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.
Showing posts with label jerry d'amigo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jerry d'amigo. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
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.
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.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
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:
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.
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.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Oh. Hockey. Right!
Gosh... this was a first for us here at WaP. The last two winter breaks were full of RPI hockey goodness, what with Jerry D'Amigo playing in the World Junior Championships and, last year, the big exhibition against the US WJC team.
(For what it's worth, the Canadians are still cheering against whoever's playing the Stars and Stripes out of pure, unadulterated fear. They probably think D'Amigo will come back and squash them again.)
This year, with the team struggling and no one to dote on in the tournament... a little less going on. So we took a quick breather to recharge the batteries. But we're back, and the second half starts now.
There's great news to share - the team's finally at 100% injury wise, which is what we'd hoped to hear heading into the break. From Seth Appert's recent comments, it looks like the younger guys are going to get a bigger role going forward as well.
Hope springs eternal. Can the team wash away the stank of a horrible first three months? They can start this afternoon as they face nationally ranked UMass-Lowell in UConn's (almost literal) barn.
Let's get excited... nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
(For what it's worth, the Canadians are still cheering against whoever's playing the Stars and Stripes out of pure, unadulterated fear. They probably think D'Amigo will come back and squash them again.)
This year, with the team struggling and no one to dote on in the tournament... a little less going on. So we took a quick breather to recharge the batteries. But we're back, and the second half starts now.
There's great news to share - the team's finally at 100% injury wise, which is what we'd hoped to hear heading into the break. From Seth Appert's recent comments, it looks like the younger guys are going to get a bigger role going forward as well.
Hope springs eternal. Can the team wash away the stank of a horrible first three months? They can start this afternoon as they face nationally ranked UMass-Lowell in UConn's (almost literal) barn.
Let's get excited... nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
Friday, August 5, 2011
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.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Interview with an American Hero
We had originally planned to have Toronto Marlies forward and former RPI star Jerry D'Amigo make a guest appearance on our weekly podcast this afternoon. Unfortunately, the timing didn't work out just perfectly, thanks to the presence of both TSN and NHL.com at Team USA's morning practice at Houston Field House. We're still a little farther down on the food chain, it appears, and without question, Jerry has been the number one media star since the Junior Team opened camp in Troy yesterday morning.
Instead, we got the opportunity to sit down with Jerry to ask him about his return to RPI and get his perspective on tomorrow afternoon's game and the upcoming tournament, among other things.
Jerry talked to Ken Schott yesterday on camera, where he spoke fondly of his year in the Cherry and White, and admitted that he keeps a close eye on how the Engineers are doing. "I always look them up to see if they won," he said. "I don't really lose track. I'm an alum now, so I've got to keep my tabs on them. I know it was tough for me and Brandon Pirri to leave, but they're bouncing back. They're a great team to begin with and they're doing well. I'm proud that they're doing well."
Then, with a snicker and a grin... "Maybe it was because I left."'
Without a Peer: Tell us about your feelings on coming back to RPI after being away for a few months.
Jerry D'Amigo: I was excited when the Toronto staff let me come back out here. I loved it here for the year. Getting a chance to spend some time with the (RPI) coaching staff and hang out with the guys again has been just great. My family's here, too, and it's just going to be a great time tomorrow night when we play them.
WaP: For a little while after this game was announced, it was thought that you'd be playing against your current team in this one.
JDA: I thought it was going to be great from the time I first heard about it. I remember when Seth (Appert) told me about it, and we were both pretty excited. He was like, "you better get ready, because we're gonna be coming after you hard." It's going to be fun tomorrow. Some of the guys were joking about it, saying things like "well, we're gonna crush you into the boards." It's going to be a good game. You practice with them the whole year and you learn what it's like to play with them, and now to play against them is going to be a little weird, but it's gonna be great.
WaP: What kind of reaction do you expect out of the crowd?
JDA: Well, actually I don't really have any expectations. Hopefully I'll get some cheers. Hopefully no boos. Nobody likes to get booed when they're coming back to their old team. These fans are great here, so you really can't get mad at them anyway.
WaP: Everyone's dying to know... what's your plan for beating Allen York?
JDA: (laugh) Well, I don't know. He's a good goalie. There are some weak spots, which I may not tell the other guys. I know where I want to shoot on him, and hopefully I can get one, but you never know what's going to happen.
WaP: A few people were upset that you left after you said at the end of last season that you were all coming back, but obviously some things that happened in the offseason changed that. What changed the most?
JDA: I had a great season, and I thank RPI for that, the coaching staff and my teammates especially. The World Juniors helped me a lot too, though, to open the eyes of some of the guys in Toronto. The offseason was great. I worked hard with a goal to get stronger, bigger, and faster, because that's what I needed to do for this season. Then I went to Toronto's prospect camp and they saw the work I'd done. It was an opportunity that I felt that I needed to do to move to the next level.
WaP: Last year during camp you weren't a sure thing to make the team, but this year you're a veteran. What's the difference for you between this year's camp and last year's camp?
JDA: Those of us that are returning this season, we all have to be leaders. There are younger guys who are where I was last year. It always helped to have one of the older guys to tell us what to do. I've just got to just set an example by working hard and be there to be a character leader.
WaP: How about the difference between this team and the one you played on last year?
JDA: It feels kinda the same, really. Obviously, we're going to have the pressure to win (the gold medal) again. Teams are going to come in this year knowing that we're a great team. We've got to play hard, because we know it's not going to be given to us. We're going to have to earn every inch and work that much harder because we're on our home soil. Having the fans with us and not against us will be good for us, too.
WaP: How much would it mean for you personally to be able to repeat as champions on your home soil?
JDA: We (won a championship at home) when I was 18, and it was just great to have the whole crowd with you cheering you on right to the end and singing the national anthem with you. It's a great thing, and if we were to win again... wow. Last year was one of the greatest feelings ever, and to be able to experience that, especially beating Canada in the gold medal game, it was unbelievable and something that I'll never forget. I dream of doing it again, I would love to have that with me to carry on forever.
WaP: Here at RPI, you developed kind of a reputation for getting run from behind, and we saw it happen again when you were up in Glens Falls (playing against the Adirondack Phantoms) last month. What is it that? Are you just a magnet?
JDA: (chuckles) I guess I've just got a target on my back. It's one of those things where I like to get down and dirty, and you know what, if that means you end up getting hit from behind, then I'll do that. Hopefully I don't get it tomorrow, but we'll see what happens. I'm trying to shy away from those because those hurt a lot.
WaP: When you signed your professional contract, you became the first Engineer to sign after just one year at RPI. It's difficult to do in just one year, but what kind of a legacy do you feel you'll have here at RPI?
JDA: I talked to Seth about it, and he said it's good for our recruits coming in. They know that RPI is brewing pro athletes when they look at the things that me and Brandon (Pirri) did here. I was just telling everyone (in the locker room) that we're not just another school, we're a good defending school that is really one of the top teams in the ECAC. It's a great time for us right now. We've got some great guys here now like Chase (Polacek) and Tyler Helfrich that are going to have good hockey careers down the line, too.
