Prospect Currents - November 2019
This is my new column where I’ll be talking about various prospect-related things. It’s in the same “31 Thoughts” format as my post from September.
Penn State returned to (explosive) form just in time to start Big Ten play — outscoring Wisconsin 10-3 during a sweep at home. It was a nice introduction for Wisconsin’s young guns to the most competitive conference in college hockey.
Evan Barratt (PSU) and Jack Gorniak (WI) got the monkey off their respective backs as far as goalscoring goes, while Cole Caufield (WI) was held to one goal and one assist with just four recorded shots on goal. Sophomore Aarne Talvitie (PSU), back on the wing, had a 1-2-3 line during Thursday night’s 6-1 win. The Nittany Lions held a decisive edge in face-offs.
2020 draft-eligible forward Dylan Holloway hasn’t quite been a difference-maker yet for the Badgers, and while I’ve generally liked his game so far this season, this weekend’s series didn’t seem to be a big step forward. He missed Thursday’s game due to ‘bumps and bruises’ and ate a -2 rating with no points on Friday night.
Minnesota picked up a big ‘Big Ten’-only win in the second overtime frame over Notre Dame before losing on night two. Though Sammy Walker’s goal scored in 3x3 overtime only counts for the conference standings, it was a great way to start the season at home, and came from exactly the guy they’ll be relying on to beat teams that they’d probably have no business beating otherwise — especially in the first half.
Minnesota got a second big win over Notre Dame (albeit indirectly) this weekend, as recent Notre Dame decommit Brock Faber has found his way into the Golden Gopher pipeline. The addition of Faber, a well-regarded 2020 draft prospect on the USA 18 team, will help second-year skipper Bob Motzko continue to re-vamp and re-stock their defensive group with high-end talent early on in his tenure. Faber is from Maple Grove, Minnesota.
Michigan played rivals Ohio State to a fairly tight series in Columbus for their first two of four Big Ten games this series, though the Buckeyes held on for the sweep. Wolverine freshman defender Cam York scored his first goal of the year while fellow first round freshman Johnny Beecher found himself apart from previous linemate Jack Becker (who he had a good amount of success with) for this weekend, both were kept off the sheet on both nights.
Ohio State freshman forward Tate Singleton scored a goal on both nights while star junior goaltender Tommy Nappier improved to 6-1-1 on the year with 20/22 and 25/26 saves recorded. The Buckeyes, not unlike the Wolverines, have opted to spread their talent across three or four lines early on this season.
Michigan State were off with regard to the Big Ten, but the Big Red came to town and took both games in Lansing. Cornell’s been highly-ranked all fall, though they had not played an NCAA game until this weekend. While game one was a tightly-contested affair with a late Cornell winner in the third period, game two saw the Big Red explode for five goals before Sparty began to fight back. Freshman Cornell defenseman Sam Malinski, from Lakeville, Minnesota had four points on the weekend.
Notably for Cornell, one of their top lines includes two St. Andrew’s College (Ont-Prep) alumni in junior captain Morgan Barron and freshman Matt Stienburg, who went at the top of the third round in this summer’s NHL draft to Colorado.
Speaking of St. Andrew’s, I’ve got a piece on their team coming this week. Coach David Manning’s group are undefeated to start the year and they have a number of 2020 NHL draft prospects rostered. They’ve also got a strong 2021 draft-eligible defenseman in Harvard recruit Jack Bar, who is on track to play his draft year in the Ivy League next winter.
Some other college hockey results of note: Arizona State swept highly-ranked Quinnipiac at home, BU went up to Maine for a loss and a tie, BC won at Providence 3-2, Mankato split with BGSU, and top-ranked Denver continues to roll, boasting an 8-0 record.
Massachusetts also continues to roll, sweeping Northeastern at home. They’re proving the offense still has plenty of flair despite the loss of Cale Makar this year.
Moving on to general prospect news… the World U17 Hockey Challenge is underway in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. Most of the world’s top 2003-born players are there. The D1 recruits playing in that, other than the whole U17 USA team, include Maine D recruit Guillaume Richard, UNO G recruit William Rousseau, UNO D recruit Jacob Guévin and BC F recruit Peter Reynolds. Wisconsin D recruit Corson Ceulemans is also there, though he got hurt late in today’s game against the Czech Republic. Prior to the injury, Ceulemans, who plays for Brooks in the Alberta league, picked up three assists in two games on scoring plays with former BU recruit (now OHLer) Danny Zhilkin.
As far as the Americans are concerned, they started the tournament red hot with a double digit win over the Czech team. This 2003 age group in America seems fairly deep and talented. Their 16 goals in the first two games is the most since 2014, a team that featured Auston Matthews, Colin White, Jeremy Bracco and Matt Tkachuk — just to name a few.
Last night, game two, they played ‘Canada White’, one of three Canadian teams in the event. Minnesota forward recruit Chaz Lucius continued his red hot 2019-2020 season with a goal and two assists in a 6-4 win.
Evan Nause (USHL-Sioux Falls), Charles-Alexis Legault (LSL-QMAAA), William Blackburn (Jonquiére-QMAAA) and Dovar Tinling (CCHL-Hawkesbury) are the Canadians rostered among their three teams who remain possibles for the NCAA route.
I’m only really familiar with Evan Nause — who for my money is right up there as one of the top uncommitted defensemen in the country. He’s on a re-building Sioux Falls team, but the Riverview, New Brunswick product has nice two-way upside, as I noted in last month’s report on the Sioux Falls - Fargo game.
Dovar Tinling is at a point-per-game pace as a rookie in junior hockey and was taken in the second round by Des Moines in this year’s USHL draft.
