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SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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Chicago Steel general manager Ryan Hardy has built a juggernaut in the United States Hockey League by embracing a similar philosophy to that of Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas. 

"There's a lot of parallels in what we're doing and what they're doing," Hardy agreed. "Obviously, we share two guys in player development in Darryl Belfry and Adam Nicholas who are consultants for the Leafs and run our player development with Tristan Musser. So, I think in terms of a commitment to individual development and doing that within the framework of a larger team I think we're very much aligned."

Of course, the Leafs and Steel play in different leagues with different challenges. With a weekend-heavy schedule, there's more time for development in the USHL, a junior​ league.  

"But in terms of a mindset and a mentality we're after the same thing," Hardy said, "having uniform concepts in each department and having everybody on the same page and pulling in the same direction."

That direction for the Steel has been up. They made the Clark Cup final last year as Hardy was named the league's top general manager. And Chicago was clearly the class of the USHL this year with a 15-point bulge atop the standings when the season was called due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Even with no games being played, the organization continued to experience success. Highly-touted prospect Adam Fantilli, projected to be the No. 1 pick in the Ontario Hockey League draft, opted to sign with the Steel. And TSN director of scouting Craig Button's latest list of the top 100 draft prospects featured six Steel players, including forward Brendan Brisson at No. 22. 

So, what's working in the Windy City? Hardy, who served as an amateur scout with the Boston Bruins for two seasons before moving to Chicago, spoke to TSN via Zoom this week. The 34-year-old lays out his team-building philosophy and shared insight on why the Steel have experienced so much success. The following is an edited transcript of the interview. 

How would you describe your team-building philosophy? 

"For me, it starts with our coaching staff and the way we're set up. We all are united in a vision of how we want to play, a style that we want to play. We want to have the puck. We want to make plays. We get labelled as a progressive, offensive team, but I do think that it's very much marrying progressive and modern concepts with the older-school habits that still do matter in the game and instilling those in young people. We don't have a top six and a bottom six or a top four and a bottom two or whatever, we just try and get as many highly competitive and intelligent people that love hockey and have a passion for hockey into our program and then we teach them. We provide them resources. We've had a lot of success so far, so hopefully we can keep it going."

Do you think we'll ever see position-less hockey?  

"We experiment with something probably close to that ... of our five-on-five goals 0.79 per game were scored by defencemen, which is a very high number. So, we try to encourage our defencemen to get in the rush. There was one instance when we possessed the puck for 30 or 40 seconds in the offensive zone and then (had) a 2-on-0 in front of the goalie and the two players in front of the goalie are our two defencemen so we give our defencemen a lot of freedom. 

"I do think that there's some challenges like a line rush against and even the confidence at the blueline for a forward when he has to cover and the puck comes, it's a very foreign spot for them to be in. And then, certainly, around the net there are areas where forwards are more comfortable or it's more natural for them to score so there's some challenges with it. I don't know if we'll ever get to this completely utopian position-less concept, but I do think there's a place for a lot more crossover of the positions and as long as the players are accountable to what their main responsibilities are I think you can do some really creative things." 

You guys signed a contract with a company to help player mindset resilience development. What does that entail? 

"It's actually a company out of Toronto. It’s two brothers, Matthew and Chris Caldaroni, and Mind-Body Fusion is the company ... The mental health component is a very prevalent thing that we're talking about now. There's so much pressure on these kids and I think sometimes, even in my position, we don't have a full appreciation for the scrutiny that they're under. Social media makes the world very small and there's a lot of things they're trying to balance whether it's school, whether it's NHL draft, whether it's their passion for hockey and maybe not having success, so we partnered with Mind-Body Fusion. They come in about once a month or every six weeks, they come in for a week and work with the players and then they're always available to the players by phone or by Skype to have dialogue ... The main principle of it is to give them tools and strengthen their skill-set to deal with adversity and deal with different situations that don't necessarily go their way and how can they keep it on the track, so to speak."

The Toronto Marlies hired Steel head coach Greg Moore to replace Sheldon Keefe in the American Hockey League earlier this season. You served as director of player personnel at the USA Hockey National Development Team Program when Moore was an assistant coach there. Why do you think Moore is a good coach? 

"When we hired him he had only been an assistant for three years at the NTDP, but I could just see so much promise and so much potential in him. There's a style that he wants to play that's nuanced and there's a lot of granular details in it that I very much believe in, it just takes some time. So, when we started last year, we really struggled out of the gate that first year and then it started to gain momentum and all the kids bought into Greg's philosophy and the coaches were completely on board with what he was doing and once we turned (it on) we really started to have some success.

