F Rocco Pelosi - Mount St. Charles Acad, 14U AAA (2027 Draft)

[frontsfan67]

All depends on if he respects the NTDP path, over the CHL path to college.

Yeah probably goes NTDP but with the CHL agreement now it’s still up in the air I’m sure for a lot of players where as before it was like 100% they’re going NTDP. They’d be dumb not to atleast consider going the CHL route now with how many get drafted out of there every year.

 

[Chadstudsky]

Any relation to legendary stock trader Nancy Pelosi?

 

[Wieters]

Any updates on Rocco's college leanings?

There’s definitely some smoke between Rocco and BC. He visited campus a couple of weeks ago, he was trained by the late Tony Voce who is a Philly/BC guy, among other connections.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Yeah probably goes NTDP but with the CHL agreement now it’s still up in the air I’m sure for a lot of players where as before it was like 100% they’re going NTDP. They’d be dumb not to atleast consider going the CHL route now with how many get drafted out of there every year.

So like 5% more? Sure.

CHL hasn’t pulled in anyone that would’ve went NTDP due to this change. I don’t think Rocco Pelosi will be the first. Usually the guinea pigs are not the best players.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

BC is a no thanks to me with how they’ve poorly set Hagens up to succeed. Misa, Martone, and Schaefer have the teams built around them. Fantilli and Celebrini also had the same at Michigan and BU.

Rocco might play his draft year at Quinnipiac with his brother. Chris will be there that year as it’ll only be his third. If Rocco is really good right away and can bypass his U18 year at the NTDP.

 

[The Last Red]

Huh, my son, who’s an ‘08, played against him for years as Rocco played up a year for a while so Guy Gaudreau could coach him at Philly Hockey Club. Solid player . . . but his older brother Chris is better.

 

[kyle44]

So like 5% more? Sure.

CHL hasn’t pulled in anyone that would’ve went NTDP due to this change. I don’t think Rocco Pelosi will be the first. Usually the guinea pigs are not the best players.

In fairness, the OHL and QMJHL haven’t had a chance to draft 09s yet, and WHL 09s were picked before the rule change occurred, meaning guys likely didn’t go to their preferred teams (if they were willing to go WHL with the rule change), so not sure we can draw many conclusions yet.

 

[bigdog16]

Huh, my son, who’s an ‘08, played against him for years as Rocco played up a year for a while so Guy Gaudreau could coach him at Philly Hockey Club. Solid player . . . but his older brother Chris is better.

No he isn’t. Rocco is a significantly better prospect and one of, if not the top American in his birth year.

 

[The Last Red]

No he isn’t. Rocco is a significantly better prospect and one of, if not the top American in his birth year.

Interesting. He was playing up a year at the time so that may have skewed my view of him at the time. Chris, who’s an ‘06 and a Bruins pick from last year, was very highly regarded back then.

 

[frontsfan67]

So like 5% more? Sure.

CHL hasn’t pulled in anyone that would’ve went NTDP due to this change. I don’t think Rocco Pelosi will be the first. Usually the guinea pigs are not the best players.

Not yet obviously because the NCAA thing came after the start of the CHL season. This will be the first off season where kids can weigh their decisions.

CHL>>>>USHL/BCHL and then they can go to NCAA. Because of this we will see more top end 16/17 year olds choosing the CHL over the other leagues before heading off to college when they’re 18/19/20.

CHL->NCAA is a way better route which is why the USHL and BCHL are being a bunch of babies and making teams pay a large sum of money to them if they leave. Muskegon and Youngstown are 2 that want to go OHL and Penticton is leaving the BCHL for the WHL.

Pelosi obviously probably would favour the USHL or NAHL being an American but there’s 0 debate that going the CHL route with a top end club like London would be better than anything in the USHL with the exception of the NTDP (But the CHL schooled the American kids earlier in the year. Something to think about)
As I said.

Could be something like 30% comes over to CAN and 70% stays in US. Way better than before when they had to make a very important decision at 15. If they don’t like the CHL or wherever else and want to switch but it’s good they’re not locked in and being held hostage anymore.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Not yet obviously because the NCAA thing came after the start of the CHL season. This will be the first off season where kids can weigh their decisions.

Okay sure, I agree in general. Just speaking about Pelosi, which was the topic I was responding to, I don't think it's going to affect the odds much for him. If you want to talk about the random American kid that age in the future that is considering CHL vs. NTDP, I agree there's a better chance. TBD how high the chances, but we agree it's higher.

Maybe even for Pelosi it's a little better (it's of course a benefit in the CHL category when weighing his options that CHL'ers can now play NCAA), but as I said I don't think we're talking about more than 5%. I don't think it's anything that significantly moves the needle.

It's still a path that we haven't really seen for the best American players very much. The recent examples are like Antonio Stranges and Quentin Musty compared to virtually every other highly regarded American player of the last 5 drafts choosing the NTDP.

