American Prospect Update Thread

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JiggsNY

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Sep 14, 2016
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Anyone know how EJ Emery is eligible? Looking around just see born in BC and played in Canada since. Was he actually born in the US?
 

JiggsNY

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Nice write up. If Hagens can be a Zegras like player with the skill and flare would be very excited. Of course Eiserman hopefully being on of our best prospects in a while. Also the cuts being surprising is a good thing I suppose. Just means there’s more and more talent every year, and we’ve been seeing that spillover to the rest of the USHL last few years. In years past it would be the NTDP guys and then maybe a couple notable USHLers, it’s awesome to see that rise lately and going forward.
 

NTDP

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Dec 20, 2010
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Went to Youngstown last night to see the Steel play the Phantoms. Many names to mention but wanted to point out Will Whitelaw. I think he’s going to be a player. Haven’t seen him since the U17 four nations last summer. Has good speed and hands, with a hard wrist shot that he gets off while creating space for himself. The subtleties I notice live were his ability to win pucks on the wall and below the dots in the O zone. He can pull pucks out of skates and find a teammate with a quick short pass.
 

William H Bonney

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Feb 27, 2002
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Preliminary IIHF roster here: 2022 U18 MWC Roster

They have 1 skater to cut. You would imagine it's a forward. There must a forward dealing with an injury who's questionable to play, otherwise USAH would have just named the team.

Gavin Brindley is the non-NTDPer with the team. There are five U17s (Smith, Leonard, Cleveland, Augustine, Chambre).

Dylan Silverstein is injured and won't be playing.
 
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BKarchitect

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Oct 12, 2017
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Sam Rinzel is up there, but probably won't be playing MN HS next season.
Thoughts on Alex Bump? Figured he’d be another name worthy of mention if we were talking about high schoolers from the past season.

I know Brennan Ali is highly regarded out of the Northeast prep circuit.
 

Pavel Buchnevich

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Dec 8, 2013
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Looking forward to next year, we are not going to have anywhere near as good of a chance to win the WJC18. The 2005’s are a pretty weak NTDP age group. I actually think it’d look okay if they picked all the best 2005 born American players, but a lot of those guys are not part of the team (McCarthy, Musty, Nelson, Shaugabay, McDonough, Strathmann).

We are going to need some big help from the 2006’s. My rough sketch of what the 2005’s have and what we need.

Moore-Smith-?
Leonard-?-Perreault
Sawchyn-Hendrickson-Vote
?-?-?

Fischer-Minnetian
Cleveland-?
Buium-?
Tobey

Augustine
Chambre

This team has a lot of holes. They have almost no playmakers. It’s like an epidemic. Outside of Perreault and occasionally Sawchyn, I don’t think there are very many guys here that can create a lot for teammates. Smith and Moore are also okay passers, but can’t be like the third and fourth best passers among your forwards. Hopefully the 2006’s have some facilitators among players like Eiserman and Hagens. You could move Moore to the middle in that alignment, but I think he’s more of a complimentary guy. You need some difference making forwards that can carry a line. At least two of them. I don’t like any of the grinding forwards either, aside from Hendrickson. You could in theory move him down a line for another 2006, but the 2005’s essentially have no fourth line.

To be fair, a lot of guys that can put the puck in the net between Leonard, Smith, Vote, and some others. Need playmakers.

The defense is even worse. Almost zero offense from this group. Buium has his moments, but he makes so many errors with the puck and needs to be babysat. Ideally he’s he’s like a PP2 QB with bottom pairing minutes. Fischer-Minnetian is a fine second pairing. It can’t be the first pairing. Minnetian may have the offense of Faber. Fischer has almost none. He’s Lindgren if he pans out. Hopefully Cleveland takes a step, but he’s really not that good right now. He’s like Adam Samuelsson right now, and if he takes a step he may be Alex Vlasic next year. Tobey can play 6D in a pinch, but more ideally 7D. So we need a 1D and then someone else who can QB a PP1, like say someone that would play very similarly to Lane Hutson. How good is Cole? May need him. Does the 2006’s project to have an all situations 1D?

Goalies should actually be pretty good. Augustine is a very good goalie prospect, despite how he played today. Probably our best since Knight. He should be motivated after what happened this year in the final. Chambre is also good. Great hockey sense for a goalie. Just very inconsistent right now. Hopefully he also takes a step, so we have a backup we know can step in without a big drop off.
 
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sigx15

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Jan 31, 2010
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Interesting that the Spartans tapped an NTDP coach again. I think they think it'll help them build a pipeline of NTDP players but it didn't work when they just tried it with Danton Cole. Not sure this will be any different.
Really interesting hire, thought they'd go for an established guy like an Eric Lang.

As for the ntdp, a name I'd keep an eye on would be Mike Ayers depending on who gets hired to be the BC coach. If he's not retained by whoever is hired, he'd be a good fit for the program. He had 2 years at the program as the goaltending coach, has been York's associate head coach since Brown left and has done a good job at BC. I have no idea if he'll get retained by Brown or Leaman, the whole hiring process has been pretty quiet but he'd be a good fit for the program if he's not
 

Oak

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Apr 22, 2012
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Some players heading to Mount Saint Charles
Not sure if its kosher talking about kids this young but that's a pretty weak list for MSC. Guess most of the top guys are staying home another year or possibly going Shattuck. I heard MSC was a shit show at 14u this season so maybe that is what is keeping kids away.
 

Torts

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Aug 21, 2009
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Ontario
Of the incoming freshmen next season for Michigan, more specifically the ones from USHL or NTDP - who will have the biggest impact? I feel the easy answer is McGroaty but I'd super excited for Nazar and Casey.
 
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Pavel Buchnevich

Drury and Laviolette Must Go
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Of the incoming freshmen next season for Michigan, more specifically the ones from USHL or NTDP - who will have the biggest impact? I feel the easy answer is McGroaty but I'd super excited for Nazar and Casey.
I'll agree about McGroarty. It's possible though that Nazar has a better season.
 
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William H Bonney

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Of the incoming freshmen next season for Michigan, more specifically the ones from USHL or NTDP - who will have the biggest impact? I feel the easy answer is McGroaty but I'd super excited for Nazar and Casey.

It will entirely depend on usage. For example, Casey is a RHD and Michigan only has 2 on the roster not counting the other incoming freshman. That could open up a lot of opportunity. Whereas they have a lot of forward talent coming in (Fantilli, Nazar, Hallum, McGroarty, etc.) so a lot will depend on how gets put on what line and who gets PP time.

I'd probably go with Nazar as he's more versatile than say McGroarty.
 

William H Bonney

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Feb 27, 2002
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Colorado
Cooley was the only 04 on the original wjc team right? Wonder if we see any more. Maybe Gauthier

Silverstein, too.

I imagine we could see more. The extra months of development and physical maturity, the increased opportunity to impress given the shared camp for the 2022 and 2023 teams, plus four guys from the original team not there (Beniers, Sanderson, Smilanic, Commesso).
 
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