When the Avalanche arrived in 1995, young hockey players with big dreams had to move elsewhere to find adequate competition. Now, the competition moves here.

Billet parents Rob and Debi Hoffman of Colorado Springs have four children, but they helped raise four others out of their previous Monument home, plus others on a part-time basis.

Their billets are temporarily adopted hockey players — the ones looking to play juniors, in college or professionally. Cam Strong came from Billings, Mont., Garrett Metcalf from Salt Lake City and Charlie Donlin and Matt LaPrade from the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. They played triple-A hockey for the Colorado Rampage, one of the state’s four Tier I programs.

Strong will play for Dartmouth this fall and Metcalf — a sixth-round draft pick of the Anaheim Ducks last June — is bound for UMass Lowell. Donlin plays for Division III St. Thomas in Minnesota and LaPrade was a one-time University of Minnesota recruit who was forced to hang up the skates because of an injury.

“These kids became like family for us,” said Rob Hoffman, a retired money manger and stock broker who grew up in New Jersey.

“We do it out of sense of community,” Debi Hoffman said.

University of Denver freshman Dylan Gambrell is from Bonney Lake, Wash., but he played for the Colorado Thunderbirds’ U-16 team in 2011-12, billeting with teammate Brandon Carlo and his family in Colorado Springs. Gambrell centers DU’s top line and is among its leading scorers. He is expected to be drafted by an NHL team in June.

“You mature as a hockey player and person,” said Gambrell, who attended high school in Colorado Springs. “You mature a lot, moving away from your parents. It’s a whole other world, but a good experience all around. The coaches and the players take you under their wings and become like family.”

Gambrell’s Thunderbirds were upset by the Dallas Stars Elite at the district playoffs but finished 56-6-6.

“For me, I thought it was the best opportunity I could have,” Gambrell said.

Carlo could be the next NHL player born and raised in Colorado, following Seth Jones of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Nick Shore of the Los Angeles Kings. Carlo, who is playing major junior for the Tri-City Americans, was drafted in the second round by the Boston Bruins last summer and represented his country at the past two World Junior Championships. He and Gambrell were drawn to the Thunderbirds since the U-16 team won the national title in 2010, Colorado’s first and only to date.

Jones, the fourth selection in the 2013 draft, also played for the Thunderbirds along with Shore, the second of three brothers to play at DU.

The Hoffmans, meanwhile, are sadly without a billet this season for the first time since 2009. They are saving money, but miss having another highly motivated hockey player serving as a role model for their fourth child, Andrew, who is a freshman hockey player at Lewis-Palmer.

“They crushed us in food,” Rob Hoffman, 56, said of his billets, who are required to pay a $300 monthly fee.

“The $300 is a nice bonus, but we certainly didn’t do it for the money,” said Debi Hoffman, 53.

“It covers Gatorade,” Rob said. “It has nothing to do with the money.”

Mike Chambers: mchambers@denverpost.com or @mikechambers