Closing the Book on the Pirri/D'Amigo Era

We've been as guilty as anyone - perhaps more than anyone - of pontificating about the arrival and sudden departure of Brandon Pirri and Jerry D'Amigo. Hopefully, this is the last one. Admittedly, it does feel a bit odd to still be talking about them, or even their era, when we're nearing the end of the third season without them, a season few ever expected to still see them in Troy anyway. That should underscore some of what the whole thing means to RPI hockey.

There's little doubt looking back now that the pair, in just one season in the Cherry and White, left an indelible impact on the program that could be felt for years going forward.

It somehow makes total sense that D'Amigo and Pirri became known as RPI commits within 10 days of each other during the summer of 2008. Committing some five months after current sophomore Jacob Laliberte and current junior Matt Tinordi, their names have been and will continue to be linked in the annals of RPI hockey.

They tantalized RPI fans with outstanding play in their final season in juniors, creating high expectations on them when they arrived on campus in the fall of 2009 - and then they didn't disappoint. Combining for 21 goals and 56 assists in their freshman seasons, helping to propel junior Chase Polacek and senior Paul Kerins to big years as well. D'Amigo was a major contributor to the United States' World Junior Championship gold medal, and ended up being the ECAC Rookie of the Year (though some, including this writer, felt Pirri was more worthy of the nod). They were expected to play a big role in what many felt would be a year of major expectations, perhaps not seen in Troy in a quarter century.

Then, just like that, they were gone.

There was really a confluence of events that led to both players leaving. First, the summer of 2010 saw an abnormal number of players choosing to forego college eligibility to sign pro contracts, in part due to the soon-closing window on the NHL's collective bargaining agreement, which had been very kind to entry-level bonuses. Second, D'Amigo it was said added a good 20 pounds of muscle in the offseason, which piqued the interest of then-Toronto GM Brian Burke, especially after the accolades he'd picked up in his freshman year. Third, Chicago - the team holding Pirri's NHL rights - had just won the Stanley Cup, but had pressed its team flat against the salary cap to do so and was holding a bit of a talent fire sale, opening roster slots in Chicago and with their AHL affiliate that needed to be filled.

Throw all of this together, and it's not hard to see why the dominoes fell as they did. If D'Amigo had not left, Pirri likely would have stayed as well, but at the end of the day, it was a perfect storm.

There were plenty of naysayers at the time who felt the duo were leaving school far too early, and in hindsight, that probably has been confirmed. Two full seasons on from their departure, they've combined for a grand total of six NHL games, all by Pirri. D'Amigo's struggles have been especially pronounced, highlighted by a difficult first season that began with hopes of making the NHL roster out of camp but slid into a struggle in the AHL and finally a trip to major junior, which is what RPI fans in particular feared most - what ultimately became a lateral move to the OHL.

Both probably could have used at least another year or two in college, but that is neither here nor there at this point. Now it appears the negative impact from their early departure - felt in a less-than-hoped-for showing in 2010-11 and a rough 2011-12 season - may finally have been mitigated. With the Engineers back in legitimate competition for a league championship and riding a streak of 10 wins in the last 12 games, the holes they left behind appear to have finally been filled on a team-wide basis, and with a very impressive set of recruits ready to arrive in the fall - not to mention the impending graduation of the players Pirri and D'Amigo arrived with - we can finally examine the lasting impact that their short association with RPI brought to the program.

There's an opportunity cost whenever a college team brings in a recruit of any kind. Bringing in D'Amigo and Pirri meant there would be no room for other forwards who could have potentially come to Troy, some of whom are surely playing for other teams right now as juniors and seniors. That's been a part of the game forever, though, and it becomes pronounced only when you lose your recruits early.

The matter of two suddenly open scholarships certainly comes into play as well. Four current sophomore forwards (all but Laliberte) committed to RPI in the weeks and months following the departure of Pirri and D'Amigo. If they hadn't left early, two of those four are probably playing somewhere else right now. Pick two guys out of Matt Neal, Ryan Haggerty, and Mark McGowan you wouldn't mind subtracting from this year's team. Didn't think so.

That covers the short-term impact. But what about the long-term?

Most of the players on this current team - the one that has finished higher in the ECAC standings than any team in the last 20 years - were recruited after Pirri and D'Amigo began playing at RPI. That's all of them with the exception of the graduating seniors and the aforementioned Tinordi and Laliberte. Consider those players and the outstanding talents expected to come into Troy next season, and compare them with recruits prior to Pirri and D'Amigo. There's an absolute increase in the talent level.

The bottom line is that these talented players provided a quick bump to the program that, after a short hiccup last season, seems to have provided what could well be a lasting boost to a team that may well have finally found its way out of the dark. Rather than lament their departures, going forward it is perhaps more appropriate to laud them for their contributions, limited as they may be in the direct sense.

What If: Wait Until Next Year

* August 2010: Brandon Pirri and Jerry D'Amigo sign NHL contracts shortly before the beginning of their sophomore seasons

Taio Cruz - Break Your Heart


For a program that was in desperate need of salvation, Brandon Pirri and Jerry D'Amigo seemed like godsends - and despite a bitter ending to an otherwise successful season, better days were certainly on the horizon. Given all the things RPI fans were expecting to happen in the offseason following the team's bitter Game 3 loss to last-place Brown, the 2010-11 season was full of all kinds of hopes and dreams.

The first three seasons of the Seth Appert era were difficult to say the least. Making it clear early on that he intended to start essentially from scratch and build the program into prosperity with his own recruits, the team went 31-68-14 between 2007 and 2009, bottoming out in the third season with a .282 winning percentage that was the second lowest in the modern era, ahead of only the 3-19-0 season of 1965-66.

That 2009 result was deflating for a lot of RPI fans. After all, the new coach by that point was now at the head of a team that was comprised more than half of its roster with players he had recruited. There was little question that sophomores Chase Polacek and Tyler Helfrich were the heart of the offense, but team defense continued to suffer by and large.

Hope, it seemed, was on the way in the form of three prized forward recruits that had been landed just ahead of that dismal season. The first was a small forward from Ontario who could score in bunches, Jacob Laliberte, who committed in February 2008. Then came two big names at the almost same time - Jerry D'Amigo, who would play the 2008-09 season for USA Hockey's Under-18 program, who committed in July, and then the talented Brandon Pirri, a somewhat larger forward from Ontario who could also score in bunches.

Laliberte, who would have turned 19 just before the 2009-11 season got underway, was eventually pushed back a year, but the arrival of D'Amigo and Pirri as boosters for Polacek, Helfrich, and freshman standout Patrick Cullen certainly mitigated that move significantly, with interest piquing after Pirri was selected late in the second round of the NHL Entry Draft that summer, followed by D'Amigo's selection in the sixth round, not to mention the head-turning he did at the US Junior camp in Lake Placid that summer.

The season got off to a slow start as RPI put together a 1-2-1 record in its first four games and then posted lackluster wins against Sacred Heart and American International on back-to-back nights. A dramatic come-from-behind win in Schenectady over Union was overshadowed the next night by a loss to Army on Halloween night which concluded a lackluster October.

Hope began to spring in November with the ECAC schedule getting underway, as the Engineers whipped off wins against Yale, Brown, and Clarkson to start the league season 3-0, the first time the team had accomplished the task since the ECAC championship season of 1995. They then jumped out to a 1-0 lead over St. Lawrence, only two give up two goals in the span of 1:49 in the third period to lose 2-1. That would be the first of six losses in the team's next seven games, including four ECAC games, which sunk those early high hopes, especially given that the other three league games were all in Troy.

In December, D'Amigo was invited to join the US junior team in Canada, and he not only played, he starred on a team that defeated Canada for the gold medal. By the time he returned to Troy in January, his stock had risen significantly, and it coincided with a rise in the team's performance.

Things slowly cranked back up in mid-December. After an upset over BU in Boston, RPI took down Michigan in the first round of the Great Lakes Invitational and then swept the Quinnipiac/Princeton road trip. Between New Year's Day and Freakout, RPI put up a 7-3-2 record that put the team right back in contention for a first round bye. By this point, people were well aware of D'Amigo and Pirri as potential rookie of the year candidates, and Polacek was becoming a legitimate Hobey Baker candidate himself.

Then came Freakout, which was also senior night, and the Engineers could not have played more poorly. With sophomore goaltender Allen York out with an injury, Princeton destroyed RPI 7-0 and dealt a serious setback to the Engineers' first-round bye hopes. A one-point weekend in Central New York sealed the Engineers' fate, they would be the sixth seed after losing a tiebreak with St. Lawrence for fifth place.

Then, the Brown debacle. After a terrible third period performance in Game 1 put RPI down in the series, a 4-1 win in Game 2 forced the a deciding Game 3 - but the Engineers were flat as could be in that contest, falling behind 3-0 early in the third period. Two third period goals were too little, too late, and the turnaround season ended with an upset loss.

But, fortunately, another talented freshman class was waiting in the wings, chock full of defensive strength and, of course, Laliberte.

