nascar99

Would hope he's at North Dakota for at least 2 years (with one of those years being a Frozen Four appearance at minimum)

Bryce Pickford signs his ELC with Montreal, bypassing any chance that he'd go NCAA

Steiner is a different case considering he's just an import playing in the Q and not a Quebecois who would be extremely unlikely to go to North Dakota. Getting Boisvert was surprising and ultimately not surprised that he left to go out east

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