WaP: What would you say to a young player that was considering coming to RPI?
JDA: I'd tell them that it's a great experience. I had a great time here. Seth and I had a great friendship and we still do now, I still talk to him frequently. They're here to help, and that's what you always want out of a coaching staff. If they were to ask me if (RPI) was the right choice to make, I think it is. You're not going to get this type of help with the coaching and this type of education that I got, even if it was just for a year. It was tough, but it was something that I'll carry along with me as I come back to get my degree, too.
Instead, we got the opportunity to sit down with Jerry to ask him about his return to RPI and get his perspective on tomorrow afternoon's game and the upcoming tournament, among other things.Jerry talked to Ken Schott yesterday on camera, where he spoke fondly of his year in the Cherry and White, and admitted that he keeps a close eye on how the Engineers are doing. "I always look them up to see if they won," he said. "I don't really lose track. I'm an alum now, so I've got to keep my tabs on them. I know it was tough for me and Brandon Pirri to leave, but they're bouncing back. They're a great team to begin with and they're doing well. I'm proud that they're doing well."
Then, with a snicker and a grin... "Maybe it was because I left."'
Without a Peer: Tell us about your feelings on coming back to RPI after being away for a few months.
Jerry D'Amigo: I was excited when the Toronto staff let me come back out here. I loved it here for the year. Getting a chance to spend some time with the (RPI) coaching staff and hang out with the guys again has been just great. My family's here, too, and it's just going to be a great time tomorrow night when we play them.
WaP: For a little while after this game was announced, it was thought that you'd be playing against your current team in this one.
JDA: I thought it was going to be great from the time I first heard about it. I remember when Seth (Appert) told me about it, and we were both pretty excited. He was like, "you better get ready, because we're gonna be coming after you hard." It's going to be fun tomorrow. Some of the guys were joking about it, saying things like "well, we're gonna crush you into the boards." It's going to be a good game. You practice with them the whole year and you learn what it's like to play with them, and now to play against them is going to be a little weird, but it's gonna be great.
WaP: What kind of reaction do you expect out of the crowd?
JDA: Well, actually I don't really have any expectations. Hopefully I'll get some cheers. Hopefully no boos. Nobody likes to get booed when they're coming back to their old team. These fans are great here, so you really can't get mad at them anyway.
WaP: Everyone's dying to know... what's your plan for beating Allen York?
JDA: (laugh) Well, I don't know. He's a good goalie. There are some weak spots, which I may not tell the other guys. I know where I want to shoot on him, and hopefully I can get one, but you never know what's going to happen.
WaP: A few people were upset that you left after you said at the end of last season that you were all coming back, but obviously some things that happened in the offseason changed that. What changed the most?
JDA: I had a great season, and I thank RPI for that, the coaching staff and my teammates especially. The World Juniors helped me a lot too, though, to open the eyes of some of the guys in Toronto. The offseason was great. I worked hard with a goal to get stronger, bigger, and faster, because that's what I needed to do for this season. Then I went to Toronto's prospect camp and they saw the work I'd done. It was an opportunity that I felt that I needed to do to move to the next level.
WaP: Last year during camp you weren't a sure thing to make the team, but this year you're a veteran. What's the difference for you between this year's camp and last year's camp?
JDA: Those of us that are returning this season, we all have to be leaders. There are younger guys who are where I was last year. It always helped to have one of the older guys to tell us what to do. I've just got to just set an example by working hard and be there to be a character leader.
WaP: How about the difference between this team and the one you played on last year?
JDA: It feels kinda the same, really. Obviously, we're going to have the pressure to win (the gold medal) again. Teams are going to come in this year knowing that we're a great team. We've got to play hard, because we know it's not going to be given to us. We're going to have to earn every inch and work that much harder because we're on our home soil. Having the fans with us and not against us will be good for us, too.
WaP: How much would it mean for you personally to be able to repeat as champions on your home soil?JDA: We (won a championship at home) when I was 18, and it was just great to have the whole crowd with you cheering you on right to the end and singing the national anthem with you. It's a great thing, and if we were to win again... wow. Last year was one of the greatest feelings ever, and to be able to experience that, especially beating Canada in the gold medal game, it was unbelievable and something that I'll never forget. I dream of doing it again, I would love to have that with me to carry on forever.
WaP: Here at RPI, you developed kind of a reputation for getting run from behind, and we saw it happen again when you were up in Glens Falls (playing against the Adirondack Phantoms) last month. What is it that? Are you just a magnet?
JDA: (chuckles) I guess I've just got a target on my back. It's one of those things where I like to get down and dirty, and you know what, if that means you end up getting hit from behind, then I'll do that. Hopefully I don't get it tomorrow, but we'll see what happens. I'm trying to shy away from those because those hurt a lot.
WaP: When you signed your professional contract, you became the first Engineer to sign after just one year at RPI. It's difficult to do in just one year, but what kind of a legacy do you feel you'll have here at RPI?
JDA: I talked to Seth about it, and he said it's good for our recruits coming in. They know that RPI is brewing pro athletes when they look at the things that me and Brandon (Pirri) did here. I was just telling everyone (in the locker room) that we're not just another school, we're a good defending school that is really one of the top teams in the ECAC. It's a great time for us right now. We've got some great guys here now like Chase (Polacek) and Tyler Helfrich that are going to have good hockey careers down the line, too.
WaP: What would you say to a young player that was considering coming to RPI?
JDA: I'd tell them that it's a great experience. I had a great time here. Seth and I had a great friendship and we still do now, I still talk to him frequently. They're here to help, and that's what you always want out of a coaching staff. If they were to ask me if (RPI) was the right choice to make, I think it is. You're not going to get this type of help with the coaching and this type of education that I got, even if it was just for a year. It was tough, but it was something that I'll carry along with me as I come back to get my degree, too.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Tomorrow's Podcast: Jerry D'Amigo, Brad Stoffers
Where's the podcast this week? Oh, here it is.
Heard some of our loyal listeners wonder where we went this week since here it is Friday and we still haven't gone on the air - but we've been hard at work behind the scenes. Plus, this week's game is on Sunday, so it only makes sense to put it off a little. Not much goes on in the college hockey world from the middle of December until after Christmas anyway.
We were grateful to get the opportunity to talk to the most familiar member of the US Junior Team, at least when it comes to RPI fans - Jerry D'Amigo, formerly of the Engineers and now skating for the Toronto Marlies. We'll ask him how it feels to be back in Troy and what he expects to see from his former teammates on Sunday.
We'd been hoping to talk to Seth Appert and John Burke this week, but there's no downtime when you're a head coach - both men are out on the recruiting trail looking to bring in the next wave of RPI success stories. Further, with the women's schedule through until the New Year, all of the women's assistants are gone for the holidays. We'll try and talk to one of the women's coaches soon.
But with the men still in town, we'll have the opportunity to talk to Brad Stoffers, the men's volunteer assistant coach. We'll ask Brad to give us a sense of the coaching staff's impression of the season's first half, talk about expectations moving forward, and learn a little more about the man himself.