In August, as the team was getting ready to congeal again for the season, word came from Lake Placid - where D'Amigo was training again for the World Juniors - that the rising sophomore had gained a good 20 pounds of muscle during the offseason, and that Toronto, who had drafted him a year earlier, was impressed with his Rookie of the Year season and previous WJC exploits. After camp ended, D'Amigo was offered the money, and he signed.

It was certainly a blow to the team to lose D'Amigo that early - after his successful freshman year, few thought he would stay through his senior season, but almost no one thought he'd leave before his sophomore year - but conventional wisdom had it that as long as Pirri was in the mix, RPI was going to be OK. Then Pirri was a conspicuous absence at captain's practices, and before long, he had signed a professional deal as well.

The departure of the freshmen actually made up two of a series of events we deemed the "summer from hell" that drastically changed the 2010-11 Engineers from what expectations had been at the end of the 2009-10 season. Assistant coach Jim Montgomery left the program to restart the Dubuque Fighting Saints in the USHL, prized defensive recruit Nick Quinn first pushed his arrival in Troy back a year and the decommitted altogether (ending up in the OHL), and Laliberte had his arrival in Troy pushed back for a second year in a row. That let a lot of the air out of high expectations for 2011 that had some pegging RPI as the top contender to Yale's dominance of the league table.

Pirri's departure was chalked up to the roster issues that Chicago, the Stanley Cup champions, had after being forced to let go of many of its role players to be able to afford some of the hefty contracts they'd taken on to make their championship run, but in all likelihood, D'Amigo's departure only hastened Pirri all the more. D'Amigo ultimately struggled in the AHL in 2011, eventually being sent to play in the OHL, while Pirri spent nearly the entire season in the AHL, save a single NHL game which extended RPI's streak of alums playing in the big leagues.

Despite diminished expectations, the Engineers still ended up having a phenomenal 2011. They chased after and picked up the team's first NCAA bid since 1995, and were nearly unbeatable at home - they won their first seven home games in a row, and didn't have a regulation loss at home until the final week of the regular season - which, as it turned out, could have helped them gain the first-round bye if they'd have had any other result in that contest. Overall, RPI went 14-3-1 between mid-November and early February, a showing for much of the season that helped them back into the NCAA tournament despite a 2-6-1 conclusion to the year.

How would the 2010-11 Engineers have fared if the "summer from hell" had never taken place? What if Toronto had told D'Amigo to hone his skills in Troy for another year to see if his skill level would catch up with his bigger size?

D'Amigo had a difficult first season in the pros, but it may have been portended by a rough WJC camp that summer, which had been chalked up to the attention Toronto had been giving him at the time. He may have been destined for a down year, but night-in and night-out at RPI is still a touch easier than the AHL or even the World Junior camp. Polacek managed to be a Hobey Baker candidate for a second straight season even without the pair, and Allen York came into his own as a top-tier goaltender as well.

Whatever kind of seasons Pirri and D'Amigo would have had in Troy in 2011, you have to think their presence would have boosted the Engineers in close games that were either tied or lost. That by itself likely would have been enough to boost RPI into a top four position in the ECAC playoffs, and probably would have made an NCAA bid more of a sure thing rather than the edge-of-your-seat waiting game that took place for two weeks after being upset by Colgate (which may have helped them get the bid, ironically).

Without considering how RPI would have fared in the ECAC tournament, the boost would surely have been enough to improve the team's draw for the NCAAs. Being matched up with the odds-on favorites for the national championship is never easy (and unfortunately, York wasn't in a good position to channel his inner Jon Casey against North Dakota).

Could that have produced at least the team's first NCAA goal since George Servinis, or perhaps even a first round win? I'd like to think that adding Pirri and D'Amigo to the NCAA roster combined with a less difficult first round opponent would have made the first likely, and the second one very, very possible.

Some have wistfully commented that given the actual turnout of the 2011 season, RPI could have been a Frozen Four team if not for the "summer from hell." It's certainly going too far to peg that as some kind of sure thing, but even to be able to say that such an event was even in the realm of the possible is an intriguing "what if" to chew on.

Beyond 2011, there's little likelihood either player would have ever been playing this season, as seniors, for the Engineers. After the 2010 season, most figured Pirri would stick around one more year, and D'Amigo two at the most.

To some extent, we are still seeing the fallout from the departure of Pirri and D'Amigo today through the depleted nature of this year's senior class. It's had a certain effect on recruiting, in all likelihood, too. While the fab frosh electrified Troy and got boosters dreaming of bigger things, their one season did not have the same impact as a player like Chase Polacek, whose career was overlooked by the NHL, allowing him to be a solid four-year contributor in Troy - or even Jeremy Welsh, who was a freshman at Union during Pirri and D'Amigo's lone year at RPI. Arguably, Welsh contributed more to Union's success by being undrafted and staying three years than Pirri and D'Amigo contributed at RPI.

As a positive aspect, though, their early success and quick professional attention at least portrayed RPI as a place serious hockey prospects could consider as a place to develop both the mind and body - something, however, that would have been enhanced had they stayed an extra year.

Early Returns

So, what do we now know about RPI Hockey in mid-October? It's not always easy to extrapolate from just a weekend or two of results, but there's little question that if the men could keep things going the way they did against Ferris State, it would be a pretty outstanding year.

Consider the following:

• Jacob Laliberte's first freshman goal: December 2
• His first sophomore goal: October 12
• His third freshman goal: February 11
• His third sophomore goal: October 13
• Game in which RPI scored its fifth goal of the season in 2011-12: Fifth
• Game in which RPI scored its fifth goal of the season this year: Second
• Goals scored by sophomores against Ferris State this weekend: 5 out of 5
• Points by sophomores against Ferris State this weekend: 9 out of 14

What does it all mean? It all speaks to the heart of the offense for this team, which is actually exactly where it was last year - with the Class of 2015. It's no coincidence that last year's five freshman forwards practically always played when they were healthy - and none of the five managed to make it through the entire season without illness or injury sidelining them (all missed at least four games).

The quintet - Laliberte, Ryan Haggerty, Zach Schroeder, Mark McGowan, and Matt Neal - notched a combined 23 goals last season, which led the four classes (sophomore forwards scored 10 goals among three, juniors scored 14 among three, seniors 16 among five).

Are they going to be the end all, be all this season? No, almost certainly not - we should expect to see solid contributions from C.J. Lee, Marty O'Grady (when he comes back), Brock Higgs, and Matt Tinordi based on what we saw last year. Nick Bailen has proven to be a scoring threat from afar over the last two seasons, and there's no reason we won't see a lot of Milos Bubela and Mike Zalewski this season, a couple of freshmen with the bonafides to be contributors. (Aside, of course, from the injury potential, knock on wood.)

Whenever you have freshmen as the core of your scoring output, you're bound to have a struggle to score goals, especially early in the season, and that was exactly the case last year. Although there are exceptions - Brandon Pirri and Jerry D'Amigo come to mind - freshmen typically have a need to acclimate themselves to college hockey before they can perform at a high level. Pirri and D'Amigo, it should be noted, also benefited from the presence of a Hobey Baker finalist on the team.

As well, the marginal utility that the program got out of those two players in terms of on-ice production is actually pretty low - D'Amigo already ranks behind classmates Lee and O'Grady on the all-time points list, and Pirri will likely fall behind Lee this season. It took the two seniors three years to accomplish what those players did in one, but that merely has spread out their usefulness.

So on the basic assumption that RPI is unlikely to see players on the level of Pirri and D'Amigo with any striking regularity, most freshmen that arrive in Troy are going to have seasons like Laliberte did last year, when after much anticipation and expectation, he scored "just" five goals. Does his three goal weekend mean we're going to see more of what was anticipated and expected last year? Perhaps. But he's not likely to be the only one improving. There's no getting around the fact that RPI's frosh five from last year are getting more experienced and getting better - which could be very good news going forward.

Running For the Border

Lost in all of the discussion of the shell game going on amongst Division I conferences this offseason is the continuing war between the CHL and the NCAA over talent - and there is new evidence that the NCAA is losing the battle.

The 2011 NHL Entry Draft was somewhat noted for its lack of collegiate talent in the early rounds. The first selection linked to a college team was defenseman Jamie Oleksiak, who just finished his freshman year at Northeastern, selected 14th overall by Dallas. That followed on with North Dakota recruit J.T. Miller, taken next at 15th by the Rangers, and a pair of Miami recruits, Connor Murphy and Tyler Biggs, by Phoenix and Toronto respectively, at 20th and 22nd. That was it for first round picks - four.

Now, it looks even worse. It's actually down to one. Miller and Murphy have decided to reneg on their commitments and will instead play major junior in the Ontario Hockey League, Oleksiak has left Northeastern and will also play in the OHL, and throw in early second round choice John Gibson (Anaheim), a Michigan commit, who is also bound for the O. Of the top eight draftees who had college hockey connections a little over a month ago at the draft - either as commits or current players - fully half have now defected north of the border.

