How Long Island became a 'hotbed' for hockey players making jump to NHL

The Islanders and Rangers missed the NHL playoffs for the second straight season this spring. Long Island, however, did not.

Five players who were born or spent at least a part of their years growing up on Long Island have appeared in this season's playoffs. Eleven players born or who trained on Long Island played at least one game in the NHL this season. And two Long Island products, Charlie McAvoy and Tage Thompson, were part of the U.S. team that won the hockey gold medal at the Olympics in February.

“People on the outside world, 20 years ago, would have said, ‘Long Island, they’re lacrosse players, they're not hockey players,' ’’ said Mike Bracco, who coaches club hockey for the P.A.L. Junior Islanders and high school hockey for the Portledge School in Locust Valley. “Now they're saying, ‘Wow, look at the NHL playoffs. Look at what's going on. This kid's from Long Island.' "

The first-round playoff series between Boston and Buffalo had McAvoy, a defenseman from Long Beach and rookie forward James Hagens of Hauppauge playing for the Bruins, while Thompson, who played his final two seasons of youth hockey on Long Island in 2012-14, played for the Sabres. The first-round series between Carolina and Ottawa had center Shane Pinto of Franklin Square playing for the Senators, and Brandon Bussi of Sound Beach serving as the backup goaltender for the Hurricanes.

“Long Island, it's not as big as, comparatively, the state of Minnesota,’’ said Smithtown resident Vinny Smith, a skills coach who works with pro players and prospects in the summers on Long Island. “But when you look at the amount of kids that are playing at the next level, and how many kids that ultimately get to the higher levels of junior and college and pro, I think it's extremely similar, in regards to [hockey talent].

“I would say that Long Island's . . . pound for pound, in that realm of one of the hotbeds for higher level players, for sure.’’

Other Long Islanders who played in the NHL this season include Rangers defenseman Adam Fox of Jericho, Calgary Flames forward Matt Coronato of Huntington, Laurel Hollow’s Marshall Warren, who played eight games with the Islanders, Smithtown’s Ryan Ufko of the Nashville Predators, the Islanders' Kyle Palmieri, who grew up in New Jersey, but was born in Smithtown, and Massapequa’s Sonny Milano, who played for the Washington Capitals but has signed to play in Europe next season.

And the next wave of Long Islanders is on the way.

Roslyn's Ethan Wyttenbach, a 2025 draft pick by the Flames, was the NCAA’s Rookie of the Year for Quinnipiac, and is on track to be in the NHL perhaps as soon as 2027-28. Smithtown's Christian Semetsis just finished his first season with the U.S. National Team Development Program (NTDP), which produces many Division I college, Canadian major junior, and future NHL players.

Secrets to success on LI

So why is Long Island producing so many high-end hockey players?

There are a number of possible reasons. Long Island has a track record of producing players and is drawing more attention from college and major junior scouts. Players from the Island are also more skilled, which is something John Osei-Tutu, an NHL agent who grew up in Freeport and represents a number of Long Island NHLers, attributes to the work of a Lithuanian skills coach named Aleksey Nikiforov, who emigrated to Long Island in the early 1990s.

Nikiforov briefly worked with the Rangers under coach Roger Nielsen, then worked with a number of prospects out of The Rinx in Hauppauge in the 1990s, including NHLers Darius Kasparaitis, Dainius Zubrus and Vladimir Malakhov, and future NHLers like Komisarek, Eric Nystrom and Chris Higgins.

“Every single player that made it from here either was a student of his, or is a student of somebody who was a student of his,’’ Osei-Tutu said of Nikiforov. “He was the most talented person I'd ever been on the ice with.’’

Bracco thinks today’s kids are also drawing inspiration from the ones who came before them.

“I think one generation started something, then the next generations follow that,’’ he said. “And it just seems like the age groups are only getting stronger on Long Island, which is really nice. Because even back in the past, any good kids on Long Island would have to travel to Jersey or Connecticut or Boston or to New England. Now, kids are coming [from off Long Island] to us.’’

The rise of competitive and successful junior hockey programs on Long Island has also played a major role. Bracco coached the Long Island Gulls' 1997 birth year team that featured McAvoy, Fox, and his oldest son, Jeremy Bracco, a second-round draft pick by the Toronto Maple Leafs who played three seasons in the AHL and now plays professionally in Europe.

Bracco coached that group for 10 years, then coached the Gulls’ 2007 team that featured his second son, Donny, a defenseman who played for the NTDP and is now at Harvard, and Wyttenbach. When Donny Bracco made the NTDP, Mike gave up coaching the Gulls and turned them over to Smith, who coached the 16-and-under team to a national championship in 2024. It was Smith’s second consecutive national title with the Gulls.

The Gulls' roster featured players from all over the country who left their homes to come to Long Island to play at the highest possible level, get top-flight coaching and the best exposure to college and major junior scouts. The 2007 team had players from California, Minnesota, Florida, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey and upstate New York. Nine of the 23 players were from Long Island.

Pete Judge, a Westbury native who is a scout for the Moncton Wildcats of the Quebec and Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), said players don't have to move off Long Island anymore to get exposure to scouts.