When does this all go down, you ask? Well, it's a weekend special - Saturday, December 18 at 4pm. Don't forget to tune in, you won't want to miss it!
Last week, we talked to Brian Sullivan from USCHO about the RPI/BU matchup. He picked RPI to win and... well, he was right, wasn't he? We also talked to senior Bryan Brutlag and had a special guest on (Ed Lass) to talk about the sports scene in the Capital District (and the RPI basketball team's appearance at the Times Union Center, which they ultimately won). You can check it out on demand below, or use the player to listen to us when we go live tomorrow at 4pm.
Heard some of our loyal listeners wonder where we went this week since here it is Friday and we still haven't gone on the air - but we've been hard at work behind the scenes. Plus, this week's game is on Sunday, so it only makes sense to put it off a little. Not much goes on in the college hockey world from the middle of December until after Christmas anyway.
We were grateful to get the opportunity to talk to the most familiar member of the US Junior Team, at least when it comes to RPI fans - Jerry D'Amigo, formerly of the Engineers and now skating for the Toronto Marlies. We'll ask him how it feels to be back in Troy and what he expects to see from his former teammates on Sunday.
We'd been hoping to talk to Seth Appert and John Burke this week, but there's no downtime when you're a head coach - both men are out on the recruiting trail looking to bring in the next wave of RPI success stories. Further, with the women's schedule through until the New Year, all of the women's assistants are gone for the holidays. We'll try and talk to one of the women's coaches soon.
But with the men still in town, we'll have the opportunity to talk to Brad Stoffers, the men's volunteer assistant coach. We'll ask Brad to give us a sense of the coaching staff's impression of the season's first half, talk about expectations moving forward, and learn a little more about the man himself.
When does this all go down, you ask? Well, it's a weekend special - Saturday, December 18 at 4pm. Don't forget to tune in, you won't want to miss it!
Last week, we talked to Brian Sullivan from USCHO about the RPI/BU matchup. He picked RPI to win and... well, he was right, wasn't he? We also talked to senior Bryan Brutlag and had a special guest on (Ed Lass) to talk about the sports scene in the Capital District (and the RPI basketball team's appearance at the Times Union Center, which they ultimately won). You can check it out on demand below, or use the player to listen to us when we go live tomorrow at 4pm.
Listen to internet radio with Without a Peer on Blog Talk Radio
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Know Your Country: U.S. Junior National Team
It should be seen as a true honor for the Engineers to have the opportunity to take on the USA's junior team. They typically face a college team in preparation for the WJC, and this year, RPI is that team.
Let's not fool ourselves as to what will likely happen in this game. RPI will be taking on what is essentially a team of some of the best young players in all of college hockey. It's not a collegiate all-star team per se, but it does feature some amazing talent from top to bottom, and a number of guys who already have one gold medal around their necks from last season. The Engineers, in all likelihood, will not win this game. Nor is it terribly important that they do.
Still, this game will feature some dream matchups. Chase Polacek trying to score on Jack Campbell. Allen York looking to stone Ryan Bourque and Jerry D'Amigo. And from the Engineers' perspective, it will be another opportunity to face down against a difficult team - a learning experience going forward.
When this game was announced, it was thought to have the intrigue of Jerry D'Amigo playing against his own team. It's no longer about that, but instead it will be an opportunity for Jerry to play on his old turf, in front of his RPI fans, one last time.
Come on out to the Field House this Sunday afternoon. It won't be a game for cheering - unless you're a Canadian, I'm sure you want to see the team the Engineers are playing against succeed - but it will certainly be an exciting look at some of the best young players in the nation, many of whom will be starring in the NHL in short order.
Without further ado, a look at the team ready to defend its gold medal in Buffalo. They open their training camp at Houston Field House on Friday, looking to pare down to 2 goaltenders, 7 defensemen, and 13 forwards by the middle of next week (meaning 3 defensemen and 4 forwards will be cut).
Goaltenders
G Jack Campbell (Windsor, OHL)
6'2", 182 - 12-9-0, 3.68, .887
One of the heroes of the 2010 gold medal victory, Campbell, who hails from Port Huron, Mich., originally committed to Michigan before opting to cross the Detroit River. Campbell has struggled numbers-wise this season in the OHL, but he was always the obvious goaltending choice for this team given the way he played in last year's tournament as a 17-year-old. Though he was ostensibly the backup to St. Cloud State's Mike Lee, seeing less than 40% of the time in net, he nonetheless put up a 2.54 GAA and .923 save percentage during the tournament, most importantly coming on in relief for Lee in the gold medal game. The 11th overall draft pick (1st round) by the Dallas Stars in 2010, Campbell will need to be solid in net again for the USA.
G Andy Iles (Cornell, ECAC)
5'9", 180 - 2-3-1, 2.38, .907
Certainly one of the more interesting names on the roster from the Engineers' perspective is the one player who will be making frequent return trips to Houston Field House in the next few years - and who they will almost certainly see again in the second week of action in January. RPI fans will get their first look at the Ithaca, N.Y. native on the 19th, as both goaltenders are likely to see about 30 minutes of action. Iles has struggled to put up solid numbers thus far with the Big Red, but to some extent his team in general is struggling in front of him as well, which rarely bodes well overall at Lynah Rink. Given that there are only two goaltenders on the camp roster, Iles is guaranteed a place in Buffalo, most likely backing up Campbell, but if Campbell's struggles continue, he may well be called upon to be the top dog. Iles is draft eligible in 2011, though his size may keep him from being taken, as happened in this year's draft.
Defensemen
D Adam Clendening (Boston University, HEA)
5'11", 190 - 17-1-8-9-24
One of three guys making two visits to Houston Field House in the span of eight days, this Niagara Falls, N.Y. native will be playing for a gold medal just a few miles from where he grew up assuming he makes the team (which is a pretty good assumption). As we saw last week, Clendening has great hands and great vision on the ice, and he has a proven track record on the international level as well, winning a pair of gold medals in both 2009 and 2010 in the World Under-18 Championships. Having just turned 18 in October, Clendening will be draft eligible for the first time in 2011.
D Brian Dumoulin (Boston College, HEA)
6'4", 210 - 16-0-10-10-2
A stay-at-home type defenseman, Dumoulin is in his second season in Chestnut Hill. As a junior in high school in 2008, he led his hometown Biddeford, Maine team to a state championship with an undefeated season. The following year, he was drafted 51st (2nd round) overall in the 2009 NHL Draft by Carolina out of the EJHL. He led the Eagles with a +37 rating in 42 games, picking up 3 assists in the Frozen Four game against Miami.
D Justin Faulk (Minnesota-Duluth, WCHA)
5'11", 200 - 18-6-9-15-14
Probably the top young American defensive playmaker, Faulk, out of South St. Paul, Minn., was drafted 37th overall (2nd round) by Carolina in this year's draft. Blessed with a good shot and a solid hockey mind - meaning he knows what to do with the puck and when - Faulk is the top freshman scorer from the blueline in the WCHA. Expect him to be a key component of the team in Buffalo, especially on the power play.
