What would be the minimal modules I need to have for a simple registration page? I would like to make a registration page that is only going to add Users to a list for an event, basically my site is not as concerned with accounts and detailed registration we only really care about name and a contact email that we can add to a list.  Basically it's a group that has monthly events and all we ever really need is a way to track people who say they will attend, not a lot of heavy requirements for people to modify their registrations (most won't anyway) or capture a lot of information.

The various registration and event options for Drupal look overwhelming, I am using Drupal 7 and at this point using only modules and the CMS system to add pages (no coding yet).  Is there a minimal set of modules that would give me the ability to obtain just a User's name and contact info (email or whatever) to put onto a list in a page?  Or for this is it just easier to just code a page that can add in what I want using PHP or JSON.
You should be able to do this with the default installation of the core + Views, Views UI, and CTools.  (You may be able to strip it further down by doing a custom installation of the core with some of the default core modules not enabled - but why bother).

I assume you're going to handle multiple events, and here taxonomy (in core) is your friend.  Just enable the taxonomy module (if necessary) and create one taxonomy term for each event. Add a taxonmy field (or multiple to allow one user to sign up for more that one event) to the users' profiles.  Ask users to register the events they plan to attent in their profile when they register (or later).

Then use Views to generate lists of names and contact addresses for the various events.

You may want to add refinements, such as not letting users cancel after they've signed up, but the above is a rough sketch of how to meet your minimal requirement.