RPI was indirectly hit by this last season, with recruit Nick Quinn eventually choosing the OHL over college shortly after decommitting, though his choice not to come to RPI may have been affected by other elements, not the least of which was his unexpected cut from Dubuque by Jim Montgomery due to a misinterpretation of USHL rules. There's also Jerry D'Amigo, who ended up finishing his season last year in major junior with Kitchener after he struggled in the AHL, but again, that wasn't a direct correlation - he signed a pro contract, which is why he left RPI, and was probably a little disappointed to have ended up in the OHL.

The Engineers have won some battles, too. D'Amigo and Brandon Pirri were both highly coveted by their OHL teams, both ultimately chose RPI during the summer of 2009. Incoming freshman Jacob Laliberté had also apparently been pursued by Gatineau of the QMJHL that same summer.

Make no mistake - the "war" we talked about last summer has largely come about because some very talented players who in years past probably would have been pushed 100% to the CHL are now considering and in many cases playing NCAA hockey in the United States, both Americans and Canadians. This speaks to the still-growing value of college hockey as a route to the professional ranks. Though this year's draft wasn't the best in that respect, recent drafts have had college and college-linked players performing extremely well (along with American players in general).

The CHL, however, isn't ready to admit that the NCAA can be a fertile ground for talent to grow, not while they're losing good players. They're also willing to take advantage of NCAA rules which force a player who chooses major junior to stay on that route, since the NCAA considers the CHL to be a professional league since many of its players are paid. Once they reel a player in, there's no going back, though NCAA players always have the option to change direction - like Oleksiak did.

College commitments are almost always adhered to within the college community - after all, no coach wants his own commits poached, so he's not likely to go after another's. The CHL certainly doesn't respect those decisions and in many cases will relentlessly pursue top college-bound players up until the point where it becomes obvious that they will not change their minds. It does speak a bit to the character of some (not all) of these players that their commitment - their word - doesn't mean much.

Don't forget, though, that the NHL plays a role here. Some teams out there have proven themselves to be friendly to college hockey - especially teams like Toronto (Brian Burke), New Jersey (Lou Lamoriello), and Washington (George McPhee) who have administrators with links to college. But there are a number of teams out there that clearly accept the CHL's line - Montreal, Anaheim, and Dallas among them. Atlanta was long known to be fairly hostile to college hockey, we'll have to see whether a wholesale management change during their move to Winnipeg will change that for the Jets, who have Jason Kasdorf's draft rights.

For the time being, however, the role of college hockey's PR arm, College Hockey Inc., continues to be important. Paul Kelly has the arduous task of winning hearts and minds for the NCAA experience, and while there's still a long way to go, the effort is being made, and the die has been cast. The CHL may emerge victorious this summer, but the battle continues.

Catching Up With the Engineers

We're taking a bit of break without much going on in the college hockey world this week - save the World Junior Championships, which start tonight. That makes it a perfect time to check up on the RPI alums still playing professional hockey. If we've missed anyone, please be sure to leave a comment, but we're pretty sure this is an exhaustive list of former Engineers still playing professionally.

We'll start at the top, with older alums first.

Stephane Robitaille '92 - SC Bietigheim Steelers (2nd Bundesliga)
Still going strong at the age of 40, Robitaille has been playing in Europe since 1993, playing in Austria from 1993 to 1998 and in Germany since 1998, with the exception of one season (2004-05) in France. After nine seasons in Germany's top flight league, he joined the Steelers two years ago in time to help them win the 2nd Bundesliga title in 2009. This is his third season with the Steelers, and thus far this season, Robitaille has 2 goals and 13 assists in 24 games, playing largely the same role he's played throughout his career, including the four years he spent in Troy in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Tim Regan '96 - Riessersee SC (GerObL)
Like Robitaille, Regan went straight to Europe after graduation and has been there ever since. With the exception of 13 games in Austria in 2003, Regan has played his entire career in Germany and is in his fourth stint with Riessersee, a team that plays in the Olympic town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Currently the team's assistant captain, Regan (who turns 37 in February) stayed with Riessersee despite their relegation from the 2nd Bundesliga last season, and he has now played with the team in each of the top three tiers of German hockey, as they are now in the Oberliga Sud. In 24 games this year, Regan has 12 goals and 16 assists, still producing more than a point per game, just as he did in his senior season in Troy (albeit against somewhat diminished competition).

Eric Healey '98 - Linz EHC (Austria)
After years of paying his dues as a top player in the AHL, Healey was rewarded in 2005-06 with a cup of coffee in the NHL, a pair of games with the Boston Bruins which saw a minor penalty as his only lasting statistic from his time in the top hockey league in the world. After spending two more years in the AHL after that, Healey went to Europe, spending 2008-09 in Sweden and Switzerland before landing in Austria last season with Graz EC. He had a stellar year last year with Graz, scoring 27 goals and 40 assists in 53 games. This year, he signed with Linz EHC, scoring 4 goals and 9 assists in 19 games before being released in November to allow Linz to sign former NHLer Jason Ward, as teams in Austria may only sign a limited number of foreign players. The 35-year-old Healey remains a free agent.

Mark Murphy '99 - DEG Metro Stars (DEL)
Like Healey, Murphy spent several years as an AHL stalwart before crossing the pond in 2005, playing in Finland and Sweden in 2005-06 before landing in Germany, where he's now in his fifth season in the German top tier. After three seasons playing in Augsburg, Murphy moved on to Dusseldorf to join the DEG Metro Stars, currently holding down first place in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. 22 games in, the 34-year-old Murphy has 5 assists and 45 penalty minutes.

Brian Pothier '00 - Geneve Servette (Swiss-A)
Pothier was the Engineers' mainstay in the NHL after the retirements of Adam Oates and Joe Juneau. Playing at least part of every season since leaving Troy in the NHL, Pothier accrued 362 games with Atlanta, Ottawa, Washington, and Carolina. After suffering a concussion in 2008, Pothier struggled to regain his form, and with teams trying to keep costs down to make it under the cap, Pothier ended up as one of a number of serviceable veterans who migrated to Europe after being unable to find a job in the NHL thanks to the difference in rookie and veteran cap impacts. Moving on to Servette, last year's Swiss runners up, Pothier, at the age of 34, has put up 4 goals and 17 assists in 30 games thus far.

Matt Murley '02 - Timra IK (SEL)
Murley had a number of stints in the NHL between 2003-04 and 2007-08, playing 62 games with Pittsburgh and Phoenix. He maintained some connection to the Capital District during his playing time in North America, signing with Colorado after his contract with Pittsburgh ended, who, at the time, had the Albany River Rats as their AHL affiliate. After leaving Phoenix, he signed with Carolina who, again, had the River Rats as their affiliate. But instead of reporting to Albany, Murley took the money and signed with the KHL's Amur Khabarovsk, causing a stir as the first NHL contracted player to break his deal and head for the KHL. Predictably, this has made him persona non grata in the NHL and he has continued his career in Europe after leaving the KHL. After playing for three different teams in Switzerland last year, the 30-year-old Murley landed in Sweden this season, where he played on a two-month contract for Linkoping HC, scoring 3 goals and 5 assists before moving onto another two-month contract with Timra IK, where he has 4 goals in 12 games.

Marc Cavosie '03 - HK Jesenice (Austria)
Signing a pro contract after his junior season in 2002 - the last Engineer to jump early before D'Amigo and Pirri - Cavosie never reached the NHL despite looking like a strong candidate when he left Troy. He struggled to find the same success he had at RPI for four consecutive years in the AHL, after which he headed to Sweden for a season. He had been back in North America, largely playing in the AHL again, since 2007, but this season Cavosie returned to Europe, now playing for Jesenice, a Slovenian team that has been playing in the Austrian league for the last five seasons, and which has won the Slovenian championship in five of the last six years. The 29-year-old Cavosie has 2 goals and 7 assists in 19 games.

Oren Eizenman '07 - Connecticut Whale (AHL)
Eizenman has had quite the journey through the professional ranks since graduation. After impressing with the ECHL's Fresno Falcons in 2007-08 (which included callups to Milwaukee and Worcester in the AHL), Eizenman played for no fewer than five teams in 2008-09 before mostly sticking with the Stockton Thunder of the ECHL last season. Consistently dominant in the lower minor league, Eizenman is still working to find regular work in the AHL. After starting off the season with the ECHL's Elmira Jackals, the 25-year-old Eizenman had a short stint with the Syracuse Crunch before getting a tryout with the Connecticut Whale. He's off to a good start thus far, netting two goals, including a game winner, and an assist in nine games for the Whale.

Kirk MacDonald '07 - Providence Bruins (AHL)
The former RPI captain continues to work toward his NHL dream in Providence, where he has been considered in the recent past for an NHL contract rather than the AHL contract he is currently on. Like Eizenman, MacDonald dominated in the ECHL, but unlike Eizenman, MacDonald has definitely stuck in the AHL, now in his second stint with the Providence Bruins. MacDonald, who turned 27 this month, has 4 goals and 8 assists in 29 games, but is more favored in the AHL for his penalty killing ability.