Moving on from the U17 World Challenge… I spoke with Dubuque Fighting Saints GM Kalle Larsson yesterday to discuss his team’s hot start and especially his take on some of their 2020 NHL Draft Prospects. Dubuque had a relatively light October, but have collected 17 of 18 possible points in the standings so far. On big power forward Stephen Halliday (North Dakota): “Probably our best player this past weekend… there’s so much to like about Halliday, he’s probably a draft no matter what, but how high [he goes] is really up to him.” On playmaking defenseman Wyatt Kaiser, who is headed back to Andover (MN-HS) this month: “His skating ability, ability to transfer the puck, get out of [bad] situations, he’s one of the best defense prospects we’ve had in Dubuque.”
We also talked about Denver recruit Ryan Beck, and why he might be one of the biggest draft-eligible sleepers in the league this year despite his status as a 5’9 center with one point: “His points do not reflect his importance on our hockey team. Right now in his first full USHL season, he plays third, maybe fourth line, that’s because we’re obviously a pretty deep team this year. In my mind, Beck’s a stud. He’s a real hockey player, he’s not just one of those hockey school guys, I would draft him for sure, if we get banged-up and he jumps up the roster, he’s going to take off and have a bunch of points. Right now, he’s just literally a “victim” of a deep forward corps.
Is [Beck] a victim of his size as a center? Maybe but he plays so hard, so fast, he’s not a physical guy but he doesn’t shy away. He’s like 185-195 at 5’9-5’10, if he’s going to be an NHL player at the end of the day…I don’t see enough prospects in other leagues to answer that, but based on other players that we’ve had drafted out of the USHL, he’s a draft pick all day to me. He’s just a real hockey player, he just gets it, he knows what it takes to win.”
I definitely agree with Larsson’s assessment of Beck. He may never be the flashiest guy if and when he gets to pro hockey, but he could very well be the type that helps win games, and he’s doing that for his 7-0-1 USHL-Dubuque team right now.
Also in USHL 2020 draft-eligible news, for subscribers I wrote up Danil Gushchin (Muskegon) and Ryder Rolston (Waterloo) from last weekend’s game where Gushchin scored all four goals to earn an the overtime win. While this year’s draft doesn’t seem to have the high-end that last year’s class had, there are a lot of guys with some upside. There should be a significant number of players from the USHL who go in the 60 to 180~200 range and could emerge as strong prospects over their time in the NCAA. It’s no coincidence that the college route has become such an appealing option for mid-level prospects to find success and extend their careers: there aren’t many first rounders who are ready to play in the league (or pro hockey, period) at twenty, especially after the first fifteen, twenty picks or there-about.
A couple other notes to close out this update… there are murmurs that the Kingsbridge Armory project in the Bronx is slowly materializing. If it only sounds vaguely familiar, the plan is to put nine ice sheets including a 5,000-seat arena in New York City’s northernmost borough. You wouldn’t be blamed for having forgotten — it was approved over 2,000 days ago. New York state governor Andrew Cuomo announced a while ago that his administration would throw in over $100 million to help keep the project moving towards completion. Is this prospect news? Well, nine new ice sheets in the largest city in America would likely have some impact on hockey prospects in this country.
Unrelated, but also in general New York hockey news, I’ve heard that Hoosac (yes, Hoosac) is a prep program that will turn some heads this year. I’ll try to follow up before their hockey season gets rolling.
In other prep news, it sounds like the Loomis Pelicans are going to take a step this year. Playmaking defenseman Jan Olenginski out of La Salle College HS, just out of Philadelphia, is getting a lot of looks from D1 for his play with the Bulldogs U16 split team this fall.
The recruitment of new KUA players Luca and Adam Fantilli is getting interesting. While Adam is still a sophomore and can’t commit until next August, he’s getting a lot of D1 interest since leaving the Toronto Jr. Canadians to join older brother Luca at KUA this September.
Luca, a late-02 defenseman, is described as an exceptional skater with great upside, already getting attention from some D1 blue bloods. Adam, who will not be able to commit to a school for a while per the new NCAA regulations, has been cited as potentially the top pick in the 2020 OHL draft. A 6’1 forward, Adam has been praised very highly by those who have seen him skating in the New England Fall Prep League, as has Luca.
Adam will be heavily recruited by the OHL and the NCAA over the coming seasons. A December birth-date 2004 (a month away from turning 15), Adam is looking to fast-track so that he could be a senior next year at KUA and graduate with his brother. In that case, he would technically become eligible to start playing in the NCAA at sixteen years old and nine months — in which case he’d be one of the youngest, if not the youngest player to play college hockey, during that the 2021-22 season. Realistically, a year in the USHL could very well follow two years in Meriden, New Hampshire for both brothers. Adam is eligible for the 2023 NHL draft. This is all assuming Adam doesn’t end up in the Ontario league. Don’t be surprised if the brothers end up committing somewhere on Comm Ave — both BU and BC, among other bigs, are already in the chase for Luca’s commitment.
Speaking of Comm Ave, former BU forward Mark Cheremeta, who has 11 points in 9 games (4 goals) for USHL-Dubuque, is likely to land at a top program some time this month when the NLI signing period opens.
I’ve also heard that Gentry Academy, now hockey-famous for producing the Lucius brothers Chaz and Cruz, both Minnesota recruits, may focus on the MSHSL for hockey — Minnesota’s high school circuit — next season. They would likely cease youth hockey (read: AAA) operations in that case. Gentry’s U16 AAA team is currently 19-0 — they’re the top-ranked team in the country. My attempts to reach out (including calls put in) to Gentry Academy’s hockey program have been met with radio silence as of this writing. Gentry went 14-11 as an independent last year.