Legends of Motown: Legacy of Motown’s Best Ever

A Destination For Top Tier Talent Year Over Year

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this fall, the CCM Motown has been a premier event on the AAA calendar, a must for the top teams in North America that want to face off against top competition. Regularly featuring programs from across Ontario and the United States, Motown has seen more than 2,500 teams come its way over the last 19 years.

For a tournament that has featured more than 200 NHL Draft picks, including stars such as Evan Bouchard, Jakob Chychrun, Alex DeBrincat, Jack Hughes, Adam Fox, Jordan Kyrou, Charlie McAvoy, Jack Roslovic, Andrei Svechnikov, Brady Tkachuk, Zach Werenski, and Trevor Zegras, arguably no team has been more talented than the ’97 St. Louis AAA Blues.

Andrei Svechnikov and his team the 2000 AK Bars go to a Red Wings practice and meet Pavel Datsyuk.

Attendees of the event for five straight seasons from 2007-2011, the AAA Blues won their division championship in 2007 and finished as runners-up twice. It’s hard to believe any team managed to outdo this star-studded lineup during that era.

In that span, the AAA Blues’ roster included five future NHL Draft picks and nine future NCAA Division I athletes. As Squirt Majors, this group won the 32-team ’97 Division over the North York Rangers and finished as runners-up in 2008 and 2011 as well. Coached by former NHLers Keith Tkachuk and Jeff Brown, it should come as no surprise that a team with four eventual first-round NHL Draft picks would be competing for championships.

“I just remember, even at that age, you knew that group was going to be special,” said Sasha Ristic. “Now, I don’t think anybody could have imagined four first-round picks, countless Division I players, a gold medalist… the accolades seem to go on and on. It’s been fun to watch their careers unfold as the years have passed.”

Founder of Motown, Ristic served as tournament director of the event from its inception until 2015. Since that time, he has mentored a colleague (Jon Sutton) to run the event.

Clayton Keller, Trent Frederic, and Logan Brown – 1998 birth years but playing up with the ’97s – as well as Luke Kunin and Matthew Tkachuk shared the ice in Detroit at the 2007 Motown, only to share the stage nine years later at the 2016 NHL Draft in Buffalo, New York. Tkachuk and Keller were selected in consecutive picks, going sixth overall to Calgary and seventh overall to Arizona, respectively. Brown went 11th overall to Ottawa, Frederic went 29th overall to Boston, and Kunin went 15th overall to Minnesota.

Matthew Tkachuk fires a shot on net with the St. Louis AAA Blues.

Couple that with a fifth-round pick in goaltender Luke Opilka, NCAA forwards Austin Rueschhoff (Western Michigan) and Frankie Melton (Ferris State), as well as defenders Jacob Wilson (Arizona State), Michael Davies (Denver), and Joey Matthews (Dartmouth). Throw in a future women’s Team USA defender Jincy Dunne (Ohio State) to top it all off, and that certainly cements the Blues’ lineup as the most decorated team in the Motown archives.

“My son [Niko] is a ’97 and played for Little Caesars,” said Ristic. “We had a very close relationship with that Blues team, and every time the two teams got together on or off the ice, it was something special.”

Tkachuk, Kunin, and others from the ’97-birth year are among the first wave of Motown alumni to hit the NHL, being the featured age group from the inaugural event in 2005. In fact, during its six-year run at the Motown, the ’97-birth year featured 48 future NHL Draft picks, yet no team was as dominant, talented, or deep as the Blues.

The Motown Legacy continues to grow, whether the 2023 Motown 2011 Supertacks Division reigning champion Chicago Reapers (pictured), 2014 Supertacks Division Buffalo Jr Sabres or another team will live up to the legacy of the 1997 St. Louis Blues, only time will tell.

“I truly believe there’s no other tournament like it,” Ristic said. “The talent, the coaches, the teams… You won’t find an event that has drawn the best of the best for as long as Motown has over the years. Seeing where so many of these players ultimately end up in their careers, it really is a testament to the talent that’s here now.

Over the years the CCM Motown has been a youth hockey staple and this season will be no different. With over 775k fans flocking to Detroit for the NFL Draft, it is very apparent that Detroit is a sports town, and more specifically it is HockeyTown. Prior to 2020 the CCM Motown was drawing 70-80 Canadian teams just over the border to compete and we’ve been slowly growing back towards that number.

This year’s CCM Motown will take place October 18th through the 20th and is set to be bigger and better than ever as we celebrate its 20th year properly with celebrity appearances, featured exhibition games, and one massive party for the the Opening Ceremony on Thursday October 17th. With nearly 100 applications already accepted before the start of May, the CCM Motown will fill up as quickly as ever and teams can apply here. We look forward to seeing which teams will stand out and if any team can one day surpass the ‘97 St. Louis AAA Blues as the best Motown team of all time.