nascar99

Mats Lindgren (2004) officially on the Colorado College roster after a year in the Coast and a cup of coffee in the A.

Filip Ruzicka (2008) has a .913 SV% for the Brandon Wheat Kings in the Dub. He's 6'7. Definitely someone to keep an eye on, would imagine most programs are all over him.

Just as I say that, he puts one in lmao

Martone has been borderline dominant at State but underwhelming in the World Junior. So weird

Canada doesn't have the same eye of the tiger they had in years past to absolutely pummel inferior squads. The 2021 team (who choked in the Final) mauled bad teams in the bubble

There's the bad side of Spellacy, over aggressive

Zellers top 3 best US player in this tournament?

Pradel probably needs to have that. He's an interesting potential recruit for most programs across the country

Hagens is still elite

This feels like a year for European gold. The US isn't strong enough in net across the 2006, 2007, & 2008 birthyears to make me feel like they'll get it done, and Canada doesn't feel like they can win enough tight checking games if they're forced to play that way.

Penn State committed a ton of players before CHLers became NCAA eligible, and now many of those guys have been decommitted. Will be interesting to follow their recruiting moving forward

Correct. Brunicke has disappointed, Parekh has been the usual "good offensively, all over the place defensively", Danford has just been meh at best. Verhoeff gives them another high end right shot D option

Would be very interested in Markus & Liam Ruck (2008). Both having fantastic DYs for Medicine Hat in the Dub. Not enough are paying attention to the Ruck Twins

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.