighth-graders on a roster, let alone on a line together.
And yet the trio found their way against older and stronger competition. They helped Rivers go all the way to the Small School championship in their first year and the Elite 8 semifinals just over a month ago. That experience led them to showcase themselves as the best of the best at the NTDP Evaluation Camp in late March.
A lot can change in two years. But at this rate, Meyer looks like a first-round NHL Draft pick, Sears looks to be somewhere in the first three rounds and Pandolfo has potential that makes scouts giddy.
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Players coming up in Massachusetts youth hockey and entering the prep ranks will likely take notice of these three. It's a copycat world, so it would be wise to copy this: Meyer, Sears and Pandolfo were loyal to what worked.
It's why they will likely be top players at the NTDP. It's why this is only just the beginning.