"Greg's a smart guy. The thing I most admire about him is he's really a quality person. He has a passion for people. He's a natural leader, he's done that his whole life being captain of different teams. And just the way he goes about his business, he's professional, he treats people well. As a player, he's a guy who had to earn his way and scratch and claw for anything he got so he has that mentality with a brain that works in a way that he is very open to new ideas and wanting to challenge the status quo and push things in a certain way, which aligns with Kyle and what they're trying to do there so I think that's why it was a good fit." 

How did you sell Adam Fantilli on the Steel? I know you drafted his brother, Luca Fantilli, which probably helps, but how did you sell a guy who was set to become the No. 1 pick in the OHL draft on moving south? 

"You try to keep brothers separate, it's important. When I got to the National Program, Matthew Tkachuk was already in the Program and so when I started to recruit Brady it was important to me that Brady had his own experience and I've tried to do that the same way here.

"We drafted Luca and I think he's very much an underrated player that went to Kimball Union Academy this year and was really successful, almost a point per game as a defenceman and running their power play and playing in every situation, so that part took care of itself. 

"Adam, obviously, we had identified him just tracking the GTHL and watching him two years ago as a late '04 (birthday) and it was like, 'Wow, this is an impressive package that this kid has.' The Fantillis are really impressive people. They've been really transparent with us. They said, 'Hey, we're going to look at this one year at a time, we're not closing the door to the OHL, we're not necessarily going to the NCAA,' and I said, 'I'm fine with that.' 

"When I was with the National Team Program we had a lot of kids that would come through and then decide, ultimately, to play Major Junior, and so we were cognizant that Adam had options. What we 'sold him on' was just the development piece. We have guys at the rink from nine o'clock in the morning to five o'clock at night and we have a lot of pieces and a lot of items that work through their development. 

"I didn't tell him how great he was. We told him, 'Hey, you're a talented 15-year-old, but there's no such thing, really, as an elite 15-year-old. You're just a kid and there's so many areas you can grow and here are the areas we think you can grow and here are the resources we have and how we think we can help you.' 

"You can tell right away when people are committed to a process and believe in what you're doing and the Fantillis never were like, 'What's his role? Is he going to be top six? Can he have this?' It was just, 'Hey, this is a great opportunity for our son and it's another benefit that the boys can stay together at least one more year and we'll see what happens from there.'"

Brendan Brisson, the son of player agent Pat Brisson, recorded the most points by a rookie in Steel history with 59 in 45 games. What stands out the most about him?

"You look back three years ago and he was pretty off the radar. He was not perceived to be an elite player in his age group and then he grew as the years went along and this year he really accelerated his development. Brendan is a smart player. He can make plays, he's crafty with the puck, he's got fast-twitch skill, he can score, he has so many attributes that make him multi-dimensional. 

"This year he put a lot of work in on his off-ice habits in terms of making every detail matter. And his play off the puck, he put in a lot of work on his defensive play. It's funny, there's a lot of noise around our program with how much we score and how much we value offence, but we want to have well-rounded players and Brendan really embraced that. This is a player who's trajectory is heading straight north. 

"Now he's able to look back on all these experiences he had as a young person with [Brisson clients] Nathan MacKinnon and John Tavares and Sidney Crosby and all these people that he got to interact with and subconsciously you put some things in the memory bank and now it's all coming full circle for him and he's reflecting on those things and how they can help him."

What is hockey's biggest blind spot? 

"We've made a lot of progress in so many areas. I think the biggest thing I see, and it's not a specific hockey thing ... (but) where we've had success is that everyone that comes to work with us is committed to a larger mission and is able to put aside their own self interest and we're able to have open dialogue. It would seem, maybe from an outside perspective, to be contentious but it's not really. It's people with a full respect for each other and I think it's amazing what you can accomplish when you look at yourself as a servant to the people that are around you and that's what I do with our coaches, that's what we all do with our players. 

"This is a players game and the players are smarter than ever and they know a lot about things beyond hockey and I think the more we can empower them and give them, not full control, but more or less it's their locker room and their team, I think that's when we can all have the most success. 

"And from an on-ice perspective, I do think there's a lot of opportunity (for growth) ... we talk about a lot of these ideas we have and then we study (Russian coaching legend) Anatoly Tarasov and the stuff he did in 1965 and we're not changing the world by any stretch or reinventing the wheel, but there's a lot of opportunity to look to the past and find areas that can help us in the future."