D Derek Forbort (North Dakota, WCHA)
6'5", 200 - 15-0-9-9-6
The 15th overall (1st round) selection in this year's NHL Draft, Forbort uses his size to his advantage, utilizing his long reach to shut down passing lanes and making himself a menace in the corners. The Duluth, Minn. native played for Duluth East High School before moving on to the US NTDP team last year, where his draft stock rose exponentially, eventually becoming the 3rd highest American drafted in 2010, trailing only Campbell and Cam Fowler, who would be on this team if he were not already an everyday NHL player. With Dumoulin, he should be part of the defensive core of this team.
D Nick Leddy (Rockford, AHL)
5'11", 190 - 21-2-8-10-2
Leddy was unexpectedly missing from last year's camp roster thanks to a broken jaw suffered in his freshman season at the University of Minnesota. The 2009 "Mr. Hockey" in Minnesota, the Eden Prairie, Minn. native was drafted by his hometown Minnesota Wild with the 16th overall pick (1st round) in 2009, only to be traded to Chicago in the middle of last season amidst some controversy about his development at the U of M. One of the first freshmen to join the college exodus last year, Leddy has appeared in six games with the Blackhawks, during which time he scored his first NHL goal.
D Jon Merrill (Michigan, CCHA)
6'3", 209 - 19-5-8-13-4
The other likely blueline playmaker, Merrill was in the news recently when the freshman notched the first two goals of the game for the Wolverines at the Big Chill last weekend in front of over 113,000 fans. One of the final cuts from last year's team while playing for the US NTDP U-18 squad, the Brighton, Mich. native, was the 38th selection (2nd round) by New Jersey in this year's draft and has a lot less to worry about this time around.
D Jamie Oleksiak (Northeastern, HEA)
6'7", 240 - 16-2-2-4-20
Something of a surprise selection to the camp, the 17-year-old Oleksiak scored his first collegiate goal against the Engineers at Matthews Arena on October 15th. The Boston native (who has dual citizenship in Canada) has that one quality that you simply can't teach - size. Greg Cronin at Northeastern has used Oleksiak much the way Zdeno Chara is used in the NHL on the power play, as the screening forward rather than at the point, and he was certainly very effective in that role when we last saw him. Oleksiak may be a longshot to make the final roster but he has a lot of raw talent and he will certainly, at the very least, be a name to remember for the future.
D John Ramage (Wisconsin, WCHA)
6'0", 201 - 20-1-7-8-26
A stalwart leader on last year's gold medal team despite his young age and controversial selection, Ramage is the only returning defenseman from last year. In Saskatchewan, the Chesterfield, Mo. native had three assists, including the primary assist on John Carlson's gold-medal winning goal in overtime. The son of 15-year NHL veteran Rob Ramage, John was drafted 103rd overall (4th round) in this year's NHL Draft by the Calgary Flames. He will more than likely be one of the team's captains and should be a physical presence on the blue line for the Yanks.
D Philip Samuelsson (Boston College, HEA)
6'2", 198 - 16-1-5-6-37
The son of NHL veteran defenseman Ulf Samuelsson, Philip was drafted 61st overall (2nd round) in 2009 by the Pittsburgh Penguins, one of his father's old teams. Born in Sweden but hailing from Scottsdale, Ariz., Samuelsson doesn't have his father's goonish reputation as a player, but he does have a significant physical aspect to his game, and does more offensive creation from the point than his old man did. He may have to fight for a spot in Buffalo given the outstanding physical talent we've already detailed on the blue line, but he's got his shot.
D Patrick Wey (Boston College, HEA)
6'2", 205 - 16-1-3-4-14
Like his BC teammate Samuelsson, Wey is one of the defensemen who will be battling for a position on the final roster. The 115th overall selection (4th round) by the Washington Capitals in 2009, Wey is, for all intents and purposes, a slightly bigger version of Ramage. He has good mobility and vision on the ice, but is not as physical as the WJC veteran from Wisconsin. Expect to see Wey, who hails from Pittsburgh, getting plenty of ice time in Troy looking to impress the coaching staff with his defensive prowess.
Forwards
F Nick Bjugstad (Minnesota, WCHA)
6'4", 204 - 13-2-2-4-23
Minnesota's reigning "Mr. Hockey," Bjugstad turned down an offer from USA Hockey in the summer of 2008 to join the US National Team Player Development Program to stay with his teammates in his hometown of Blaine, Minn. Drafted 19th overall (1st round) by the Florida Panthers in this year's draft, he has had a rough start to his collegiate career after having to deal with a bout of mononucleosis in late October and into November, but he is now back in the Gopher lineup and there is little question to his ability.
F Ryan Bourque (Quebec, QMJHL)
5'9", 164 - 27-20-19-39-7
The son of legendary NHL defenseman Ray Bourque, Ryan has been a dominating force for the Remparts this season, currently leading the team in goals. He had only 3 assists in last year's tournament, but the Boxford, Mass. native should easily be on this year's team, quite possibly as a key component. Drafted by the New York Rangers with the 80th overall pick (3rd round) in 2009, Bourque originally committed to New Hampshire during his stint with the US NTDP before deciding to follow in the footsteps of both his father and his older brother, Chris (also a Team USA WJC veteran), by going to the QMJHL.
F Connor Brickley (Vermont, HEA)
6'1", 195 - 14-2-3-5-4
Brickley is one of those forwards who will need to fight for a spot on the final roster. A physical player out of Everett, Mass., Brickley was the 50th overall (2nd round) selection by the Florida Panthers in this year's draft. He isn't going to put the puck in the net as often as some of the other forwards that have been selected as part of the preliminary roster, but when it comes to standing up to the Canadians - who have always included a physical intimidation factor on their junior teams - Brickley may just be the kind of players Team USA needs in order to fight fire with fire.
F Chris Brown (Michigan, CCHA)
6'2", 194 - 19-2-8-10-12
One of the final camp cuts last season, Brown is back this season and more than likely, he'll be on the final roster heading to Buffalo this time. The Engineers faced off with the Flower Mound, Texas native in the GLI last season, where he was one of the Wolverines shooting early and often at Allen York, uncorking 5 shots, though none of them ultimately found the back of the net. The 36th overall (2nd round) selection of Phoenix in 2009, Brown hasn't been wowing anyone in Ann Arbor with only a couple of power play goals to his credit through two-and-a-half months of the season, but his value on a team like this as a banger who has some proven offensive ability cannot be understated - he could play a role similar to the role Josh Rabbani plays at RPI.
F Mitch Callahan (Kelowna, WHL)
5'11", 175 - 31-15-18-33-62
Another somewhat surprising choice, Callahan was likely asked to join the camp for his imposing physical play more than anything else. A forward that plays bigger than his actual size, Callahan, a native of Whittier, Calif., is in his third season with the Rockets and currently leads the team in scoring. He's an interesting selection because he was not one of the 26 forwards invited to the junior evaluation camp in Lake Placid this summer, but he has the ability to play his way onto the team thanks to his multi-faceted game.