Andrew Lord '08 - Wheeling Nailers (ECHL)
Unlike most players who don't head straight to the NHL, the 25-year-old Lord has had a fairly stable life with the Wheeling Nailers right out of college, now in his third season with the Nailers and wearing the "C." Lord has been a bruiser in Wheeling, racking up plenty of penalty minutes in his first two seasons and well on his way to a third straight 100+ PIM year with 74 in 25 games. He also has 7 goals and 12 assists, and got an AHL call-up - his second in as many years.

Jonathan Ornelas '08 - Dayton Gems (CHL)
Ornelas seems to have settled into playing in North America's 4th tier of professional hockey, the Central Hockey League. As soon as the Engineers finished up their 2007-08 season, Ornelas joined the New Mexico Scorpions for their playoff run. He played a full season in Amarillo the following year, and has been with the Dayton Gems for the last two seasons, joining them in the IHL last season before the IHL folded into the CHL this season. So far this year, the 24-year-old Ornelas has 5 goals and 8 assists in 24 games, including 22 PIM.

Erik Burgdoerfer '10 - Bakersfield Condors (ECHL)
Like Ornelas, Burgdoerfer played pro hockey shortly after his senior season ended, joining the Condors in March last year not long after the Engineers were eliminated from the playoffs. He suffered a broken arm early in his tenure, but returned to the Condors on a full contract this season after being an early release from a tryout with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Despite his rough and tumble reputation at RPI, the 22-year-old Burgdoerfer has just 18 PIM in 26 games for Bakersfield, along with a goal and 4 assists.

Peter Merth '10 - Wheeling Nailers (ECHL)
Teammates with Andrew Lord in Wheeling, Merth, 23, has found regular playing time with his first professional team, appearing in 24 games to date with a goal and six assists to his name.

Jerry D'Amigo '13 - Toronto Marlies (AHL)
Currently with the U.S. Junior Team, D'Amigo is young for the AHL at only 19 years old, and to some extent it shows - he has only 3 goals and 6 assists in 29 games despite starting off the season on the Marlies' top line. With any luck, his return to the WJC may help jumpstart his professional fares.

Brandon Pirri '13 - Rockford IceHogs (AHL)
Pirri continued the streak of RPI alums in the NHL for another season when he made an appearance in the Chicago Blackhawks' home opener as an emergency replacement for Patrick Sharp - a streak that goes back to Mike McPhee's first NHL season of 1983-84. Like D'Amigo, he has also struggled to put up top numbers in the AHL at the age of 19, but he's doing a bit better, with 5 goals and 7 assists in 25 games.

Canadian Xenophobia?

Brandon Pirri is finally getting his due. After being oddly spurned last season by Hockey Canada for even an invitation to the tryout camp for the Canadian junior team, and being an even more odd omission from the summer camp in Newfoundland this year, he's been granted a release by the Chicago Blackhawks to accept an invitation to this year's camp in Toronto.

Louis Leblanc, recently of Harvard, is getting another crack at making the team as well, after being one of the final cuts last year.

What do they have in common? Well, neither one is still playing in college - Pirri is the only Canadian invitee with a professional contract playing in a professional league, and Leblanc has made the jump to the QMJHL after signing a deal with the Canadiens.

Now, they're not the only college affiliated invitees that are going to be in Toronto. Hockey Canada also announced that Jaden Schwartz of the... Saskatchewan Hockey Association? And uh, Riley Sheahan of the... Ontario Hockey Federation? What the...?

Yup, that's exactly how team Canada announced its four collegiate invitees on Monday - by excluding their affiliation with their programs: Colorado College for Schwartz, Notre Dame for Sheahan, Minnesota-Duluth for Dylan Olsen, and Miami for Reilly Smith. The "don't care" attitude rolled on when the roster was published - colleges grudgingly admitted, though little care was used to get them right. Schwartz is listed at Hockey Canada's website as belonging to "Colorado (WCHA)." Well, at least they got the league right, even if he's apparently playing in Boulder for the non-existent Buffs. Sheahan is given "Notre Dame (NCAA)" as his team, which would be akin to saying that Leblanc was from "Montreal (CHL)." Someone was really paying attention to detail there.

OK, we get it, Hockey Canada. You don't like us. You've made that abundantly clear. If Schwartz, Sheahan, Olsen, or Smith make the team, they'll be the first college players to wear the Maple Leaf in the World Junior Championship since Wisconsin's Cody Goloubef in 2009 - the second straight year that only a lone Badger was on the squad.

Now, we're not suggesting that Canada needs more collegians to successful. Most of the best young Canadian players do play in major junior, after all. But the degree to which good, qualified Canadians who come south of the border to ply their trade in the NCAA are being spurned is, quite frankly, a joke.

Brandon Pirri can't even get a phone call when he's in Troy, but the second he signs a pro contract, suddenly he's worthy for potential inclusion even though the summer camp is usually a prerequisite for making the team down the road? Yeah, there's nothing fishy there. Is there any possibility that Pirri, Leblanc or Denver's Patrick Wiercioch could have been big parts of a gold-medal winning Canadian team last year? Instead, the home team got to watch a team made of a healthy mix of collegians (like Jerry D'Amigo) and major juniors (like Cam Fowler) from the US strike gold.

That's a lesson the Canadians should take to heart. We've got our own stakes in the CHL-NCAA war, but we aren't about to exclude guys like Jeremy Morin, Brandon Archibald, and Emerson Etem just because they chose major junior over college. That's because we're putting together our best team of players under the age of 20 - not the best Americans playing in the United States.

The US camp roster won't be released until next Tuesday, but we can get a pretty good idea of what it will look like by looking at the 42 players that were at the summer camp that was held in Lake Placid. Of that group, 27 (64.3%) are currently playing in the NCAA. 12 (28.6%) are currently playing in the CHL. Two (D'Amigo and Kyle Palmieri) are playing in the AHL, with one (goaltender and North Dakota commit Zane Gothberg) still in Junior A.

Compare that to the Canadian roster just released. Of the 39 names on the list, a whopping four (10.3%) are from the NCAA. Pirri is the lone AHL representative. The rest - 87.2% - are from the CHL. That's not to say that the gulf is altogether unexpected. Like we said, most of the best young Canadians do play in the CHL. But look at the last four Canadian WJC rosters. Of 88 roster slots available, a grand total of four (Goloubef in 2009, Kyle Turris in 2008, and Jonathan Toews and Andrew Cogliano) went to collegians. That's 4.5%.

4.5%? That's the only slice of good Canadians that play in the US? How can that be? There were four collegians on the Canadian Olympic team this year - Dan Boyle from Miami, Dany Heatley from Wisconsin, Toews, and Duncan Keith, who played at Michigan State, and the talent pool was not as restrictive, at least not by age, for the Olympics. Two of their captains, Chris Pronger and Sidney Crosby, at least flirted with the idea of playing in college (Pronger committed to Bowling Green before choosing major junior, while Crosby played at Shattuck-St. Mary's, a Division I pipeline, to get away from hostile crowds at home).

Plenty of worthy Canadians choose the college route today. Are they being punished for their choice? The attitude emanating from Hockey Canada seems to indicate as much - the four current collegians in camp seemingly being extended an invitation only grudgingly. Was a potential spot playing in the World Junior Championships a reason for Pirri to leave Troy, or for Leblanc to leave Boston? It almost certainly wasn't the deciding factor but it could have at least been a cherry on top. The WJC gets a tremendous amount of attention in Canada. Playing on the team is considered a huge honor.

The whole CHL-NCAA war is foolish anyway. Hockey Canada doesn't need to be feeding it, nor should they be punishing Canadians who decide that more time in the weight room and more time reviewing video is a better route to the NHL, or those who decide that a real education rather than false promises of an education are better for their own personal growth. We're not demanding more collegians on the Canadian junior team. USA Hockey isn't punishing Americans who play in Canada. There's just no reason for Canadians playing in the NCAA to be treated like lepers.

The Summer From Hell

There is reputed to be an ancient Chinese proverb (its true origin may have been American English) that sounds like a blessing, but is meant as a curse: "May you live in interesting times."

As college hockey fans, the 2010 offseason absolutely qualifies as "interesting times." For fans of the Engineers, our "interesting times" have been... well, more interesting than most.

We've recounted very well here at Without a Peer the major personnel issues facing the college hockey world - the recruiting war with the CHL on the front end and the NHL's collective bargaining agreement on the back end - and as it has turned out, we were not vulnerable to these issues.

From the beginning of the offseason through the present, RPI has been kicked repeatedly while they're down... a category in which they are not alone. Let's recount the tough-to-hear news that we've encountered since we last watched the Engineers skate.

