nascar99

Don't be surprised to see the Sabres draft a CHLer this June and then "mysteriously", that player ends up at Penn State.

His Dub rights are owned by Victoria, would imagine he goes there unless he really wants to go to the USHL

Pegula money?

It has everything to do with their birthday. Porter Martone presumably graduated HS in 2024 due to his 2006 birthyear but because he's born after September 15 (the NHL Draft cut date), he had to play another season (2024-25) before being drafted. So if the rules were in effect in the past, he could have graduated HS in 2024 and then played for an NCAA program like Michigan or Penn State in his DY.

Gavin McKenna doesn't apply to your example, he's a late birthday (for NHL Draft purposes) but will already have graduated before his draft year. Same as Dylan Holloway, Kent Johnson, Owen Power, Adam Fantilli: all late birthday Canadians who graduated HS as normal, but graduated before their DY and thus went into university normally for their DY. Matthew Wood, Jonathan Toews, Mike Cammalleri, Macklin Celebrini, and Eli McKamey in the future are all examples of guys with normal birthdays who accelerated a year to graduate HS after their 16 year old season so they could play their 17 year old season (DY) in the NCAA.

McKenna will already have graduated HS. Canadian K-12 grade year grouping is Jan 1 - Dec 31, so thus all 2007s graduate HS in 2025. Celebrini fully accelerated a year to graduate HS early.

Get consistent goaltending and there's no reason why the team shouldn't be in the 7-10 range in the Pairwise

Although Marek alluded to Penn State throwing bags of NIL at various high end guys, so we'll see. Also, wouldn't be surprised to see a few teams steer Michael to the NCAA for a year if they don't think he's NHL ready: he's too good for junior and not eligible to play in the A under the current CHL-NHL Agreement, so the NCAA is the perfect one year stop to improve and work on his weaknesses before stepping into the NHL as a 19 year old.

All the scouts seem to think Mac will follow his dad's career arc of being an elite NCAA player but not elite enough to make the NHL but still have an elite minor pro/European Pro career. Although Brian Swanson would have played more in today's NHL as opposed to the clutch & grab, two line pass NHL pre 2004-05 lockout.

Swanson being moderately underwhelming was all the more justification to get Berry out of there & start anew.

I think it depends on how much he produces on the power play. Would be nice to have Swanson on one side of the power play sending cross ice sauce passes to Zellers for the one T snipe.

It's not sexy, but sometimes, the under the radar moves are better for winning. Just need one or two more elite scorers to complement those guys. Would help if Swanson takes the next step and we get a full year of consistency from James.

Will depend on who drafts Michael and what development situation they want for him. Certain teams love the NCAA route, some are meh on it, and some much prefer to sign their prospects right away & have them in training camp. Will depend on what the CHL-NHL Agreement looks like in the future and if CHLers are still barred from the A until their 20 year old season

Carle stole Mazur (Jackson Michigan) away from Michigan State. They don't win the 2022 National Championship without Mazur. Most national championship winning teams need to win at least one recruiting battle that isn't super favorable to begin, so yes, Chyzyk will need to win battles.

Agreed, Chyzyk/Jackson need to build recruiting pipelines. Hence why I've brought up needing to go hard after Cole Reschny, not only because of his talent, but also because his head coach is James Patrick. Victoria Royals to North Dakota would be a nice pipeline to establish, especially with Keaton Verhoeff upcoming

Of course Chyzyk/Jackson need to try. But because NCAA Hockey has historically been the most regional thing ever, kids tend to commit to places closest to home that they have cultural familiarity to. Like it or not, the odds of North Dakota getting many kids from east of Lake Michigan aren't super high.

Brooks Rogowski (2008). Posted it in the recruiting thread. But he'll have significant interest from Michigan, Michigan State, and probably Notre Dame, as he's a Michigander who tore it up with Detroit Catholic Central in Michigan HS Hockey before going to the O.

Decent USHLers are typically better defensively. Decent CHLers are typically better offensively. We'll see how the middle tier CHLers adapt to the NCAA. I do think the best guys will produce regardless. I really like the Shea Van Olm and Oliver Tulk commitments for Penn State and Wisconsin respectively. Both appear to be high impact offensive forwards right away in the NCAA, but we'll see.

Pegula money, just like how their program was started.

Basketball has European Pro options, just like hockey. Baseball has signing right out of HS & playing minor pro, 30-50% of the top players don't play NCAA baseball. (plenty of Caribbeans/South Americans develop at home & just sign at 16/17 years old) The big bag of cash is not going to come from major junior, it would come in the form of an ELC with bonuses from the NHL team holding their rights

Rumors on HFBoards that Penn State is offering a ton of money to high end CHLers. This had been hinted at Jeff Marek in his blog last month. Penn State has a ton of wealthy alums across the country, especially in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region. We will see if their Frozen Four run can turn them into an up & coming power.

There are tons of bottom 6ers in the CHL who've committed to CCHA programs lol

The CHL is also a younger higher skilled league than the USHL. The USHL is older & more defensive. But each CHL league is a bit different from one another, so who knows how Dub guys do in the NCAA compared to O and Q guys

Some interesting names committing in the portal today