Update

Not much going on in the world of NU hockey, just two things of note recently:

Dax Lauwers, a defensemen for the Lincoln Stars has decided to come for the upcoming season. Lauwers is a big guy at 6’2”, and is described as a pure defensive defenseman and a shot-blocking machine, as well as having a lot of edge and grit. These are all things that the NU defense desperately needs, especially with the loss of Eibler and Bitetto. The fact that he appears to have absolutely no offensive skills is a secondary concern, but if this guy can play a good game of defense then I won’t have complaints.

Northeastern’s bringing in a lot of defensemen for next year, all of whom are overagers, and all but one of whom are pretty big. I’m tentatively optimistic about this; these guys tend to be more ready Day 1, and we now have more competition, and we can sit guys who play badly more often than we could last year, when the bench was thin. It also hopefully brings in some grit that we missed last year.

Secondly, Jon Gillies has committed to Providence College. Gillies is the likely the last Cronin guy who has left, and going to Providence lets us see what he looks like. Unfortunately, we’ll also likely see this guy work his skills on the Huskies 3 times a year. Things could still change before October, but for now Gillies is going to play for the Friars.

Eibler transferring

Luke Eibler is apparently transferring to another school, likely back in his home state of Michigan, according to his facebook today. Considering the only solace we had about our incredibly young defensive corp was that Eibler could anchor it, his departure is a brutal blow to the blueline. Here’s what’s left:

Returning: Drew Ellement, Josh Manson, Dan Cornell, Ben Oskroba, Jake Hoeffler

Incoming: Colton Saucerman, Michael Gunn, Jarrett Fennell, Dustin Darou.

Northeastern’s top returning Dman is Drew Ellement, and that is utterly terrifying. Two of the returning Defenseman haven’t played more than a handful of college games, and two others are just sophomores. Of the 4 incoming defenseman, Saucerman is still recovering from a knee injury (though should be ready by October), and Fennell and Darou are from lower canadian leagues and are unknowns. They could be like Cornell and be hidden gems, or they could be like Hoeffler and not really be ready for D-I hockey.

This, plus Gillies gone, is gonna put a lot of pressure on the defensive aspect of our game. Our defensive corp is incredibly young, and there’s no one that really stands out as a major prospect (like in 2010-2011, when Bitetto, Oleksiak, and Eibler were all clearly prospects).

Northeastern likely has money for another defenseman (and maybe another forward, since the Daniels brothers are gone) but the talent pool is pretty thin at this point. There are a couple of highly ranked guys in prep school for defensemen, but the jump from prep to D-I is a long one, and other than that there aren’t a lot of highly ranked guys. This upcoming year is going to be incredibly tough defensively, unless some of these guys Madigan’s bringing in are ready immediately. Otherwise, it may be a long autumn.

A look at next year’s OOC schedule

While the fan forums over at USCHO is usually a hellish landscape filled with trolls and fanboys, they occasionally have some very interesting information. Every year the fans of all the different teams compile the schedule of everyone. While Northeastern only has a bit of info so far, but there’s some more information not posted:

-2 Beanpot Games

-St. Lawrence

-Alabama Huntsville

-Notre Dame

In addition, there are 2 more potential games that aren’t listed yet. RPI was mentioned as a possibility, but there’s no mention of us visiting RPI among RPI fans. So there’s still a bit of mystery. Overall, this seems like a fairly balanced schedule. Notre Dame and BU in the Beanpot opener are all consistently strong teams. Alabama Huntsville is a pretty bad team, while St. Lawrence was a middling team in the ECAC. So it’s not like 2010-2011, when we played 3 AHA teams, and it’s not like last year’s tough schedule. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing Alabama. They’re a struggling team trying to remain alive down south, and being able to play them is a welcome site (especially if they are eliminated within the next few years). St. Lawrence is another team I have yet to see, so getting to watch them is nice.

Hopefully, we’ll know more within the next few weeks as to the last few games, but off to a pretty good start.

Captain Named for next year

Congratulations to Vinny Saponari, who will captain the Huskies for the upcoming 2012-2013 season. Also congratulations to Robbie Vrolyk and Ludwig Karlsson, who were named the team’s assistant captains. Karlsson won the rookie of the year award, while Vrolk won the team’s unsung hero award.

There are a couple of interesting takeaways here. Saponari as the Captain is pretty interesting to me. He’s only played for the team 1 year, but he’s played 3 seasons of college hockey, and has won a national championship, so he knows how to win, and seems like a seasoned veteran who can really build a good team mentality here. The fact that he’s staying also points to his interest in finishing off his college career in a strong way. He probably could have signed after leaving BU, or after this season, but he wants to stick around, which I think is a great sign.