Jim Montgomery departs
The difficult summer got underway before the 2009-10 season had officially come to a close. Weeks after the disappointing loss to Brown in the ECAC First Round, news came down that assistant coach Jim Montgomery would be leaving RPI to take over as head coach and general manager of the USHL's Dubuque Fighting Saints. This didn't take many people by surprise and Monty's departure had been expected to be coming down the pike sooner rather than later because of his outstanding pedigree as a coach and recruiter, but it didn't make it easy to take, either.

Nick Quinn holds off
The next issue materialized shortly thereafter when Nick Quinn, a defenseman who had been expected to step in right away and provide some big-time blueline support, was moved back to 2011. This may have been a decision made by Seth Appert and the coaching staff, but it could have been Quinn's choice as well. At any rate, the decision to hold off Luke Curadi as well (who had never been firmly expected in 2010 at any point prior to or after his commitment) meant the Engineers were in need of another defenseman, necessitating the early arrival of Patrick Koudys, who was expected in 2011 and probably could have benefited from another year in juniors before starting his NCAA clock, but that's the way it goes.

Jacob Laliberté holds off
In early May, news came through the Record's Ed Weaver that prized recruit Jacob Laliberté would, for the second consecutive season, not be coming to Troy as expected. Ever since Laliberté committed to RPI in February 2008, Engineer fans have been hotly anticipating his arrival given his near total domination of the junior A ranks in Ontario and his stature being of a nature that has the NHL overlooking him - meaning he could ultimately spend more time in college than someone putting up his numbers with a bigger frame. The news was rather deflating - it was hoped that Laliberté would have the ability to come in and make RPI a much more feared team, seeing him playing alongside Chase Polacek, Jerry D'Amigo, and Brandon Pirri.

Jerry D'Amigo departs
From there, the bad news, at least as it pertained to RPI, was done for much of the summer, but in early August, a bombshell dropped when word started to leak out that star sophomore Jerry D'Amigo was close to signing a deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs. After reports of D'Amigo's massively increased size started to leak out of the World Junior camp in Lake Placid, pundits began to believe that D'Amigo, even at the age of 19, might well be NHL ready. Given the developing situation in which dozens of talented underclassmen had already bolted the NCAA ranks for pro contracts, D'Amigo's signing ultimately took few people by surprise once it happened, even if it appeared likely at the beginning of the offseason that he'd probably be back for at least one more year.

Brandon Pirri departs
The other shoe dropped early last week, when Bob McKenzie and Ken Schott broke the news that Brandon Pirri was about to sign with Chicago, a situation, as we mentioned last Monday, that was more than likely brought on by Chicago's roster woes and possibly somewhat sparked by D'Amigo's leaving. For a few weeks, we'd thought the team wouldn't have been as good as they could have been with D'Amigo, but that they'd be perfectly fine as long as Pirri was still on board. Now, life seems a little bit harder, especially considering the amount of attention Chase Polacek is going to draw from defensemen without those two super sophomores to worry about.

Nick Quinn decommits
The capper on the worst week thus far in the offseason came at the end of last week, when recruiting guru Chris Heisenberg caught wind that Quinn had made the decision not to attend RPI in 2011, or ever, moving back into the pool of uncommitted recruits. The reasoning is unclear at this point, but some have conjectured that there may have been some unhappiness with his situation vis a vis Jim Montgomery, who apparently was the key element in recruiting Quinn. The young Canadian had been expecting to play alongside Curadi and under Montgomery in Dubuque, but a USHL ruling on the number of imports allowed to play on any given team meant that one had to leave Dubuque, and Quinn ended up being the odd man out in Monty's plans. Quinn will play instead for Des Moines, assuming he stays in the USHL. If he does, he's probably looking to go to another school (which would likely make him Chris Huxley's replacement among the RPI student section, especially if he goes to another ECAC school). If he doesn't, he's probably just another NCAA recruit who leaves to go to the OHL. At any rate, the departure leaves RPI with one defenseman (Curadi) and one forward (Laliberté) committed for 2011 at present. Three defensemen and five forwards graduate at the end of the upcoming season.

These events have RPI fans looking fairly punch drunk, waiting for the next bit of bad news to fall down like a sandbag from overhead. Well, not to sound like a negative Nancy, but brace yourself - the whole college hockey world, perhaps, should be bracing themselves.

Penn State
Year after year, one of the schools most often rumored to be starting a new varsity program has been Penn State, thanks to their wildly successful and popular club program. Now it appears that this rumor may actually be about to become reality. The school is apparently getting closer to announcing plans for a new 6,000 to 8,000 seat arena and men's and women's varsity programs which could get underway as independents in time for the 2012-13 season, potentially with an eye on the CCHA as an initial home.

Exciting, right? Well, it's also... "interesting." Penn State would more than likely change the face of the college hockey world more than any other school could. They would become the sixth Big 10 school to sponsor college hockey (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State). Six is the magic number for a conference with an autobid. Is a Big 10 super-conference in the works, one that would fundamentally alter the landscape of the sport, especially in the west, where the CCHA would be utterly devastated?

But western teams are not the only ones who should be watching the situation at Penn State. If they're going to have a team in 2012, especially at a big name school like theirs, recruiting has to start this season, which means, they need a coach. Know any that have shown a recent ability to bring outstanding players to a program without a lot of natural advantages? Wow, I can think of two of them right here in the Capital District - our own Seth Appert, and Union's Nate Leaman. Penn State would be fools not to inquire as to either man's availability, and both men would be fools not to at least consider the position if it were offered to them. The chance to be for Penn State what Ned Harkness was to either Capital District program is practically priceless.

So yes... if you're an RPI fan, there's got to be some cause for concern as we watch Penn State potentially become the 59th Division I program.

---

We asked the question at the beginning of the offseason "will he or won't he (be in Troy)?" for four talented scorers. The answer was "he won't" for three of the four. If all four had been coming, who knows what this team could have done. We'll never get the chance to find out, so it's time to move on, forget about what might have been, and focus on the future.

Be happy for them
We will miss their services dearly, but Montgomery, D'Amigo, and Pirri are moving on to bigger and better things. We've at least got the consolation of being able to watch them pursue those bigger and better things.

Nolan Graham arrives
At the very least, Montgomery's replacement among Appert's lieutenants is not only a familiar face, but a rising star among the coaching ranks. Nolan Graham has had success everywhere he's gone behind the bench since hanging them up, especially last season in Alberni Valley. He's an alum to boot, which likely gives him a little edge in the passion department when it comes to speaking to recruits. It will be good to have him back in Troy.

The new faces arrive
There's every bit of reason to be excited about the new players who will be pulling on the cherry and white this year. Viewed through the scope of last season's incoming crop, this group may not seem as exciting. Viewed through the scope of 10 years worth of incoming groups of freshmen, and it's another solid class. Nick Bailen will more than likely step in and provide the same type of outstanding defense we would expect from an upperclassman. Patrick Koudys is likely to be a high draft pick in 2011. Apparently, we got the right Tinordi after all, and Matt appears to have size and a scoring touch. Then there's Brock Higgs and Johnny Rogic, both of whom we have mentioned could be key players right off the bat.

Signs of success
In the modern game, losing players early is a sign that your program is successful in attracting the best. We'd like to remind some of the haters that RPI has sent more players to the NHL in the last month than most ECAC teams have sent there in the last few years, or in more than one case, more than they've ever sent there. And we don't want to get too far into rumor and innuendo, but... there may be some more blue-chippers in the near future. Stay tuned.

We don't suffer alone - or in poor company
The other teams to lose multiple players early to NHL contracts? Minnesota. Wisconsin. Boston University. Denver. Michigan State. Notre Dame. Ohio State. UMass. Northern Michigan. That's some pretty select company. Only Minnesota also lost two freshmen. The only downside to this company is that most of those teams are better suited to rebound from their losses this year or next year.

The rebound will be the challenge. With the team we've got right now... it's possible, as long as they believe. It won't be easy to stop thinking about what might have been, but that's exactly the hurdle the Engineers will need to overcome early in the season - there is no "might have been," there is only what is.

Classes start today on the hill. One month left. Wake me up when September ends.

Without a Pirri

Breaking news from TSN's Bob McKenzie (apparently, via Ken Schott, who isn't "The King" for nothing), one of the most reliable NHL sources on the planet, not to mention one of the more knowledgeable pro pundits when it comes to the ECAC considering that his son Mike just graduated from St. Lawrence, has reported via Twitter that RPI forward will forgo his final three years of NCAA eligibility and sign a professional contract with the Chicago Blackhawks.

D'Amigo's departure was a punch in the gut. This is a follow-up kick in the crotch.

One of the things that the Engineers weren't expecting to have question marks on in the upcoming season was offense - because there was so much of it returning. Losing one of Pirri and D'Amigo was expected to be a major blow, but nothing RPI wouldn't probably recover from. Losing both is going to be very difficult to overcome. For one thing, having fewer major threats on the ice is going to put a lot more defensive pressure on Chase Polacek next season - his Hobey Baker finalist season was due not only to his talent and ability, but when the other team has to tangle with two other guys who can burn you, you are going to find yourself just a little bit more ice to operate with. That means other forwards are going to need to step up to be the type of threats that Pirri and D'Amigo were.