F Charlie Coyle (Boston University, HEA)
6'2", 207 - 17-5-9-14-16
The Engineers were able to keep Coyle bottled up last weekend - he had only a first-period hooking call as his only statistic of the game, no shots - but there's little doubt that he's one of the emerging stars not only of the Terriers, but in Hockey East in general. Already trusted to center Jack Parker's first line, Coyle was drafted 28th (1st round) in this year's draft by the San Jose Sharks. The East Weymouth, Mass. native is one of only three true centers on the preliminary roster, so it's entirely possible that he's one of the names who's already being planned for the final roster, but his offensive contributions at BU would have him as a favorite to make the roster anyway.
F Jerry D'Amigo (Toronto, AHL)
5'11", 213 - 29-3-6-9-17
The man who needs no introduction. The first Engineer to ever sign a professional contract after just one season in Troy (though he would be joined by Brandon Pirri in that category just a few weeks later), D'Amigo makes his valedictory appearance at Houston Field House as an experienced member of the defending champions and the highest returning scorer from last year's tournament. The Binghamton, N.Y. native was a revelation in Saskatchewan last year, boosting his value with the Toronto Maple Leafs team that had drafted him 158th overall in 2009. He played wing on the top line with Derek Stepan (now of the New York Rangers) and Danny Kristo (still with North Dakota), putting up 6 goals and 6 assists as one of the key playmakers for the gold medal winning Yanks.
F Emerson Etem (Medicine Hat, WHL)
6'1", 197 - 31-20-14-34-16
Yet another member of the record-breaking class of Americans chosen in the first round of this year's draft, Etem, out of Long Beach, Calif., was chosen 29th overall (1st round) by his hometown Anaheim Ducks despite being ranked 8th in the NHL's Central Scouting Bureau rankings. Inspired by Sidney Crosby, Etem played two seasons at Crosby's alma mater, Shattuck-St. Mary's, in Minnesota before moving on to the US NTDP team in 2008, where he was teammates with D'Amigo. He's having a great year in the WHL, playing alongside fellow American Tyler Pitlick, who was a surprising omission from this roster.
F Rocco Grimaldi (US National Team Development Program, USHL)
5'6", 161 - 12-8-7-15-14
The only Junior A level player on the camp roster, Grimaldi, a North Dakota commit, is expected to be one of the best incoming players in the NCAA next season. He scores in bunches on one of the most elite collections of teenage Americans in the nation. Obviously, one of the things noticeable immediately with Grimaldi is his size - he doesn't have any. But size isn't always everything, as the 17-year-old out of Rossmoor, Calif. has proven pretty much everywhere he's played by displaying outstanding stickhandling and significant speed. Among his teammates on the US NTDP team is forward Ryan Haggerty, who has an RPI commitment for 2011. His size and his youth may make his selection for the final roster questionable, but his status as one of the three true centers on the team may help punch his ticket.
F Chris Kreider (Boston College, HEA)
6'2", 214 - 16-5-6-11-10
Kreider had a pretty amazing freshman year last season. Not only was he a key member of the gold-medal winning junior team (7-6-1-7-2), he also won the national championship (scoring a goal in the title game) and was even called back up by USA Hockey after the season to play alongside professionals in the World Championships in Germany in May. That was a disastrous showing for the USA - in part because they had to resort to calling in a college player to fill out the squad - but a huge honor for a player just finishing his freshman season and an indication of the regard they have for the Boxford, Mass. native. The New York Rangers drafted Kreider 19th overall (1st round) in 2009, and he was perhaps the most notable name not to jump to the NHL last summer.
F Jeremy Morin (Rockford, AHL)
6'1", 189 - 17-6-3-9-32
Morin had a solid tournament last year (2 goals, 5 assists) that, like D'Amigo, helped him land a professional contract. Expected to be a key part of this team as a WJC veteran, his professional responsibilities may ultimately keep him from being in Buffalo for the tournament or even in Troy for the training camp - injuries to Blackhawks forwards Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa have already resulted in a call-up to the NHL.. Drafted 45th overall (2nd round) by Atlanta in 2009 but traded to Chicago in the Dustin Byfuglien deal only days after signing with the Thrashers, the Auburn, N.Y. native has appeared in seven games for Chicago this year, registering his first two NHL goals on his current callup, earning one assist and a fight on his previous stint.
F Brock Nelson (North Dakota, WCHA)
6'3", 185 - 20-2-4-6-2
Nelson has the bonafides to be a part of this team - nephew of Dave Christian, who was a member of the Miracle On Ice team and in whose footsteps he has followed, playing high school hockey at Warroad High School in northern Minnesota and enrolling at North Dakota. He was drafted 10 spots higher than his uncle, going 30th overall (1st round) to the New York Islanders in this year's draft, but the Minneapolis native has struggled to stand out in Grand Forks, where he has mostly found only third-line time. Nelson will have to step up his game to land on the final roster in Buffalo, given that he is now surrounded by even more talent than he usually is in North Dakota.
F Matt Nieto (Boston University, HEA)
6'0", 180 - 17-5-1-6-4
Allen York needs no introduction to this speedy Long Beach, Calif. native - one of the two shots he had on net last weekend was on a breakaway in the second period which York stoned in order to, at least momentarily, preserve a shutout. Nieto is a powder keg offensively, but with so many veterans from last season returning and with so many solid older offensive talents on the roster, it may be difficult for Nieto to find a role in which he can excel despite his long international history, since most of the names who will feature on the top two lines are pretty well known already, and he really doesn't fit well on a defensive or checking line.
F Kyle Palmieri (Syracuse, AHL)
5'10", 194 - 20-9-4-13-17
Yet another camp invitee with service on the team last season and NHL experience under his belt, Palmieri had nine points (1 goal and 8 assists) in last year's tournament and was part of the youth exodus from the NCAA this summer, leaving Notre Dame after just one season. Palmieri, out of Montvale, N.J., has played 10 games this season with the Anaheim Ducks alongside fellow WJC alum Cam Fowler (who is still with the Ducks), notching his first career NHL goal. He has pretty much cleaned up in the AHL this season as well - despite missing 7 games for the Crunch and being the youngest player on the team, Palmieri, the 26th overall selection (1st round) by the Ducks in 2009, leads the team in goals.
F Brandon Saad (Saginaw, OHL)
6'2", 211 - 30-20-14-34-18
One word describes Saad very well: speed. The swift of skate Gibsonia, Pa. native was drafted in the 1st round of the OHL draft as a 15-year-old, and he was well worth the wait for Saginaw. In his first season of major junior since leaving the US NTDP squad, he is second on the team in goals and third in total scoring. Even at the age of 18, he's already got a pro style frame, and most scouts believe he will be first American taken in the 2011 draft. With those kind of bonafides, Saad may be an excellent fit on this year's final roster not only for this season but with an eye on leadership for the 2012 WJC squad.