The Assistant Captain choices are pretty interesting, and I must say I am surprised. I can’t speak to either’s character, but I assume the coaching staff knows what kind of guys they want leading this team, and they are those kind of characters. Vrolyk’s been around a lot, and despite not playing a lot last season, put up some pretty respectable numbers, scoring 5 goals in the last 6 games. Karlsson started very strong, but tapered off at the end. I’d like to see a consistently strong season for Karlsson all throughout next year, which I think is very possible (especially if he sticks with Vermeersch and Saponari).

Finally, Drew Daniels, who was Assistant Captain this year, lost his position. I’ve heard significant talk that the Daniels are both planning on leaving, and this seems to reinforce it.. Frankly, they haven’t done much, and the indication I got was that they were pretty low on the depth charts (the coaching staff believes their new defensemen are a step up on Drew Daniels, and the same likely goes with Justin Daniels and the center position). If they do indeed sign, it’ll be the departure of 2 more Cronin guys, and accelerate Madigan’s rise, and possibly allow him to add another guy or 2 for the upcoming season (BU’s 2013 recruit, Sam Kurker, wants to come in this upcoming year, and BU has no extra space for him currently, is a potential idea).

All in all, some interesting developments, and will make for a very interesting next year.

Gillies gone, Rawlings staying

Mark this as possibly the first time that a lack of an early departure may screw up Northeastern’s future. Rawlings has decided to stick around for his senior season (probably  after failing to get much pro interest). His staying prevents Madigan from offering Gillies the scholarship that Rawlings holds, and probably causes more competition than was expected. It’s an incredibly unfortunate situation, and forces Madigan to go back to the drawing table for a future goalie. Now we’re going to have to ride Rawlings or Witt for the next year.

Early Signings and UConn Upgrade?

Yesterday Anthony Bitetto signed a pro contract with the Nashville Predators, thus ending his time at Northeastern. While tragic to lose such a solid defenseman, it is clear that this early departure was not surprising to the coaching staff. Madigan is bringing in 4 defensemen, and we were losing none of our top 6. So are we in danger of losing more? I think that is unlikely. Of the 4, 2 (Mike Gunn and Colton Saucerman, both from good teams in the USHL) look like they are meant to play a lot. Saucerman has been out with a knee injury likely means that there’s some doubt he’ll be 100% be the time the season starts. As for the other 2, they seem like an attempt to improve the depth positions we have, as well as provide some slack in the event we want to move a converted forward like Josh Manson back to being a forward.

The other big news today is UConn’s official application to join Hockey East. UConn’s application is, I believe, the first actual application to be the 12th member (others have expressed interest, but no actual application). Based on the article, it seems that UConn is willing to drop a decent amount of money to build a program, which will be necessary to join Hockey East. I think UConn’s entry is a good thing if it happens. They are in the one New England state untapped by Hockey East, and certainly have the willingness and money to make the needed investment in hockey. Their joining also adds another big name school to our ranks, and could help score a larger tv deal, or more national exposure.

Minor Updates

With our season over and not much going on, I will sadly have far less to talk about over the next few months. So I will likely look into other Hockey East teams as a source for inspiration to write. Any writing like this will be focused on non-Northeastern teams in the context of Hockey East or college hockey in general.

-San Jose announced the signing of Sebastian Stalberg, a sophomore from the University of Vermont. San Jose loves college hockey and Hockey East: their entire Worcester team is a veritable who’s who of Hockey East stars over the years. For Vermont, this is a loss of a significant offensive talent on a team bereft of offensive talent. With this, UVM will have lose their 1st and 3rd top scorers, as well as their top goalie (though their goalie, Rob Madore, was quite subpar this season).

-Far off in the future recruit Cam Askew got an interview with Dan Sallows, a blogger who focuses on future talent: guys in the NCAA, USHL, and Canadian leagues. 2 things stand out. First is that he’s interviewing Askew, who’s 14. A lot of guys he interviews are mostly draft eligible, but he clearly sees some top talent with this kid. Second is Askew’s size. He’s only 14 but is 6’3”. By the time he gets here (if he does) he could be a monster of a kid.

-Finally, Ludwig Karlsson was a unanimous choice for Hockey East’s Rookie team. For a lot of the season he was in contention for ROTY along with Scott Wilson and John Gaudreau. However, near the end of the season he tapered off and Wilson continued his hot streak. Still, Karlsson had a terrific freshman season, and this was a well-deserved award.