CHL to NCAA Recruiting Megathread

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08 F Cameron Kuzma commits to LSSU, spent this season with Regina Pats, traded to Seattle Thunderbirds this summer.

Now that CHL trading windows have opened up again, there's some changes going on with sorting out overage spots. Plenty of teams, especially those with deep playoff runs, have well over 3. Prince George signed an import goalie and released their 05 goalie of a few years. Most go to junior A next, and now they could end up in the NCAA unlike before. There was some talk about allowing an extra overage spot just for a goaltender, but the vote didn't pass. When you release a player they go through waivers not only in their own league but the other two leagues as well. Today Kingston waived 05 D Cal Uens and he has been picked up by the Québec Remparts. Sometimes these end up pretty impactful, most recently G Austin Elliott (UML) getting waived by Saskatoon and winning a Memorial Cup with London.

People hoping Caleb Desnoyers changing his mind and ending up in college- he had wrist surgery and will miss 12 weeks.

Hlinka Gretzky semifinal games have finished, drama and surprises abound

Sweden wins in overtime over Finland 6-5
USA wins in a shootout over Canada 4-3 after 7 straight losses to them in this tournament

• Both games kinda crazy, Finland had a 5-2 lead with 12 minutes left in the 3rd only to take a major penalty and let Sweden tie it, tournament points leader Marcus Nordmark finished the hat trick with the OT winner
• Canada had not trailed in this tournament and had a perfect record on the pk, US scored first on a power play right after the announcers mentioned the pk record.
• Carson Carels got injured in a weird collision in the 2nd period so the 5 Canadian defensemen were ridden hard, especially Verhoeff (NoDak) and Lin.
• In the shootout it was the goaltending that made the biggest difference. Joseph Salandra (Barrie, Harvard), Nikita Klepov (Saginaw, Michigan State), and Blake Zielinski all scored while only Mathis Preston scored, with Dima Zhilkin, Tynan Lawrence, and Liam Ruck all being stopped (or going wide in Zhilkin's case).
• USA goalie Brady Knowling is the rare NTDP player going to HGC, apparently he was injured for a large chunk of the past season and wanted more experience.
• USA has won this tournament once, in 2003. They will play Sweden for gold.
• Canada's gold medal streak snapped at 3 years

Noah Davidson (Medicine Hat, BC) 1g
Will McLaughlin (Portland, CC) 1a
Brooks Rogowski (Oshawa, Michigan State) 1a

 

[cinnamoroll]

04 D Isaac Menard commits to UAA, 5 seasons with Shawinigan Cataractes including a 2022 QMJHL championship. Was originally going USports. Will also edit to add him… ugh

Today is the last day for OHL teams to submit their formal intent to host the 2027 Memorial Cup. Kitchener had declared a few days ago and there’s rumors of Guelph being a 3rd contender. Niagara announced this morning they’re going to put in a bid. Considering the state of the franchise up until a few months ago, it’s pretty bold but seems they’re confident in their ability to turn it around quickly. I have liked their moves this summer but it’s a tall order. It does signal to the community that they are serious about the franchise’s future, which they would appreciate. The region and the city are ready for a memorial cup, it’s the organization that is the question mark. I don’t think they’ll win over Kitchener or Guelph though.

update: Guelph has officially announced its bid.

 

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Marek has the full list of 2027 memorial cup bids: Kitchener Rangers, Niagara IceDogs, Guelph Storm, and Kingston Frontenacs. Two finals are named Sep 3rd, Nov 3rd deadline for submitting the formal bid, announcement comes late november.

In terms of how important a Memorial Cup bid can be, 2026 hosts Kelowna traded for and successfully pulled D Mazden Leslie back for his OA year when he was committed to BGSU. Medicine Hat was the other finalist for the 2026 bid and people have speculated ever since they lost if winning it would've helped them keep Gavin McKenna for his draft year. It's the only guarantee a team can have to absolutely make it to the to without the randomness of playoff hockey. There have been years where the host team was bounced early in the playoffs only to dominate the Mem Cup because they could rest up their top players while the 3 champs were super beat up. This is a new era of retention for the CHL teams and a memorial cup autobid is the best card they have.

Speaking of decommitting, Ben Saunderson decommits from Quinnipiac, heading to USports.

 

[cinnamoroll]

I updated the CHL recruiting pt 1 on my substack to add Savoie and Ménard. am currently writing up on the CCHA classes. lots of interesting stuff, like a kid with 3 NHLers in his family (including a currently active brother, then a legendary uncle with 2 cups and over 1000 games), one who actually participated in an NHL game this season, and a Justin Bieber look-alike.

Hlinka Gretzky Cup finished this morning and this is the year of "USA Hockey wins the competitions it never wins", adding to their first Worlds gold since before WWII with a HGC gold, 2nd ever and first since 2003.

USA wins 5-3 over Sweden, and it says 4 of those 5 are power play goals, but the one 5 on 5 goal was seconds after a power play expired.
Canada wins 3-0 over Finland for bronze.

• Cooper Williams (Saskatoon, NoDak) drew into the lineup after a few games and scored the first goal for Canada
• Captain Keaton Verhoeff (NoDak) had an assist on a 2nd period power play goal. Canada got into some penalty trouble at times, which is dangerous against the Finns, but all was killed off, likely thanks to Verhoeff who killed a lot of penalties.
• It was overall a much sounder game for Canada as opposed to the semifinal game. Goalie Gavin Betts was a big difference maker and got rewarded with a shutout
• US gave up a goal on the first shot of the game, but thanks to some bad Swedish penalties, they quickly got it tied and a lead. Swedes tied it at 6:28 on a shot from distance, which usually means goaltending issues, until you realize it was deflected two separate times. Poor Knowling. US got a lead before the end of the period on, you guessed it, the power play.
• Both teams got power play goals in the 2nd, coming to the 3rd at 4-3. Sweden hemmed the US in for big stretches until taking another penalty with about 2:30 left in the game instead of pulling the goalie. US scored only a few seconds into it, so they had time to pull their goalie, but could not get a goal.
• Somehow the US kept the tournament leading point getter and scorer Marcus Nordmark off the scoresheet.
• Joseph Salandra (Barrie, Harvard) 1a, Noah Davidson (Medicine Hat, BC) 1g1a, Nikita Klepov (Saginaw, Michigan State) 1g1a, Will McLaughlin (Portland, CC) 1a

The USHL account tried to start a pissing match on twitter with the CHL one and no one took the bait like sane people, so they just look petulant.

For all that people keep saying that the USA doesn't send their best to this tournament, it really isn't true, probably last year and definitely this year. Seen plenty of people express the thought that this team would walk all over the 2008 NTDP class (for the record, I agree). There's something off with the program since the Will Smith year. It could bounce back, but it is in danger of falling behind, or they had already fallen behind and it is just harder to ignore those weaknesses without the success.

Big congrats to head coach Kevin Porter and all of Team USA on winning gold at a tournament they never win!