Pirri's signing is a little more head-scratching than D'Amigo's, but it could at least in part be explained by D'Amigo's departure. The conventional wisdom on D'Amigo is that he has at worst an outside chance at making the Maple Leafs out of camp and should at the very least end up in the AHL barring a complete disaster. Pirri is different - if he earns a spot on the Blackhawks' roster out of camp it would be a complete surprise. The one saving grace is that Pirri's signing is probably at least partially due to Chicago's serious need for bodies in their system - that might see him sent to the AHL rather than sent to major junior, where the Saginaw Spirit owns his rights, which would be a bad end result all around, as he could have ultimately have stayed with RPI if that happens. But D'Amigo's leaving may well have left Pirri with the idea that with the offer on the table likely trumped the prospects of the upcoming season at RPI.

As we mentioned earlier this month, Chicago's entire system has been decimated by their need to squeeze under the NHL's salary cap after playing hard and fast with salaries on their way to a Stanley Cup - for you baseball fans out there, recall what the Florida Marlins did after both of their World Series victories... the exact same thing is happening in Chicago, only the Marlins were basically trying to fit under a self-imposed cap. That means the Blackhawks need cheap young talent to restock their system - Pirri happens to fit that mold. That may work to Pirri's advantage in being able to catch on in the AHL, but whether he is necessarily "pro ready" is a matter for some debate. Most observers expected that he would probably need another season or two in Troy before he was ready to sign a pro deal and run with the big dogs in the AHL.

Pirri is a tremendous hockey talent. Hockey Canada, quite frankly, was foolish to leave him out of their World Junior camp this summer (which disqualifies him from the team in December due to their rules) in what was really a provincial snub as you have to just about be Jonathan Toews to even earn a camp invite if you're a Canadian playing college hockey. But there is definitely some question as to whether he will get run over playing in the AHL at this point in his career. I hope he's ready to go, or this exciting development could ultimately be a net negative for what absolutely has the potential to be a long and fruitful NHL career.

As for RPI... this development deserves a look at the offensive corps that will be taking the ice in October.

Departing: Paul Kerins, Garett Vassel, Christian Morissette, Jerry D'Amigo, Brandon Pirri, Jordan Watts, Kevin Beauregard (moving to defense).

Returning: Bryan Brutlag, Scott Halpern, Joel Malchuk, Tyler Helfrich, Justin Smith, Alex Angers-Goulet, Patrick Cullen, Chase Polacek, C.J. Lee, Josh Rabbani, Marty O'Grady.

Incoming: Brock Higgs, Matt Tinordi, Greg Burgdoerfer, Johnny Rogic.

That means there'll still be three healthy scratches at forward on any given night (assuming there aren't any injuries, of course). Go ahead, pick three guys on that list that don't have the talent to vie for lots of ice time. You really can't. At any rate, of the seven departing forwards, only four saw serious ice time last year, and they are all being replaced. Seth Appert was thinking ahead when he recruited more forwards than it looked like we needed.

Higgs and Rogic may not be D'Amigo and Pirri, but they are coming into Troy with a decent amount of buzz... and aren't flight risks. Tinordi isn't a slouch either.

After D'Amigo's departure, there were murmurs that perhaps Appert would try to get Jacob Laliberté on campus as a replacement. That didn't happen then. There will surely be some more murmurs now that another top name has left, but don't count on it - classes start in a week. I doubt "he's got a great finishing touch" is going to fly with admissions to sneak him into the Class of 2014.

This turn of events absolutely puts RPI near, or even at the top of the list of college teams devastated by the slow bleed of young talent to the professional ranks this summer. Programs like Boston University, Wisconsin, Denver, and Notre Dame lost a larger number of top talents that would have had eligibility, but all four of those teams have a whole host of top-notch talent to fall back on even if all four are probably heading for rough seasons. Things just got a whole lot harder for the Engineers.

But look on the bright side - the Chicago Blackhawks, like the Toronto Maple Leafs, seem to be satisfied with how quickly Pirri developed during his time in Troy, or at the very least, they aren't hurling invectives at Seth Appert the way the New York Islanders and Minnesota Wild did to Minnesota's Don Lucia when they pulled and dealt Kyle Okposo and Nick Leddy respectively. Going forward, that can only be a feather in Seth Appert's cap. Is there cause to worry that he might be the next talent to skip town? Maybe that ought to be a more overriding concern - but while he's still here, the laudatory comments coming down on him from the pro ranks can only help him in his efforts to draw in the best talents on the continent.

To quote Geoff Tate: "Wide awake, you face the day, your dream is over... or has it just begun?"

(Hat-tip to Tyler Hinman for the title.)

Don Lucia and the Changing Face of Recruiting

If you have yet to read the outstanding interview with Minnesota head coach Don Lucia at College Hockey News, you owe it to yourself to give it a look. Lucia and Adam Wodon touch on some of the issues surrounding the Gophers - issues that have led to frustration among the Gopher faithful and amusement among the many Gopher haters - but, like an onion, this interview has layers. As you peel away the layers, you delve into some core issues that every team has to deal with when it comes to recruiting and holding onto players that are relatively new and that Minnesota, perhaps, highlights most brightly.

For years, Minnesota recruited only the best high school players in the state of Minnesota. The team went decades without having a player who hailed from outside of the Land of 10,000 Lakes. It was tradition, but tradition didn't lead to a great deal of success, especially on the national level. When Don Lucia first arrived in Minneapolis, he broke the status quo almost right away. The game winning goal in the Gophers' first national championship victory in almost a quarter-century was scored by a North Dakotan (Grant Potulny). Soon, the Gophers were bringing in Europeans (like Thomas Vanek) and Canadians (like Kris Chucko), and Minnesota won a second consecutive national title and were top contenders for years.

But then, a slow slide began. Last season, the Gophers finished with a losing record for the first time under Lucia (and the first time he was personally under .500 in 17 straight seasons as a college coach), and missed the national tournament for the first time since his first season in Minneapolis. What happened?

As the interview discusses, Minnesota, as one of the giants of college hockey, attracts gobs of blue-chip talent. But in the new recruiting atmosphere, created in part by the collective bargaining agreement put into place after the 2004-05 NHL lockout, sees many of the top talents leaving for the pros much quicker than they did in the past.

But there's another element: the growing war for talent with the Canadian Hockey League, colloquially referred to as the "major junior" leagues - the WHL, the OHL, and the QMJHL. College teams have a major disadvantage to major junior when it comes to attracting talent: college players can leave for major junior, but the opposite is not true. Once you're in major junior, you're there, but going to college doesn't preclude a player from leaving for the CHL. Thus, NCAA teams increasingly are becoming concerned not only with losing players (and recruits) to pro contracts, but also to major junior contracts.

Michigan, another titan of college hockey, is growing to be the poster child for the major junior problem. They've lost two top recruits that had been expected in Ann Arbor - last winter, losing US Junior Team goaltender Jack Campbell to the OHL, and just last week losing top forward prospect Lucas Lessio, also to the OHL.

RPI is not immune from this phenomenon, especially with the successful recruiting of late. Even before Brandon Pirri and Jerry D'Amigo arrived on campus, the wonder was whether one or both would suddenly jump to the OHL, but they spurned Sudbury and Kitchener respectively. Wanna freak out? Type "Brandon Pirri" into a Google search box. Google will suggest "brandon pirri ohl" before "brandon pirri rpi." In June, the Saginaw Spirit traded for his rights, suggesting they think there's at least a chance Pirri could come to the OHL.

But Pirri's flight risk isn't limited to Saginaw - the Chicago Blackhawks own his rights and have loomed ominously in the background. The collective bargaining agreement set up a salary cap that the Blackhawks played hard and fast with in building a Stanley Cup winning team, and the time has come to pay the piper, leading to an absolute fire sale that has decimated Chicago's farm system. In need of bodies to fill out their roster and the roster in Rockford, their AHL affiliate, they have looked to sign rookies - they're far cheaper than veterans, especially in the minor leagues, and they've already gone shopping in the college ranks, plucking Nick Leddy away from Lucia with three seasons of eligibility remaining.

Is Brandon Pirri coming back to RPI? Probably. There hasn't been much to definitively indicate that he would take either route. Will he be here after this season? That would be shocking. The same is true of Jerry D'Amigo - anything RPI gets from these super sophs after this season, it has to be said, is going to be gravy. That's just the way things are for the very best players

When Kyle Palmieri left Notre Dame this week to sign with Anaheim, he became the 37th player in all of college hockey (one, Oswego's Eric Selleck, was from D-III) to forfeit college eligibility to sign a pro contract. Of those, 17 (including Selleck) were giving up either two or three years of remaining eligibility. That's practically an unheard of number of underclassmen jumping ship, and the very best players are starting to leave after just one or two seasons in college, with the talent war with major junior only exacerbating the situation.