So yeah, I really don't see Pelosi (or any player in isolation) being the one that says "screw it, I'm doing things differently." Most people don't, and will just take the proven path. It's easy for us as armchair QB's to suggest to take the novel or unconventional path, but a kid like Pelosi will probably make the percentage play with his life.

And I would also add for Pelosi that if hypothetically for some reason he was opposed to the NTDP model or wanted to do things differently that I think USHL is in play more than you'd think. His brother went the USHL route, and it's working out for him. I suspect if you're "the Pelosi family" you have a positive opinion of the USHL.

 

[Wieters]

Huh, my son, who’s an ‘08, played against him for years as Rocco played up a year for a while so Guy Gaudreau could coach him at Philly Hockey Club. Solid player . . . but his older brother Chris is better.

Gaudreaus another NJ/Philly connection to BC.

BC is a no thanks to me with how they’ve poorly set Hagens up to succeed. Misa, Martone, and Schaefer have the teams built around them. Fantilli and Celebrini also had the same at Michigan and BU.

Rocco might play his draft year at Quinnipiac with his brother. Chris will be there that year as it’ll only be his third. If Rocco is really good right away and can bypass his U18 year at the NTDP.

This is Rocco’s thread so I don’t want to derail it, but I do want to say that if there is an issue with Hagens not being the star of the show at BC, it’s really not anyone’s fault. Hagens just happened to walk onto a team with Leonard/Perreault already there, and they are arguably the two best players in college hockey who have been playing together for years. Very few teams have that kind of a situation, so a high-profile freshman naturally becomes the center of attention. Hagens also seems naturally deferential (not a slight; I like that he is a team player), which is unique to him and wouldn’t necessarily apply to all kids. BC will always have talented classes, but it’s unlikely that Casey Mutryn, Noah Davidson, or any of the other ‘08 forwards BC has committed are going to be Hobey contenders who have played together for years such that Rocco would have to take a back seat. He could easily step in and have the team built around him like you’re mentioning; I don’t think it’s a BC problem so much as it’s unique to this iteration of Leonard/Perreault/Hagens.

Re. Quinnipiac, there is a site that tracks prospects’ commitments and has the two contenders as BC and Quinnipiac. I think they’re basing interest on the schools kids follow on social media, so not sure how indicative that really is though.

 

[BKarchitect]

Gaudreaus another NJ/Philly connection to BC.

This is Rocco’s thread so I don’t want to derail it, but I do want to say that if there is an issue with Hagens not being the star of the show at BC, it’s really not anyone’s fault. Hagens just happened to walk onto a team with Leonard/Perreault already there, and they are arguably the two best players in college hockey who have been playing together for years. Very few teams have that kind of a situation, so a high-profile freshman naturally becomes the center of attention. Hagens also seems naturally deferential (not a slight; I like that he is a team player), which is unique to him and wouldn’t necessarily apply to all kids. BC will always have talented classes, but it’s unlikely that Casey Mutryn, Noah Davidson, or any of the other ‘08 forwards BC has committed are going to be Hobey contenders who have played together for years such that Rocco would have to take a back seat. He could easily step in and have the team built around him like you’re mentioning; I don’t think it’s a BC problem so much as it’s unique to this iteration of Leonard/Perreault/Hagens.

Re. Quinnipiac, there is a site that tracks prospects’ commitments and has the two contenders as BC and Quinnipiac. I think they’re basing interest on the schools kids follow on social media, so not sure how indicative that really is though.

Feels like the go-to move for early “crytsal balls” is to lean into legacy links either via father/uncle/generational or older sibling.

To be fair it often ends up that way but it’s certainly no guarantee. It would seem Rocco would be by far the biggest recruit to ever choose Quinnipiac - but it’s likely his brother won’t even be there by the time he enrolls and the amount of money BC or BU can throw at him, if he lives up the the hype, would certainly seem to favor one of the Boston schools.

 

[frontsfan67]

And I would also add for Pelosi that if hypothetically for some reason he was opposed to the NTDP model or wanted to do things differently that I think USHL is in play more than you'd think. His brother went the USHL route, and it's working out for him. I suspect if you're "the Pelosi family" you have a positive opinion of the USHL.

Wasn’t necessarily talking just about pelosi I was talking in general that out of 10 kids that were 100% USHL before maybe 3 of them (30% of them) Now will consider the league that has produced the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Eric Lindros, Sidney Crosby, Steve Yzerman, Connor McDavid just to name a few.

Of course going to a different country is questionable no matter where you are from. You can be a great Slovakian player and get selected in the CHL import draft and despite the level of play etc being much greater in not only the CHL but even in the USHL too. Nothing is guaranteed. Same with American kids coming to Canada and Canadian kids going to the US.

