scpa0305

He’s the same size but he’s different. Carels is a great skater, Schaefer is one of the most explosive skaters on planet earth. Probably the closest thing to McDavid honestly. Schaefer is a unicorn. I really like Carels , but he’s not Schaefer.

Completely agree on Laurila. By the end of the season he was looking pretty dynamic.

True…but man, that franchise is in a rough spot. They may want to delay a year (maybe two) to continue to stack high enders. Would be a tough slot to be a dman next year. He’d be going for the green jacket for sure.

MSU gobbling everything up. Hage still there, Mich needs to make another push. DuPont would make some sense.

I agree with you. I had heard from an unreal source about 2 weeks ago that he was coming here…however that same source also noted that he’s the one def in this draft that could log some nhl games next year. I too think he would have delayed this announcement if he was heavily leaning towards signing.

Those two schools would def make sense as well.

Fiddler isn’t DuPont, Lin or Macbeth. He’s a semi interesting project given his size. He’s fairly mobile, D is a work in progress though. He should be there 3-4 years…not that he will, but he should be.

Yeah…DuPont is clearly the top in that equation. They could easily have Lin and DuPont on PP1.

I could see DuPont also going to DU

They’re different. Carels is more polished. Verhoeff is huge, more of a project.

They could be going with 2 for sure, and what I should have added above is that they all should be on the pp. The pp should have the most skilled guys regardless of position. I’d roll two pps like last year and have 2 D on both…carels, DuPont, Verhoeff and Laurila. This is assuming DuPont and Carels are an option. Side note, I don’t believe we’re in on Rudolph but who knows. I could see Carels or DuPont and another solid frosh. Not one of those big 3 but a tier down.

Maybe but he’s also only coming for a year I would assume. $ wouldn’t be the biggest factor in that scenario. Especially after the McKenna deal, I’m assuming the next guy would like less of the attention.

DuPont and Carels wouldn’t be like normal freshman. Both are extremely seasoned and ridiculously high high end. Learning curve sure but for them, that would be like a game, maybe two. Carels is top 4 immediately and he would progress very nicely throughout the season. DuPont is a savant, he’d be top 4 as well, QB of the PP. The bigger issue is who all plays on the PP? If there’s no room they’ll go elsewhere.

Yep that’s it…he was unreal

He was an unreal hockey player, so gifted. Just battled to fit in with teammates and had a ton of issues in his head. Tough story actually. There was another guy from Grand Rapids somewhat around that same age that was also unreal. Like top of the top. He went to the NTDP and started hearing voices etc. He drank to cope and it basically ended his very very promising career. He was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. Unfortunately his career was already over I believe. Can’t remember his name.

He actually was diagnosed bipolar later in life. Actually kind of a sad story. I guess he’s got that all figured out now which is great.

When they hired their coach. The turnaround was immediate.

That’s a big one.

With this article, there’s recency bias as well. Go back 3-4 years and the NTDP was producing top 5 guy after top 5 guy. It’s a moving target for sure.

https://neutralzone.com/2026/05/09/the-26-nhl-draft-a-changing-landscape-in-north-american-prospects/ This article is a pretty wild read.

That is very true. And it would be taboo to go against the grain that is the NTDP. Time will tell I suppose.

There’s been some noise around the program for the past 2-3 years. Players leave after one year from time to time but you never saw the top of the crop kids leave, second year in a row that’s happened and, from my amateur scouting angle, it’s purely to increase draft stock (and have a little fun playing hockey again).

Or they feel the CHL route may be better for development? Fairly decent track record

Smith is a stud.

Again, absolutely awful.