So what ends up happening? For the top teams like Minnesota and Michigan, who bring in top players left and right, it means more and more frequently that they're only going to be as good as their most recent freshman class - the ones they can bring onto campus, anyway. It also means that they are actively making plans to lose some of their players early, recruiting even more top talent than they might normally expect to need, and managing their arrival dates.

But how can teams mitigate this problem without necessarily yo-yoing up and down the league standings every year? Coaches understand college's role as a development level for professional hockey. But there are prototypes out there for top players they can get maximum production from - players like Chase Polacek, overlooked in high school and considered to be too small for the NHL, but he works just fine in college, doesn't he? Jacob Laliberté projects to be very similar, and as we've mentioned before, his size makes it more likely that he'd develop better in college than in major junior, though he too is a question mark when it comes to possibly heading to the CHL. These are the diamonds in the rough that will be the anchors of top teams in the near future, working hand in hand with the shooting stars that will be gone after a year or two.

Those types will be just as important as the blue chippers as the recruiting trail continues to evolve.

Men's Hockey - at Brown and Yale (29/30 Jan)

It's a never-ending source of frustration for Engineers fans. Sometimes, they'll go out there and be giant killers and it seems like the ECAC is theirs for the taking. Other times, they go out and lay an egg against teams they should probably have beaten. We got both this weekend, as RPI dropped a frustrating 4-3 decision in overtime at Brown before rebounding the next night with a second complete effort against one of the most talented teams in the league, shutting out Yale 4-0 to complete a season sweep of the Bulldogs.

Brown
Vassel/Malchuk/Lee
D'Amigo/Polacek/Brutlag
Kerins/Pirri/O'Grady
Cullen/Angers-Goulet/Helfrich

Kennedy/Merth
Bergin/Foss
Jensen/Burgdoerfer

York

As mentioned last week, this game was one of the ones the Engineers really needed to get 2 points in to stay in the hunt for the bye, given the number of other teams that have been taking points from Brown this year.

The first period was dominated by the Engineers despite having to kill a pair of penalties during the first 20 minutes. Most observers believed that flow was controlled by RPI throughout the first, and they did have a number of opportunities to score the game's first goal that were squandered despite the high intensity.

RPI had an early power play opportunity in the second period after Brown's Harry Zolnierczyk took his second boarding penalty of the night, but they were unable to convert. Shortly after the power play expired, the Bears turned on the offense, scoring about 4 minutes into the period to go up 1-0, and then again exactly three minutes later to take a 2-0 lead on an RPI team that came out absolutely sluggish for the second period as compared to their first period effort.

Zolnierczyk would take a third penalty, this time for kneeing, about two minutes later and the RPI power play went back to work. This time, with a goal being crucial for staying in the game, senior Paul Kerins responded, connecting from Brandon Pirri and Chase Polacek to cut the Brown lead in half.

After successfully killing a penalty to C.J. Lee, the Engineers got another opportunity on the power play late in the 2nd, and it appeared that they would have a good chance to get things square again before the 2nd intermission. But with an aggressive penalty kill reminiscent of the way RPI has been doing things lately, the Bears broke out and put the Engineers back in a hole with a shorthanded goal, making the score 3-1 with about 5 minutes left in the 2nd period, putting the exclamation point on a very, very weak period from RPI.

A Brown penalty early in the 3rd period opened the door again, and it was Chase Polacek who walked through, scoring on the power play from Pirri and Jerry D'Amigo to cut the Brown lead back to one. Momentum seemed to be going back in RPI's favor as another Brown penalty about three minutes later put the Engineers on the power play again, but then it came crashing down in a hurry on an unforced error. Brandon Pirri was called for head-butting, a five minute major that negated the power play and later created a long penalty kill for the Engineers, in addition to the important loss of Pirri's services for the remainder of the night.

The penalty kill blunted the Engineer attack, but only until it was over, and then, the momentum swung back toward RPI again. Two minutes after Garett Vassel exited the box after serving Pirri's penalty, Paul Kerins netted his second goal of the game as his hot scoring streak continued, with assists coming from Alex Angers-Goulet and Mike Bergin, tying the score at 3-3 with about four-and-a-half minutes left in regulation.

The momentum continued after the goal, and RPI was a couple of near misses away from taking their first lead of the night. The period began to near the end, but things were looking very good for the Engineers, even as overtime approached.

Then everything unraveled completely. With nine seconds remaining in regulation and the score tied, Joel Malchuk was called for slashing after a retaliatory move ended with Zolnierczyk's stick flying into the air - something which seemed to be a common occurrence with Zolnierczyk during the first game in Troy, putting RPI on the penalty kill for the dying seconds of regulation and then, potentially, into the overtime period. That was bad enough. The expectation was that they'd have to kill the penalty and then work to get back the momentum they needed for the game winner.

The faceoff in the RPI zone was immediately whistled, however. Three seconds after Malchuk hit the box, Peter Merth was following him in for interference on the faceoff. With 6 seconds left in regulation and the score tied, the Engineers had 1:57 of a five-on-three to kill as overtime loomed.

If you've followed along this season, you know that anything over a minute of being down two men has been pretty much automatic for the Engineers giving up a goal. Ultimately, including the last part of regulation, RPI lasted 53 seconds before Aaron Volpatti scored the overtime game winner on the two-man advantage. The Engineers had battled back from two different 2-goal deficits, and still were forced to walk away with nothing.

Yale
Kerins/Pirri/O'Grady
D'Amigo/Polacek/Halpern
Lee/Angers-Goulet/Brutlag
Vassel/Malchuk/Watts

Jensen/Burgdoerfer
Kennedy/Merth
Bergin/Foss

York

The shakeup was immediate. Junior Tyler Helfrich and sophomore Patrick Cullen were both healthy scratches, with Appert later remarking that Helfrich had played poorly in the defensive zone against Brown and that Cullen's offensive involvement had again been minimal lately. Jordan Watts and Scott Halpern got the call in their stead. Appert said that he "played the players who give us the best chance to win the hockey game."

Just like on Black Friday, Yale came into this one as the #6 ranked team in the nation, and expectations, at least to me, were pretty low once again, although the loss to Brown made the game much more important to take points in.

From the opening faceoff, the Engineers displayed jump and poise, clearly eager to erase the ills of the previous night. It wasn't long, though - less than two minutes into the game - that the jump was quieted as Jerry D'Amigo was hurt on a hit behind the RPI net. He would be helped off the ice in a fashion that made it appear that he would not return. But that wouldn't be Jerry D'Amigo's style, not a bit. He was back out on the ice later in the period.

RPI killed an early penalty to C.J. Lee, and then started to maintain some fairly consistent pressure in the Yale zone. Eventually, that pressure paid off with the first goal of the game as Bryan Brutlag scored his fifth goal of the season, from Pirri and Kerins, about 8 minutes into the game to put the Engineers up 1-0.

The second half of the period consisted of continued pressure from RPI, aided by three power plays coming almost back-to-back-to-back, but Yale's defense held up. RPI's speed and physical play helped them to a solid 11-4 shot lead after the first period.

Early in the second period, it looked like momentum might have been starting to move in Yale's direction, but Allen York and the Engineer defense didn't blink. The Bulldogs had a few decent opportunities in the 2nd, including a shot that York just managed to blindly get a leg on, and one shot which rang off the crossbar.

At exactly the midway point of the 2nd period, the Engineers got an opportunity for a 35-second five-on-three advantage, and Seth Appert called timeout to set things up, but the Yale penalty kill held up. Technically, the Engineers started out the night 0-for-6 on the power play, but their sixth power play led to their second goal of the game as Chase Polacek netted his second goal of the weekend, from D'Amigo and Christian Jensen, just 3 seconds after the Yale penalty expired late in the 2nd period, putting RPI up 2-0 heading into the second intermission.

A late penalty to Peter Merth carried over into the 3rd period and the Engineers killed the penalty, but just a minute into the 3rd - seconds after Merth's penalty expired - John Kennedy put the only blemish on a great night of defense with a hooking call that put the Engineers right back on the power play. Nursing a two-goal lead, the extended opportunity for the Bulldogs could have gotten them right back into the game, but just like the previous night, an aggressive penalty kill led to paydirt, this time in RPI's favor. After clearing the puck, Polacek and D'Amigo took off on a 2-on-1. Polacek dished at just the right time, and D'Amigo's one-timer into the back of the net gave RPI a 3-0 lead on a shorthanded goal.

15 seconds after Kennedy came out of the box, Yale took a penalty of their own, and this time the Engineers capitalized. Brandon Pirri broke his long goal scoring drought, finally getting his 8th of the season with assists from D'Amigo and Polacek as RPI took a commanding 4-0 lead.

Shortly thereafter, Yale would get another chance on the power play after Allen York took a roughing penalty, but the penalty kill held up again, going a perfect 7-for-7 on the night. Yale took a series of penalties late to kill any chance they had of getting on the scoreboard, and York would finish with 22 saves to preserve his second career shutout - RPI's first of the season - the Engineers completed the season sweep on a very talented Yale team.

