On ex-schoolboy hockey sensation Bobby Carpenter:

Bobby Carpenter has known where he wants to go for years. He remembers when he was eight, walking back home from a rink with his father, Bob Sr., and asking him if he thought he could one day play in the National Hockey League. That was in the so-called Bobby Orr era, and the goal of every kid hockey player in the Boston area was to make it to the pros. When his father said nothing, young Bobby asked, “Is it too early to tell?” His father nodded. Then, two years later, same rink, same walk, he again asked his dad about his chances of making the NHL. Bob Sr., who knows his hockey, turned and looked at his son. “It’s possible,” he said.

Today, 17-year-old Bobby Carpenter of Peabody, Mass., a city of 48,000 some 15 miles north of Boston, is the best high school hockey player in America. More than that, he’s one of the top amateur prospects in the world. In the NHL draft in June, Carpenter’s expected to be one of the first six players selected. No high school player, from the U.S. or anyplace else, has ever been among the top 60 drafted, and no American has ever been among the first 10.