F Drew Shore (Denver, WCHA)
6'2", 200 - 20-14-11-25-18
A shoo-in for the final roster, Shore is the leading scorer for the Pioneers thus far, having already eclipsed his freshman year scoring output in only 18 games. The 44th overall (2nd round) selection of the Florida Panthers in the 2009 draft, the Denver native is not only playing in his hometown with the Pioneers, he's also playing with his younger brother, Nick, who was invited to the summer camp in Lake Placid but did not earn a spot on this roster, in part due to a hand injury that kept him out for a month. Drew, meanwhile, is 4th in the nation (and tops in the WCHA) among sophomores in points per game.
F Jason Zucker (Denver, WCHA)
5'11", 180 - 20-14-7-21-26
Last but not least, a veteran of last year's gold medal team that was the youngest on the roster, but has stepped into college hockey without missing a beat. Sharing the same line with Shore, Zucker has been part of one of the most dynamic young duos in all of college hockey, one of only three freshmen in the WCHA among the Top 10 rookies in points per game. Zucker, from Las Vegas, Nev., scored two goals as a 17-year-old and likely be a part not only of this team, but of next year's team in 2012 - along with Jack Campbell, the only gold medalist from last year who will still be eligible, presuming, of course, that he doesn't get the call from the NHL before then - he was drafted 59th overall (2nd round) by the Minnesota Wild in this year's draft.
Let's not fool ourselves as to what will likely happen in this game. RPI will be taking on what is essentially a team of some of the best young players in all of college hockey. It's not a collegiate all-star team per se, but it does feature some amazing talent from top to bottom, and a number of guys who already have one gold medal around their necks from last season. The Engineers, in all likelihood, will not win this game. Nor is it terribly important that they do.
Still, this game will feature some dream matchups. Chase Polacek trying to score on Jack Campbell. Allen York looking to stone Ryan Bourque and Jerry D'Amigo. And from the Engineers' perspective, it will be another opportunity to face down against a difficult team - a learning experience going forward.
When this game was announced, it was thought to have the intrigue of Jerry D'Amigo playing against his own team. It's no longer about that, but instead it will be an opportunity for Jerry to play on his old turf, in front of his RPI fans, one last time.
Come on out to the Field House this Sunday afternoon. It won't be a game for cheering - unless you're a Canadian, I'm sure you want to see the team the Engineers are playing against succeed - but it will certainly be an exciting look at some of the best young players in the nation, many of whom will be starring in the NHL in short order.
Without further ado, a look at the team ready to defend its gold medal in Buffalo. They open their training camp at Houston Field House on Friday, looking to pare down to 2 goaltenders, 7 defensemen, and 13 forwards by the middle of next week (meaning 3 defensemen and 4 forwards will be cut).
Goaltenders
G Jack Campbell (Windsor, OHL)
6'2", 182 - 12-9-0, 3.68, .887
One of the heroes of the 2010 gold medal victory, Campbell, who hails from Port Huron, Mich., originally committed to Michigan before opting to cross the Detroit River. Campbell has struggled numbers-wise this season in the OHL, but he was always the obvious goaltending choice for this team given the way he played in last year's tournament as a 17-year-old. Though he was ostensibly the backup to St. Cloud State's Mike Lee, seeing less than 40% of the time in net, he nonetheless put up a 2.54 GAA and .923 save percentage during the tournament, most importantly coming on in relief for Lee in the gold medal game. The 11th overall draft pick (1st round) by the Dallas Stars in 2010, Campbell will need to be solid in net again for the USA.
G Andy Iles (Cornell, ECAC)
5'9", 180 - 2-3-1, 2.38, .907
Certainly one of the more interesting names on the roster from the Engineers' perspective is the one player who will be making frequent return trips to Houston Field House in the next few years - and who they will almost certainly see again in the second week of action in January. RPI fans will get their first look at the Ithaca, N.Y. native on the 19th, as both goaltenders are likely to see about 30 minutes of action. Iles has struggled to put up solid numbers thus far with the Big Red, but to some extent his team in general is struggling in front of him as well, which rarely bodes well overall at Lynah Rink. Given that there are only two goaltenders on the camp roster, Iles is guaranteed a place in Buffalo, most likely backing up Campbell, but if Campbell's struggles continue, he may well be called upon to be the top dog. Iles is draft eligible in 2011, though his size may keep him from being taken, as happened in this year's draft.
Defensemen
D Adam Clendening (Boston University, HEA)
5'11", 190 - 17-1-8-9-24
One of three guys making two visits to Houston Field House in the span of eight days, this Niagara Falls, N.Y. native will be playing for a gold medal just a few miles from where he grew up assuming he makes the team (which is a pretty good assumption). As we saw last week, Clendening has great hands and great vision on the ice, and he has a proven track record on the international level as well, winning a pair of gold medals in both 2009 and 2010 in the World Under-18 Championships. Having just turned 18 in October, Clendening will be draft eligible for the first time in 2011.
D Brian Dumoulin (Boston College, HEA)
6'4", 210 - 16-0-10-10-2
A stay-at-home type defenseman, Dumoulin is in his second season in Chestnut Hill. As a junior in high school in 2008, he led his hometown Biddeford, Maine team to a state championship with an undefeated season. The following year, he was drafted 51st (2nd round) overall in the 2009 NHL Draft by Carolina out of the EJHL. He led the Eagles with a +37 rating in 42 games, picking up 3 assists in the Frozen Four game against Miami.
D Justin Faulk (Minnesota-Duluth, WCHA)
5'11", 200 - 18-6-9-15-14
Probably the top young American defensive playmaker, Faulk, out of South St. Paul, Minn., was drafted 37th overall (2nd round) by Carolina in this year's draft. Blessed with a good shot and a solid hockey mind - meaning he knows what to do with the puck and when - Faulk is the top freshman scorer from the blueline in the WCHA. Expect him to be a key component of the team in Buffalo, especially on the power play.
D Derek Forbort (North Dakota, WCHA)
6'5", 200 - 15-0-9-9-6
The 15th overall (1st round) selection in this year's NHL Draft, Forbort uses his size to his advantage, utilizing his long reach to shut down passing lanes and making himself a menace in the corners. The Duluth, Minn. native played for Duluth East High School before moving on to the US NTDP team last year, where his draft stock rose exponentially, eventually becoming the 3rd highest American drafted in 2010, trailing only Campbell and Cam Fowler, who would be on this team if he were not already an everyday NHL player. With Dumoulin, he should be part of the defensive core of this team.
D Nick Leddy (Rockford, AHL)
5'11", 190 - 21-2-8-10-2
Leddy was unexpectedly missing from last year's camp roster thanks to a broken jaw suffered in his freshman season at the University of Minnesota. The 2009 "Mr. Hockey" in Minnesota, the Eden Prairie, Minn. native was drafted by his hometown Minnesota Wild with the 16th overall pick (1st round) in 2009, only to be traded to Chicago in the middle of last season amidst some controversy about his development at the U of M. One of the first freshmen to join the college exodus last year, Leddy has appeared in six games with the Blackhawks, during which time he scored his first NHL goal.