Several fans in attendance remarked that it may have been the most complete game RPI has put together in a decade, with tenacious defense and a voracious offense combining for a dominating performance against a difficult opponent in their barn. The "sixth period" malaise never appeared, as the Engineers took control in the third period and never gave Yale an opportunity to get back into the game - even despite a rough turn of events that saw the team down one of their key forwards in the third period as Paul Kerins was back in warmups and in the stands during the third period, owing to a knee injury. He was on crutches after the game and is questionable for next weekend.

The loss helped ease the pain somewhat from Friday night - two points on the weekend were what we expected, but that they came against Yale also makes Friday's loss even more maddening. In hindsight, the four point weekend would have put RPI in fifth place, alone, just one point out from second place. As it is, they sit tied with Colgate (who has a game in hand) for fifth, and are three points out from second place (where there's a three-way tie between Yale, Union, and St. Lawrence).

Next up is St. Lawrence and Clarkson, and RPI could really use a sweep at home this weekend. St. Lawrence is one of the games the Engineers need to be competitive in if they're going to have a chance at finishing in the top four, while the Clarkson game is much like the Brown game was last week - a game against a weak team (the Knights are in last place, which means the "Clarkson sucks" cheer may never be more apt than it is this season) that everyone and their mother is taking points from. A best case scenario this weekend puts the Engineers alone in 3rd place, just a point out from the peak, given a sweep and favorable outcomes elsewhere. The bye isn't out of the question yet, not by a longshot.

Fortunately, this upcoming weekend differs from the past weekend in that the tougher game of the weekend is on Friday, meaning the team can't look past the easier opponent first as it appeared they did against Brown. Additionally, this weekend celebrates the 25th anniversary of the 1985 national championship team, and with the '85 alums back in town, it should be a boost to the spirits of today's guys, many of whom have made no bones about their own high national aspirations.

Other junk - No votes for the Engineers for the third week in a row. Ranked ECAC teams are #5 Cornell (up three after sweeping SLU and Clarkson at home), #8 Yale (down two after beating Union and losing to RPI), and #20 Union (down two after losing to Yale and tying Brown). Again, St. Lawrence (lost to Cornell, beat Colgate) is just outside the Top 20, earning the most votes of those unranked with 46 votes. They were the only other ECAC team to take votes this week; Quinnipiac has stopped receiving votes after another head-shaking loss, this time to Dartmouth. It's a long way to fall from #4 in the nation and 7 1st-place votes to, after only one win in two months, no votes at all.

Ranked non-conference opponents of the Engineers are #12 Michigan State (no change), #13 New Hampshire (no change), #15 UMass (no change), and #19 Michigan (up one). Sacred Heart earned 6 votes (they're unbeaten in 12 straight games, longest in the country), Alaska is down to 1 vote.

Chase Polacek and Brandon Pirri were honored by the ECAC in their weekly awards handout - Polacek earned Player of the Week honors for his five point weekend, Pirri earned Rookie of the Week plaudits for his four points.

Go, right now, and vote for Chase Polacek for Hobey Baker: http://www.hobeybaker.com/voting/. He's becoming more and more of an obvious choice for a Top 10 Hobey Finalist - after a big weekend of scoring, he's now tied for the national lead in scoring with 40 points. As mentioned, that makes him the 1st Engineer with 40 points since 2001-02. He also sits at 100 points for his career, making him the 60th Engineer to accomplish that feat. His ECAC total is 25, which is 5 points clear of Cornell senior Blake Gallagher and 6 points ahead of third place, RPI's Brandon Pirri. Oh, and Polacek's also got 5 shorthanded points in ECAC play as well.

Speaking of Pirri, he's still leading the ECAC in assists with 16, one ahead of Polacek, who himself is three ahead of everyone else. The duo are tied in league power play points with 12, also three ahead of everyone else, while Pirri still leads the nation in scoring by a freshman with 33 points.

With a bare minimum of 10 games remaining on the schedule, Polacek and Pirri are already the first Engineer duo with 30 points each since Kevin Croxton and Oren Eizenman in 2005-06. If Paul Kerins and/or Jerry D'Amigo reach 30 points, it'll make for the first trio since Croxton, Kirk MacDonald, and Nick Economakos in 2003-04. If all four of them can make it, the last 30 point quartet was Brad Tapper, Matt Murley, Brian Pothier, and Marc Cavosie in 1999-2000.

Polacek's 18 goals are the most by an Engineer in a single season since Croxton's 18 in 03-04. The 20-goal plateau hasn't been reached since Murley and Cavosie in 01-02.

This weekend's festivities include an event at the Field House on Friday at 4pm called "Legends of '85" with Mike Sadeghpour, Mike Dark, Ken Hammond, and George Servinis sharing stories from the national championship run. RPI TV will air the event live, streaming on the internet at http://www.rpitv.org. At 11am on Saturday, the annual alumni game takes place. During the 1st intermission of the Clarkson game, the '85 team will be reintroduced, including head coach Mike Addesa, who will be making his first official return to RPI since he left the program. '85 superstar Adam Oates will not be in attendance - he's an assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning, so he's busy - but alums like Mark Jooris and Daren Puppa are expected to be in the house. Similar to Black Friday, there'll also be a raffle of 1985 replica jerseys. After the game, there'll be a meet and greet with the '85 alums. If you're in the Troy area this weekend, it promises to be an exciting couple of nights even before you get to the two big games the Engineers are playing this weekend. You won't want to miss it.

ECAC Standings
1. Cornell - 20 pts
2. St. Lawrence - 18 pts (14 games, 8 wins, +10 goals)
3. Yale - 18 pts (14 games, 8 wins, +6 goals)
4. Union - 18 pts (14 games, 7 wins)
5. Colgate - 15 pts (13 games)
6. RPI - 15 pts (14 games)
7. Quinnipiac - 14 pts
8. Harvard - 13 pts
9. Brown - 12 pts
10. Princeton - 11 pts
11. Dartmouth - 8 pts
12. Clarkson - 4 pts

By Winning Pct. (points/possible)
1. Cornell .769 (20/26)
T-2. St. Lawrence/Union/Yale .643 (18/28)
5. Colgate .577 (15/26)
6. RPI .536 (15/28)
7. Quinnipiac .500 (14/28)
8. Harvard .464 (13/28)
9. Brown .429 (12/28)
10. Princeton .393 (11/28)
11. Dartmouth .286 (8/28)
12. Clarkson .143 (4/28)

RPI at Brown
ECAC Game - Meehan Auditorium (Providence, RI)
1/29/10 - 7:00 pm
RESULT: Brown 4, RPI 3 (OT)

BOX SCORES

• College Hockey Stats
• USCHO

RECAPS

• RPI
• Troy Record
• Albany Times-Union
• Providence Journal

RECORD: 13-12-2 (6-6-1 ECAC, 13 pts)

Reale Deals
1. F Paul Kerins, 2 G
2. F Brandon Pirri, 2 A
3. F Chase Polacek, 1 G, 1 A

RPI at #6 Yale
ECAC Game - Ingalls Rink (New Haven, CT)
1/30/10 - 7:00 pm
RESULT: RPI 4, Yale 0

BOX SCORES

• College Hockey Stats
• USCHO

RECAPS

• RPI
• USCHO (includes large photo gallery)
• Troy Record
• Albany Times-Union
• Yale Daily News

RECORD: 14-12-2 (7-6-1 ECAC, 15 pts)

Reale Deals
1. F Chase Polacek, 1 G, 2 A
2. F Jerry D'Amigo, 1 G, 2 A
3. G Allen York, 22 saves, SO

Upcoming Games
05 Feb - St. Lawrence
06 Feb - Clarkson
12 Feb - at Harvard
13 Feb - at Dartmouth
19 Feb - Quinnipiac

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MEN’S HOCKEY

Rensselaer went 1-1-0 last week, falling to Brown in overtime (4-3) on Friday, before blanking sixth-ranked Yale (4-0), on Saturday. Junior Chase Polacek (Edina, MN) recorded a five-point weekend, including having a hand in three of the Engineers’ four goals (1 goal, 2 assists) against the Bulldogs. RPI (14-12-2; 7-6-1 ECAC Hockey) returns to the Houston Field House this weekend, when it hosts North Country-rivals St. Lawrence and Clarkson on Friday (7pm) and Saturday (7pm), respectively.

A Celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the 1985 National Championship Team will take place on Saturday night. Live stats for both games will be available at http://www.sidearmstats.com/rpi/mhockey/index.htm and can be seen live on a pay-per-view basis via the B2 Networks at http://www.b2livetv.com/partner_members.asp?id=27. As is the case will all RPI men’s hockey games, both contests will be broadcast on the air courtesy of WRPI radio on 91.5 FM or log on to www.wrpi.org and click on sports.