nascar99

If he has a monster year in the Dub, he should move on to the NCAA. If he stagnates, the NHL team who drafts him can keep him in the Dub another year if they feel that is necessary. Williams SHOULD NOT be signing pro and entertain the idea of trying to play in the A at 19 or 20 years old, vast majority of guys aren't ready for that jump to pro and he wouldn't be ready for it. North Dakota should be the next stop in his development IMHO.

Did he expound on why he thought it was dumb? Did he say Josephson needed another year in the Dub to grow his offensive game more?

Misa was much more far fetched at this point, plenty still thought Carbonneau would go to Boston College for 2026-27

Justin Carbonneau (2006, QMJHL, 2025 St Louis 1st rounder) signs his ELC, foregoing NCAA route

One of the high end 2008s from the Dub. Carels, Lin, Rudolph, Preston, Ruck Twins. Will probably end up being some high end 3 star/low end 4 star Minnesotan though.

Bat signal!

I know it's just preseason and a lot of these guys haven't emerged in junior yet, but looking at these USHL preseason game rosters, it's a lot weaker than in the past, likely a direct result of the CHL getting more big names since they're still NCAA eligible if they play major junior. Still some great uncommitted names like Evan Jardine out there.

It's a solid league that is very tough to score in because it leans very defensive & is older, but it's not friendly to 16 and 17 year olds (in part because the NTDP takes most of the best u17 & u18 talent) who need to show they can play and produce in junior in order to get drafted. While the CHL is too offensive at times, most of their teams give immense opportunities to talented u17 and u18 players. The USHL doesn't have any real prestige as a junior league other than you sorta had to play there if you wanted to go NCAA. Now you don't.

Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes (& others) proved that the NCAA route prepares one better for pro than going from the CHL straight to pro. Now that you can do both, most guys should go CHL to NCAA to pro.

And in the NIL era, wait to show a full junior sample size of production, build monetary value, go on official visits, find the best fit, and get your worth. I'd do that if I was a high end recruit.

Buium took off faster in the NCAA than Levshunov, but I think Verhoeff was better than both of them as 16 year olds. Their 18 year old season was their freshman year in the NCAA (both late bdays), Verhoeff is playing his 17 year old season (he accelerated to graduate HS early) in the NCAA. I think he'll take lumps but still be extremely impressive.

He's better than Levshunov, Verhoeff was much better as a 16 year old in the Dub than Levshunov was as a 16 year old in Belarus. Levshunov's 17 year old season was good, but not elite in the USHL, Verhoeff's 17 year old season in the NCAA will be very intriguing to follow

@ubish another addition

Boston University and Boston College are waiting on Michael Misa to either sign his ELC & be off the board or go to camp on an ATO, fail to make the Sharks, and then go to the NCAA. Boston University has the obvious great relationship with the Sharks because of GM Mike Grier (Boston University) and Boston College just had Sharks forward Will Smith a few years ago, presuming the relationship is pretty solid too. Not quite sure on why North Dakota hasn't posted theirs as the roster seems done.

Final roster still not posted. Same for Boston University and Boston College. Very interesting, I have my theories on why that is, some very simplistic, some more unplausible.

New cycle (2009s & some late 2008s) recruiting has slowed to a very slow rate, assuming that these guys are taking official visits and will be fairly patient to commit. Forgot where I heard of it, but schools are more patient now to commit players with the player pool much larger now.

Denver is in the "2-3 year player" business more than the "1-2 year player" business. They'll get their elite guys like Zeev Buium from time to time, but absolutely feast getting guys like Trevor Moore, Carter Mazur, Jack Devine, etc. They'll compensate those types after their freshman year once they've proven their worth at the NCAA level

Source?

Really like getting Bookman out of the portal too

Nehring was bad in the USHL in his 18 year old season. Very good system fit in his 19 year old freshman season at Western Michigan.

They might not be the annual team to fear, but they return Slukynsky and Ferschweiler keeps turning nobodies into dudes. No one would have thought anything of Owen Michaels before 2024-25, then he turned into their 2nd best forward. Replacing Bump's production will be a challenge, but guys keep stepping up for the Broncos.

Western Michigan will be great because of Slukynsky in net and Ferschweiler's ability to turn nobodies into dudes. Denver is great because of Carle & their usual solid recruiting, but will be interesting to see how they look offensively without Buium. I could see Nebraska Omaha as high as 3 but as low as 8, likely same with Colorado College; the conference will be very fun to follow overall.