Do we know if these two D portal additions mean Villeneuve may not be coming?
Xavier Villeneuve is the sort of guy you make room for. Veteran presence on the blue line is sorely needed however. room for both imo, but another year in juniors could help Villeneuve too
Also Lake Superior D Adam Barons to BU.
Educated guess is I have seen more Adam Barone than the rest of you guys- he had a major breakout sophomore season for the Lakers. his 19 points were good for 4th on the team. LSSU was sad to see him go, but they ended up grabbing Nolan Seed to fill that hole. i dont know how much the production will translate, CCHA to hockey east isnt the easiest to predicted. interested to see what he does with more firepower around him.
I was a bit surprised he entered the portal- he's from the Canadian Soo, so at LSSU he's playing on the other side of the river from home, plus the CHL rule change meant one of his best friends from home joined the team. most later entrants have a commitment laid out, so if he got word of interest from a blue blood program with opportunity in the lineup, he'd be dumb not to take it.
Vermont D Jax Wismer to BU.
Who can give us the skinny on Jax?
didn't watch a ton of catamounts this season so my impressions of Wismer are mostly based on his freshman season, seems he was less productive in his sophomore season. he was originally committed to UConn but after they asked him to play another year in juniors, he flipped to UVM to play that season. he pretty quickly established himself in the vermont lineup and played heavy minutes. ended with 15 points
just based on numbers, this season was going similarly and he was their top pair guy until their series vs providence in february, game 2 they dropped him to the third pair, stayed that way in their last series and he missed their final regular season game and their loss to BU in the hockey east tournament. just a theory here but this sounds to me like he might've been injured at some point in the season and tried to play through it only to aggravate it more, ended up shutting him down in march. combine that with the regression from his freshman season production... a fresh start probably would do him well. terriers need some veterans in their defense and unlike Barone, Wismer already knows his way around Hockey East.
solid enough bets. slim portal pickings unless you are flashing cash, just came off of a deep run, or both. after last year, i am not surprised they no longer have the appetite for big game hunting. these are two guys who you probably have for two seasons coming from programs with fewer resources. a lot of the recruiting here might've been based on if the players fits what the program needs, which is mainly culture. addition by subtraction is obviously going to be a factor but they should be deliberate in how they build it back up.
tl;dr- betting on growth via superior resources/talent from two soph D w some offensive upside from smaller programs, probably most important factor here is the fit with the culture they want to foster.