D Jon Merrill (Michigan, CCHA)
6'3", 209 - 19-5-8-13-4
The other likely blueline playmaker, Merrill was in the news recently when the freshman notched the first two goals of the game for the Wolverines at the Big Chill last weekend in front of over 113,000 fans. One of the final cuts from last year's team while playing for the US NTDP U-18 squad, the Brighton, Mich. native, was the 38th selection (2nd round) by New Jersey in this year's draft and has a lot less to worry about this time around.
D Jamie Oleksiak (Northeastern, HEA)
6'7", 240 - 16-2-2-4-20
Something of a surprise selection to the camp, the 17-year-old Oleksiak scored his first collegiate goal against the Engineers at Matthews Arena on October 15th. The Boston native (who has dual citizenship in Canada) has that one quality that you simply can't teach - size. Greg Cronin at Northeastern has used Oleksiak much the way Zdeno Chara is used in the NHL on the power play, as the screening forward rather than at the point, and he was certainly very effective in that role when we last saw him. Oleksiak may be a longshot to make the final roster but he has a lot of raw talent and he will certainly, at the very least, be a name to remember for the future.
D John Ramage (Wisconsin, WCHA)
6'0", 201 - 20-1-7-8-26
A stalwart leader on last year's gold medal team despite his young age and controversial selection, Ramage is the only returning defenseman from last year. In Saskatchewan, the Chesterfield, Mo. native had three assists, including the primary assist on John Carlson's gold-medal winning goal in overtime. The son of 15-year NHL veteran Rob Ramage, John was drafted 103rd overall (4th round) in this year's NHL Draft by the Calgary Flames. He will more than likely be one of the team's captains and should be a physical presence on the blue line for the Yanks.
D Philip Samuelsson (Boston College, HEA)
6'2", 198 - 16-1-5-6-37
The son of NHL veteran defenseman Ulf Samuelsson, Philip was drafted 61st overall (2nd round) in 2009 by the Pittsburgh Penguins, one of his father's old teams. Born in Sweden but hailing from Scottsdale, Ariz., Samuelsson doesn't have his father's goonish reputation as a player, but he does have a significant physical aspect to his game, and does more offensive creation from the point than his old man did. He may have to fight for a spot in Buffalo given the outstanding physical talent we've already detailed on the blue line, but he's got his shot.
D Patrick Wey (Boston College, HEA)
6'2", 205 - 16-1-3-4-14
Like his BC teammate Samuelsson, Wey is one of the defensemen who will be battling for a position on the final roster. The 115th overall selection (4th round) by the Washington Capitals in 2009, Wey is, for all intents and purposes, a slightly bigger version of Ramage. He has good mobility and vision on the ice, but is not as physical as the WJC veteran from Wisconsin. Expect to see Wey, who hails from Pittsburgh, getting plenty of ice time in Troy looking to impress the coaching staff with his defensive prowess.
Forwards
F Nick Bjugstad (Minnesota, WCHA)
6'4", 204 - 13-2-2-4-23
Minnesota's reigning "Mr. Hockey," Bjugstad turned down an offer from USA Hockey in the summer of 2008 to join the US National Team Player Development Program to stay with his teammates in his hometown of Blaine, Minn. Drafted 19th overall (1st round) by the Florida Panthers in this year's draft, he has had a rough start to his collegiate career after having to deal with a bout of mononucleosis in late October and into November, but he is now back in the Gopher lineup and there is little question to his ability.
F Ryan Bourque (Quebec, QMJHL)
5'9", 164 - 27-20-19-39-7
The son of legendary NHL defenseman Ray Bourque, Ryan has been a dominating force for the Remparts this season, currently leading the team in goals. He had only 3 assists in last year's tournament, but the Boxford, Mass. native should easily be on this year's team, quite possibly as a key component. Drafted by the New York Rangers with the 80th overall pick (3rd round) in 2009, Bourque originally committed to New Hampshire during his stint with the US NTDP before deciding to follow in the footsteps of both his father and his older brother, Chris (also a Team USA WJC veteran), by going to the QMJHL.
F Connor Brickley (Vermont, HEA)
6'1", 195 - 14-2-3-5-4
Brickley is one of those forwards who will need to fight for a spot on the final roster. A physical player out of Everett, Mass., Brickley was the 50th overall (2nd round) selection by the Florida Panthers in this year's draft. He isn't going to put the puck in the net as often as some of the other forwards that have been selected as part of the preliminary roster, but when it comes to standing up to the Canadians - who have always included a physical intimidation factor on their junior teams - Brickley may just be the kind of players Team USA needs in order to fight fire with fire.
F Chris Brown (Michigan, CCHA)
6'2", 194 - 19-2-8-10-12
One of the final camp cuts last season, Brown is back this season and more than likely, he'll be on the final roster heading to Buffalo this time. The Engineers faced off with the Flower Mound, Texas native in the GLI last season, where he was one of the Wolverines shooting early and often at Allen York, uncorking 5 shots, though none of them ultimately found the back of the net. The 36th overall (2nd round) selection of Phoenix in 2009, Brown hasn't been wowing anyone in Ann Arbor with only a couple of power play goals to his credit through two-and-a-half months of the season, but his value on a team like this as a banger who has some proven offensive ability cannot be understated - he could play a role similar to the role Josh Rabbani plays at RPI.
F Mitch Callahan (Kelowna, WHL)
5'11", 175 - 31-15-18-33-62
Another somewhat surprising choice, Callahan was likely asked to join the camp for his imposing physical play more than anything else. A forward that plays bigger than his actual size, Callahan, a native of Whittier, Calif., is in his third season with the Rockets and currently leads the team in scoring. He's an interesting selection because he was not one of the 26 forwards invited to the junior evaluation camp in Lake Placid this summer, but he has the ability to play his way onto the team thanks to his multi-faceted game.
F Charlie Coyle (Boston University, HEA)
6'2", 207 - 17-5-9-14-16
The Engineers were able to keep Coyle bottled up last weekend - he had only a first-period hooking call as his only statistic of the game, no shots - but there's little doubt that he's one of the emerging stars not only of the Terriers, but in Hockey East in general. Already trusted to center Jack Parker's first line, Coyle was drafted 28th (1st round) in this year's draft by the San Jose Sharks. The East Weymouth, Mass. native is one of only three true centers on the preliminary roster, so it's entirely possible that he's one of the names who's already being planned for the final roster, but his offensive contributions at BU would have him as a favorite to make the roster anyway.
F Jerry D'Amigo (Toronto, AHL)
5'11", 213 - 29-3-6-9-17
The man who needs no introduction. The first Engineer to ever sign a professional contract after just one season in Troy (though he would be joined by Brandon Pirri in that category just a few weeks later), D'Amigo makes his valedictory appearance at Houston Field House as an experienced member of the defending champions and the highest returning scorer from last year's tournament. The Binghamton, N.Y. native was a revelation in Saskatchewan last year, boosting his value with the Toronto Maple Leafs team that had drafted him 158th overall in 2009. He played wing on the top line with Derek Stepan (now of the New York Rangers) and Danny Kristo (still with North Dakota), putting up 6 goals and 6 assists as one of the key playmakers for the gold medal winning Yanks.
