Outliers Hockey Academy director of hockey operations Paul Taylor saw Year 1 of his program as “a great success.”

Now, he sees Year 2 as one to keep the progression moving.

“We were able to raise the skill level of our athletes and teams through our intense training system and now we have some new players joining our program who want to be part of our development model,” Taylor said.

For the 2016-17 season, the Outliers will have two Squirt teams, one Pee Wee team and two Bantam teams.

“We are very encouraged and have high expectations for next season,” said Taylor. “The first year was about laying the foundation and educating families about our program’s advantages. I expect Year 2 to be a big year for us in that so many of our athletes have improved tremendously, which allows us to be more competitive. We have also attracted a lot of new talent.”

New next season will be a partnership with the new Utah Hockey Center.

“The opportunity came up through an introduction to a gentleman who had a training center sitting dormant,” explained Taylor. “Through many conversations, we decided to partner together and make it an off-ice hockey-specific training center. We chose to name it the Utah Hockey Center and open it up to all the athletes in the area to enhance everyone’s development. During the hockey season, it will be the official training home for our Outliers Hockey Academy.

“Our athletes will receive a huge benefit from this training center.”

Taylor said the benefits go beyond the Outliers.

“I think it is a tremendous opportunity to have a state-of-the art facility like the Utah Hockey Center in our own backyard,” he said. “Our program is built around high performance training and we want to provide our Outliers athletes with the best training possible and this building facilitates that for us. It is also an opportunity for us to help raise the bar in Utah and help develop some other local players from various organizations in the state.”

– Matt Mackinder