If only Stephen Johns and Brandon Saad wore cleats instead of blades.

Then, they would be touted as teenage prodigies, pegged as the next-best things to come out of Western Pennsylvania.

People would beg them to attend their favorite college and classmates would ask for autographs at lunch.

But Johns and Saad go to work on the ice, not the football field, and few outside of the youth hockey scene have a clue about their abilities.

Not for long.

Within two years, both are projected to be first-round draft picks in the NHL. And both have had to sacrifice a great deal to get to this point.

They are in Ann Arbor, Mich., training in the U.S. National Team Development Program. They had to move away from home, live with host families, go to a new high school and spend most of their free time with a hockey stick in their hands.

Penguins president David Morehouse likened the prestige of the USNTDP to Parade Magazine's All-America football team, which selects the 22 best high school players in the country.

The program is "the best way for the best kids in the U.S. to develop their talent," Morehouse said.

Johns, 17, is a high school senior from Wampum, in Lawrence County between Beaver Falls and New Castle. He joined the USNTDP last year, leaving his parents' house before he could even drive.

He never thought twice about his decision, and said his parents, Ray and Noreen, did not hesitate in their decision to let him go.

He has wanted to be a professional hockey player since he was a youngster and has lived his life to get there.

"I didn't just make it a dream," Johns said. "I set a goal."

That means sacrifice, his mother said.

"He's grown up quickly," Noreen Johns said. "They had to mature pretty quick. He can probably get through any airport on his own.

"He's given up a lot for many years. He's never been the normal kid to sleep in on a Saturday morning."

Her son is not the only one who has sacrificed, she said.

"We gave up a couple years of his life, his growing up," Noreen Johns said.

But she added it was a good decision, and hopes it will all pay off.

Johns, a defenseman, likely will be a top-20 pick in the 2010 NHL draft, according to independent scouting service Red Line Report.

At 6 feet 3, 215 pounds, Johns is a physical force on the ice. He said he likes the way Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik plays.

"He isn't known for getting points," Johns said, "but he's known for being a bruiser on the team."

His "best friend" in Ann Arbor, Saad, is also a force on the ice.

At 6-1, 191 pounds, Saad is a strong forward with an accurate shot. In 2011, his first year of draft eligibility, Red Line Report projects that Saad could be as high as a top-10 pick in the draft.

Saad, also 17, led Pine-Richland High School to a Penguins Cup championship as a freshman, scoring a hat-trick in the championship game at Mellon Arena.

He joined the USNTDP this season -- two years before most teenagers leave for college.

"It was definitely pretty hard because I've never been away from my family for more than a week at camp or something," he said.

He said his parents, like Johns', usually attend every home game the team plays -- about a four-hour drive from their home north of Pittsburgh.

He hails from a hockey family in Gibsonia and, with his older brother George, played for the Mahoning Valley Phantoms.

But Saad left the Phantoms for the national program in hopes of sharpening his skills enough to play in the NHL.

Now, his free time is consumed with perfecting his craft. He trains constantly, works with brilliant hockey coaches, studies a lot of video and plays against and with high-level talent.

"It brings hockey to a-whole-nother level," he said.

Johns and Saad are trying to balance their professional hockey hopes with teenage realities. The two, along with the rest of the USNTDP players, take classes at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor. That means homework is still due, even if they are just months away from being drafted.

And both can still attend college, depending on the wishes of the NHL team that owns their draft rights. Johns has verbally committed to Notre Dame and said it is likely he could play for the Irish for four years.

Johns and Saad represent a blossoming youth hockey scene in Western Pennsylvania and are following the paths of other individuals who have made it to the NHL.

Plum's R.J. Umberger might be the most famous of a bunch that includes former Penguins Ryan Malone (Upper St. Clair) and Bill Thomas (Fox Chapel) and Wilkes-Barre defenseman Nate Guenin (Hopewell).

Three area athletes play for the USNTDP at a younger level. Barrett Kaib, a defenseman from Upper St. Clair; John Gibson, a goaltender from Whitehall; and J.T. Miller, a forward from East Palestine, Ohio, play on the USNTDP U-17 team.

That means five of the 43 players on the U-18 and U-17 rosters are within a one-hour drive of Mellon Arena.

More than a dozen area players were recently drafted to or currently playing for NHL teams.

And since 2000, six other Western Pennsylvania teenagers, including Umberger, played for the USNTDP, which also produced No. 1 overall draft picks Patrick Kane (2007, Chicago Blackhawks) and Erik Johnson (2006, St. Louis Blues).

Morehouse gives a lot of credit to one man for the area's youth hockey movement: Mario Lemieux.

Today's crop of young hockey players were born or first started skating when Lemieux was playing for the Penguins.

Johns, who calls himself a "Mario baby," and Saad were born the same year (1992) Lemieux guided the Penguins to their second of consecutive Stanley Cup titles.

The Penguins, more than any other NHL team, have been led by star players, and Morehouse said the presence of those players has been crucial to inspiring youth. Thirteen of the past 21 NHL scoring champions have been Penguins.

Now, the Penguins are trying to invest more in youth hockey to increase the notion that Pittsburgh is as much a "hockey town" as Detroit, Boston and Minneapolis.

The Penguins, Sidney Crosby, Dick's Sporting Goods and Reebok recently teamed to launch the "Little Penguins Learn to Play Hockey Program," which provides free equipment to qualifying youngsters who enroll in youth programs.

So, if Johns and Saad are Mario babies, then Pittsburgh's future hockey phenoms will be Sid's kids.

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