The big Canadian kids in the past few years will be the ones that benefit the greatest from this. For example: Adam Fantilli, Macklin Celebrini, the latest great Canadian NCAA kids likely don’t go to the USHL and just play in the CHL now. Guys like Musty and Stranges you mentioned still probably come over to the CHL but leave when they’re 18/19 to go over to the NCAA.

Will be interesting to see if Valentini and Croskery just to name a couple who obviously are in the USHL this year come over next year to the OHL or if because they’ll be in their draft year they want to stay in the same league.

About American players like the Hutsons (2 were drafted by Kingston oddly enough LOL) and Hughes may not consider the CHL for a year or two before NCAA.

In other words: USHL in particular gets SCREWED.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

This is Rocco’s thread so I don’t want to derail it, but I do want to say that if there is an issue with Hagens not being the star of the show at BC, it’s really not anyone’s fault. Hagens just happened to walk onto a team with Leonard/Perreault already there, and they are arguably the two best players in college hockey who have been playing together for years. Very few teams have that kind of a situation, so a high-profile freshman naturally becomes the center of attention. Hagens also seems naturally deferential (not a slight; I like that he is a team player), which is unique to him and wouldn’t necessarily apply to all kids. BC will always have talented classes, but it’s unlikely that Casey Mutryn, Noah Davidson, or any of the other ‘08 forwards BC has committed are going to be Hobey contenders who have played together for years such that Rocco would have to take a back seat. He could easily step in and have the team built around him like you’re mentioning; I don’t think it’s a BC problem so much as it’s unique to this iteration of Leonard/Perreault/Hagens.

It's not to say it's been a disaster, but it hasn't really been ideal for him to pad his numbers. It doesn't seem like they treat him special or promote him any more than anyone else. All of that might be great for him becoming the best hockey player he can be that he plays for the best team and nothing is given to him and it's more competitive and he's not being force fed free points to boost his draft stock (the draft is a points contest essentially), but I do think when you're talking about marketing and all that Hagens marketing has suffered this year. He doesn't always play PP1, he doesn't always play first line, he's not given the free EN points (Leonard has like 6 EN goals, which of course has boosted his season and I think the team has like 12 EN goals or something like that and I don't think Hagens has even 1 EN point), and also they've played a crazy difficult schedule (which sounds good to get better, but maybe not to market your draft profile).

Hagens stock has dropped while at BC, and I don't think it's because he's gotten worse (he was given a big platform at the WJC and it went great). It hasn't been an ideal fit for him to score like crazy.

And I think all these cases matter when situationally evaluating where would be the best place for Pelosi to help his stock, assuming he ends up as good as people suspect and he matriculates a year early. So BU or Michigan can pitch to Pelosi they had two highly touted players come in during their draft year and win the Hobey Baker winner and their draft stock only increased. And with Hagens BC can maybe pitch they won the National Title (we'll see), but when it comes to Hagens it'll likely be his stock fell and he wasn't put in a great situation to put up big totals.

So as a fan of American hockey the BC experience hasn't went ideally, and I'd rather avoid it if Pelosi is the next great American player after Hagens. There are a bunch of schools that will give him that platform to increase his draft stock.

 

[bigdog16]

Not yet obviously because the NCAA thing came after the start of the CHL season. This will be the first off season where kids can weigh their decisions.

CHL>>>>USHL/BCHL and then they can go to NCAA. Because of this we will see more top end 16/17 year olds choosing the CHL over the other leagues before heading off to college when they’re 18/19/20.

CHL->NCAA is a way better route which is why the USHL and BCHL are being a bunch of babies and making teams pay a large sum of money to them if they leave. Muskegon and Youngstown are 2 that want to go OHL and Penticton is leaving the BCHL for the WHL.

Pelosi obviously probably would favour the USHL or NAHL being an American but there’s 0 debate that going the CHL route with a top end club like London would be better than anything in the USHL with the exception of the NTDP (But the CHL schooled the American kids earlier in the year. Something to think about)
As I said.

Could be something like 30% comes over to CAN and 70% stays in US. Way better than before when they had to make a very important decision at 15. If they don’t like the CHL or wherever else and want to switch but it’s good they’re not locked in and being held hostage anymore.

I don’t think you will see many of the top end 16 year Americans pass on the NTDP. If that is the case, with the 16 year olds left over that don’t make NTDP, how likely is it that they are going to be a major contributor and get a lot of ice time in the CHL as a 16 year old. Not very likely.

 

[wetcoast]

I don’t think you will see many of the top end 16 year Americans pass on the NTDP. If that is the case, with the 16 year olds left over that don’t make NTDP, how likely is it that they are going to be a major contributor and get a lot of ice time in the CHL as a 16 year old. Not very likely.

I dunno Chase Reid seems to be doing just fine this year.

How is Pelosi doing this year as far as growing his game?