F Emerson Etem (Medicine Hat, WHL)
6'1", 197 - 31-20-14-34-16
Yet another member of the record-breaking class of Americans chosen in the first round of this year's draft, Etem, out of Long Beach, Calif., was chosen 29th overall (1st round) by his hometown Anaheim Ducks despite being ranked 8th in the NHL's Central Scouting Bureau rankings. Inspired by Sidney Crosby, Etem played two seasons at Crosby's alma mater, Shattuck-St. Mary's, in Minnesota before moving on to the US NTDP team in 2008, where he was teammates with D'Amigo. He's having a great year in the WHL, playing alongside fellow American Tyler Pitlick, who was a surprising omission from this roster.
F Rocco Grimaldi (US National Team Development Program, USHL)
5'6", 161 - 12-8-7-15-14
The only Junior A level player on the camp roster, Grimaldi, a North Dakota commit, is expected to be one of the best incoming players in the NCAA next season. He scores in bunches on one of the most elite collections of teenage Americans in the nation. Obviously, one of the things noticeable immediately with Grimaldi is his size - he doesn't have any. But size isn't always everything, as the 17-year-old out of Rossmoor, Calif. has proven pretty much everywhere he's played by displaying outstanding stickhandling and significant speed. Among his teammates on the US NTDP team is forward Ryan Haggerty, who has an RPI commitment for 2011. His size and his youth may make his selection for the final roster questionable, but his status as one of the three true centers on the team may help punch his ticket.
F Chris Kreider (Boston College, HEA)
6'2", 214 - 16-5-6-11-10
Kreider had a pretty amazing freshman year last season. Not only was he a key member of the gold-medal winning junior team (7-6-1-7-2), he also won the national championship (scoring a goal in the title game) and was even called back up by USA Hockey after the season to play alongside professionals in the World Championships in Germany in May. That was a disastrous showing for the USA - in part because they had to resort to calling in a college player to fill out the squad - but a huge honor for a player just finishing his freshman season and an indication of the regard they have for the Boxford, Mass. native. The New York Rangers drafted Kreider 19th overall (1st round) in 2009, and he was perhaps the most notable name not to jump to the NHL last summer.
F Jeremy Morin (Rockford, AHL)
6'1", 189 - 17-6-3-9-32
Morin had a solid tournament last year (2 goals, 5 assists) that, like D'Amigo, helped him land a professional contract. Expected to be a key part of this team as a WJC veteran, his professional responsibilities may ultimately keep him from being in Buffalo for the tournament or even in Troy for the training camp - injuries to Blackhawks forwards Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa have already resulted in a call-up to the NHL.. Drafted 45th overall (2nd round) by Atlanta in 2009 but traded to Chicago in the Dustin Byfuglien deal only days after signing with the Thrashers, the Auburn, N.Y. native has appeared in seven games for Chicago this year, registering his first two NHL goals on his current callup, earning one assist and a fight on his previous stint.
F Brock Nelson (North Dakota, WCHA)
6'3", 185 - 20-2-4-6-2
Nelson has the bonafides to be a part of this team - nephew of Dave Christian, who was a member of the Miracle On Ice team and in whose footsteps he has followed, playing high school hockey at Warroad High School in northern Minnesota and enrolling at North Dakota. He was drafted 10 spots higher than his uncle, going 30th overall (1st round) to the New York Islanders in this year's draft, but the Minneapolis native has struggled to stand out in Grand Forks, where he has mostly found only third-line time. Nelson will have to step up his game to land on the final roster in Buffalo, given that he is now surrounded by even more talent than he usually is in North Dakota.
F Matt Nieto (Boston University, HEA)
6'0", 180 - 17-5-1-6-4
Allen York needs no introduction to this speedy Long Beach, Calif. native - one of the two shots he had on net last weekend was on a breakaway in the second period which York stoned in order to, at least momentarily, preserve a shutout. Nieto is a powder keg offensively, but with so many veterans from last season returning and with so many solid older offensive talents on the roster, it may be difficult for Nieto to find a role in which he can excel despite his long international history, since most of the names who will feature on the top two lines are pretty well known already, and he really doesn't fit well on a defensive or checking line.
F Kyle Palmieri (Syracuse, AHL)
5'10", 194 - 20-9-4-13-17
Yet another camp invitee with service on the team last season and NHL experience under his belt, Palmieri had nine points (1 goal and 8 assists) in last year's tournament and was part of the youth exodus from the NCAA this summer, leaving Notre Dame after just one season. Palmieri, out of Montvale, N.J., has played 10 games this season with the Anaheim Ducks alongside fellow WJC alum Cam Fowler (who is still with the Ducks), notching his first career NHL goal. He has pretty much cleaned up in the AHL this season as well - despite missing 7 games for the Crunch and being the youngest player on the team, Palmieri, the 26th overall selection (1st round) by the Ducks in 2009, leads the team in goals.
F Brandon Saad (Saginaw, OHL)
6'2", 211 - 30-20-14-34-18
One word describes Saad very well: speed. The swift of skate Gibsonia, Pa. native was drafted in the 1st round of the OHL draft as a 15-year-old, and he was well worth the wait for Saginaw. In his first season of major junior since leaving the US NTDP squad, he is second on the team in goals and third in total scoring. Even at the age of 18, he's already got a pro style frame, and most scouts believe he will be first American taken in the 2011 draft. With those kind of bonafides, Saad may be an excellent fit on this year's final roster not only for this season but with an eye on leadership for the 2012 WJC squad.
F Drew Shore (Denver, WCHA)
6'2", 200 - 20-14-11-25-18
A shoo-in for the final roster, Shore is the leading scorer for the Pioneers thus far, having already eclipsed his freshman year scoring output in only 18 games. The 44th overall (2nd round) selection of the Florida Panthers in the 2009 draft, the Denver native is not only playing in his hometown with the Pioneers, he's also playing with his younger brother, Nick, who was invited to the summer camp in Lake Placid but did not earn a spot on this roster, in part due to a hand injury that kept him out for a month. Drew, meanwhile, is 4th in the nation (and tops in the WCHA) among sophomores in points per game.
F Jason Zucker (Denver, WCHA)
5'11", 180 - 20-14-7-21-26
Last but not least, a veteran of last year's gold medal team that was the youngest on the roster, but has stepped into college hockey without missing a beat. Sharing the same line with Shore, Zucker has been part of one of the most dynamic young duos in all of college hockey, one of only three freshmen in the WCHA among the Top 10 rookies in points per game. Zucker, from Las Vegas, Nev., scored two goals as a 17-year-old and likely be a part not only of this team, but of next year's team in 2012 - along with Jack Campbell, the only gold medalist from last year who will still be eligible, presuming, of course, that he doesn't get the call from the NHL before then - he was drafted 59th overall (2nd round) by the Minnesota Wild in this year's draft.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, August 30, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, August 23, 2010
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.)
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.)
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