nascar99

IIRC, one of the notable Flyers podcasts suggested Nesbitt would be going to the NCAA next year. Considering he's from Ontario, Michigan State (to replace Martone after he signs pro) or Michigan make a lot of sense for Nesbitt. Would be nice for North Dakota to be in on the high end OHLers at some point, but geography and recruiting strategy suggest that it won't be often unfortunately.

Outside of the truly franchise level defensemen, most need 2 years in the NCAA, unless you produce (more than) dominant 2 way results as a freshman. We've seen Makar, Hughes, Werenski, McAvoy, Sanderson all go back to the NCAA for their sophomore year and it helped lead to elite NHL results sooner. Not quite convinced Carels, DuPont, Lin, Rudolph, & even Verhoeff are elite enough to be 1 and done NCAA players, but DuPont's underlying numbers have suggested better results in the Dub than his raw numbers so far, so he could be in for a big jump moving forward.

He probably needs another year of junior anyway to fully round out his game and dominate offensively in the Dub next year. He'll come in as a young 20 year old, but with plenty of high leverage experience at the junior level, more ready than Brent Johnson ever was when they brought him in too early. This is a quality pickup, most definitely will fill voids left behind by those signing pro after this year or next.

Michigan loses a commit to pro, Jimmy Lombardi signs his ELC with the Los Angeles Kings.

Crazy how poor Boston University has been this season. Cole Hutson the only one playing at an elite level so far

They haven't played junior in awhile, thus the style transition adjustment

Major junior (the 3 CHL leagues, which all vary a bit) is more wide open offensively, less defensive attention to detail, not great gap control, focus on skill & creativity, worse goaltending, higher scoring. All of this is in part due to the younger age range (16-20/21 year olds). The O and the Q aren't physical at all, while the Dub has been more physical, although that has dipped in recent years. US junior (USHL specifically) is far less skilled, leans a bit older (more 18-19 year olds), focus on defensive structure, but still not as quality from a structural standpoint as the NCAA. Far fewer high scoring games than in the CHL. NCAA Hockey is tighter checking, less wide open/free flowing, focused on defensive structure, lower scoring, better goaltending. Obvious exceptions in B1G & Hockey East with certain programs, but this is the general assumption. I'm only saying this with 80% confidence as I haven't watched enough junior in recent years, but this is my general understanding.

The junior style is much different than the NCAA style, hence why Smith and Verhoeff might have looked uncomfortable playing a different way. McKenna has been better playing the junior style in the past than the NCAA style now, so he flashed more in the clips I saw.

Everyone on this board has said with 80% confidence that it was Carels. Could have been others though Given the timing of Zurawski committing to Notre Dame yesterday, you could see more commitments made over the holiday break when kids are off school. Many will of course wait till season's end to make decisions, as Martone, Reschny, Verhoeff, Smith, McKenna did last year.

Hockey Canada is still getting used to the fact that more talented World Junior eligible Canadians are playing against older better competition in the NCAA. Hockey Canada will still overvalue CHLers and their performances in junior for awhile until the mental adjustments take place

Notre Dame continues to recruit well. Wonder when they'll be good again

Wouldn't be surprised to see him at Minnesota Duluth (Shaugabay connection) if he goes elsewhere. But cannot assume that until it happens or at least Schloss says something

O'Neill needs another year of junior to grow his offense and polish everything about his game before getting to the NCAA.

He was a below average defenseman in his DY and merely good but unspectacular in his D+1, didn't break out until his D+2. There's enough track record of CHLers who didn't break out until their 19 year old season who've done nothing in the NHL if they even made it, hence why they get ranked lower. The more interesting consideration is that CHLers weren't NCAA eligible in the modern era until this year, so this developmental progression from major junior to NCAA doesn't have a statistically significant nor long enough track record to be able to project to the A or the NHL. He's still not going to get picked incredibly early because he's older, which usually means his ceiling is nowhere near as high as the high end 17 year olds.

3rd time draft eligibles don't get discussed much unless they're putting up all worldly numbers and scouts really push for that guy. MacKenzie will likely get put into the 3rd-5th round range if he keeps this pace up now.