“My advice to parents always is like, you don't need to move your son [off the Island] unless he's dominant, and it's boring for him,’’ he said. “If he's not having fun anymore, then get him out. Get him to where you think there's a better opportunity for him to go somewhere that's stronger, for better competition, or to a better team in New Jersey, or Connecticut or whatever it is. But unless he is dominating, stay home. You're fine where you are.’’

Rob O’Gara, an assistant coach at Yale who grew up in Nesconset and played five seasons of pro hockey, including 22 games for the Rangers in 2017-18, agrees.

“The hockey ecosystem, as complicated as it is, I think is more robust now than it was, where it's not like, 'OK, if I really want to get a look when I'm getting recruited, I’ve got to get the hell out of here,’ ’’ said O'Gara, who played for the Long Island Royals club team and now scouts players from Long Island. “It's just not like that anymore.’’

Putting 'Long Island hockey on the map'

Fox ended up leaving Long Island when he made the NTDP after his sophomore year at Jericho High School.

His father, Bruce, said he chose to have Adam stay with the Gulls “because the hockey was better on Long Island.’’ He told Smith, who had taken over the Gulls team from Bracco, that if he could put a strong team together, Adam would stay.

"I mean, honestly, I didn't really think my kid was gonna be a pro player, I'm not gonna lie,'' Bruce Fox said. "I mean, you can't just assume your kid's gonna be a pro player, even if he's good, right?''

Adam Fox has said that he first realized he had a chance to reach the NHL when he made the NTDP. There, he rejoined McAvoy and Jeremy Bracco, who had made the program the year before.

Thompson, who played for the Long Island Royals and P.A.L. Junior Islanders while his father, Brent, was an assistant coach with the Islanders, and defenseman Steven Ruggiero of Kings Park, also made it to the program the same year as Fox, meaning there were five Long Islanders in the program at one time. Two years later, Fox, McAvoy, Thompson, and Bracco were on the U.S. team that won the gold medal at the World Junior Championships, a seminal moment for Long Island hockey.

“We had four Long Island guys on the World Junior team,’’ Fox said. “Something like that . . . adds a little, I don't know, inspiration, [and] puts Long Island hockey on the map for sure. And I think we're all proud of that, too. It's something we took a lot of pride in, to represent Long Island.’’

Making it to the NTDP is the most straightforward way of getting from Long Island to the NHL. In all, 23 players from Long Island (including Thompson, who was born in Arizona when his father played for the Coyotes) have played for the program, which began in 1996.

West Islip's Komisarek, a defenseman, made the program in 1999, and Eric Nystrom, the son of Islanders great Bob Nystrom, made the program in 2000. Nystrom was a first-round pick, No. 10 overall in 2002, by the Calgary Flames.

“Myself and Mike Komisarek were the two Long Island guys there [at NTDP],’’ Nystrom said. “And I feel like almost every year there's one kid from Long Island on that team.’’

Smithtown's Semetsis is there now.

“It’s so special,’’ said Semetsis, who played youth hockey for the Long Island Royals. “Especially to know that Long Island's not really known for their hockey. So, it's cool to know that it's definitely possible [to make it from Long Island]. And a lot of guys have done it and are doing it currently.’’

More options now

There are other ways of getting to the NHL. Wyttenbach played with the Gulls for his 16U season before going to play junior hockey with the Sioux Falls Stampede of the USHL, the top junior league in the United States.

“It was scary, to be honest,’’ Wyttenbach said of leaving home. “It was going across the country, living away from my family for the first time. It's definitely a huge adjustment. I mean, being from New York, going to the Midwest is a whole different jump.’’

Wyttenbach planned to stay in Sioux Falls for two years, but after he scored 24 goals and totaled 51 points in 44 games in his first season, the Flames drafted him in the fifth round and told him to go to college. He scored 25 goals and totaled 59 points in 40 games last season for Quinnipiac, and elected to return for another season, rather than leaving to go to the Flames’ training camp and challenge for a roster spot.

Bussi played most of his youth hockey with the Long Island Royals and then moved to the Junior Islanders to play 16U, then to the Gulls to play 18U. He then played in the NAHL, the second-best junior hockey league in the U.S, returned to Long Island to play for the Junior Islanders in a lower-level junior league, and then jumped to the USHL. He played three seasons for Western Michigan University before signing as an undrafted free agent with the Bruins. He never played for Boston. He signed as a free agent this season with the Florida Panthers. Carolina claimed him off waivers from Florida, and he went 31-6-2 and signed a three-year, $5.7 million deal.

“I think Brandon's honestly probably one of the best examples of why there is good infrastructure on Long Island for hockey,’’ Judge said. “He played at the Royals, he played for the Gulls, he played for P.A.L., and then he went out [off the Island] to play junior . . . And it didn't work for him. So thankfully, P.A.L. has their junior program. It's not the strongest in the country . . . but it's something, right? So, he's able to come home, regroup, play at home for another year, and then he really built on that season.’’

Players who dream of playing college or pro hockey have more options on Long Island than they used to.

Semetsis said he began dreaming of that future at around age 10 when he realized he was getting looked at by prep schools who wanted him to come play for them.

“At the very start, I was just playing, just living in the moment,’’ Semetsis said. “And as my career went on at the Royals, I kind of started to think that I wanted to play pro one day, and it's been a dream of mine ever since.’’