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RPI Recruit Thread 2025-2026

Ralph Baer said:
Humboldt (SJHL) acquired the rights to Easton Adrian https://www.humboldtbroncos.com/humboldt-broncos-acquire-easton-adrian.

He played on Saturday and had no points or penalties. I wonder if Humboldt has the highest average uniform number anywhere.

www.sjhl.ca

Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL)

www.sjhl.ca www.sjhl.ca


Edit: I suspect that he is off our recruit list.
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I don't think he's off the recruit list yet but he probably will be unless he totally dominates. With him and Ziliotto, if you are playing in that weak of a league, you need to dominate. So far, Ziliotto seems to be doing that
 
sezenack said:
I don't think he's off the recruit list yet but he probably will be unless he totally dominates. With him and Ziliotto, if you are playing in that weak of a league, you need to dominate. So far, Ziliotto seems to be doing that
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Probably true, but what does dominating prove? He's playing in a league that's weaker than the pre-BCHL raid AJHL he played in 3 years ago. Likewise, Ziliotto is playing in a league where he was a PPG guy at 17. If they dominate does that get them ready for the NCAA? It seems that this shuffling of leagues and eligibility has really created chaos for over-agers. Hopefully strong starts by both will get them moved to better situations during the year - for their sakes regardless of whether they are still on our recruiting list.
 
rpi82 said:
Probably true, but what does dominating prove? He's playing in a league that's weaker than the pre-BCHL raid AJHL he played in 3 years ago. Likewise, Ziliotto is playing in a league where he was a PPG guy at 17. If they dominate does that get them ready for the NCAA? It seems that this shuffling of leagues and eligibility has really created chaos for over-agers. Hopefully strong starts by both will get them moved to better situations during the year - for their sakes regardless of whether they are still on our recruiting list.
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I wonder if Adrian has recovered to where he was preinjury. (I have the same concern about Jovanovic,)
 
rpi82 said:
Probably true, but what does dominating prove? He's playing in a league that's weaker than the pre-BCHL raid AJHL he played in 3 years ago. Likewise, Ziliotto is playing in a league where he was a PPG guy at 17. If they dominate does that get them ready for the NCAA? It seems that this shuffling of leagues and eligibility has really created chaos for over-agers. Hopefully strong starts by both will get them moved to better situations during the year - for their sakes regardless of whether they are still on our recruiting list.
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It doesn't prove anything other than being good enough to go D1 still even with the CHL. But having 2 points per game in the OJHL actually translates pretty well to the NCAA. Dalton Bancroft did that before Cornell and is now with the Bruins. Tyler Fukakusa, Matthew Wilde, Trevor Hoskin. Jack Richard was injured all last year but great at Niagara as a freshman. Now, not every player who produced in line with them has been as good, but playing in that weak of a league shouldn't write anyone off from the jump
 
sezenack said:
It doesn't prove anything other than being good enough to go D1 still even with the CHL. But having 2 points per game in the OJHL actually translates pretty well to the NCAA. Dalton Bancroft did that before Cornell and is now with the Bruins. Tyler Fukakusa, Matthew Wilde, Trevor Hoskin. Jack Richard was injured all last year but great at Niagara as a freshman. Now, not every player who produced in line with them has been as good, but playing in that weak of a league shouldn't write anyone off from the jump
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Some guy named Pirri put up nearly 150 pts in 3 seasons in the OJHL.... and then had a 43pt. campaign the following year at RPI.. LOL (Admittedly, recruiting was different then.)
 
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Wicked Slappaahs said:
Some guy named Pirri put up nearly 150 pts in 3 seasons in the OJHL.... and then had a 43pt. campaign the following year at RPI.. LOL (Admittedly, recruiting was different then.)
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Pirri only played 2 years in the OJHL. He was traded during his second year, so there are three lines in his stats. In addition, the OJHL as well as the other so-called TIer-II leagues have gone downhill, (The BCHL is in never-neverland, neither Major nor Tier-II.) Lastly, Pirri was only 18 when he arrived at RPI while Ziliotto will be 21. Nevertheless, I do think that ZIliotto will be a useful player.
 
sezenack said:
It doesn't prove anything other than being good enough to go D1 still even with the CHL. But having 2 points per game in the OJHL actually translates pretty well to the NCAA. Dalton Bancroft did that before Cornell and is now with the Bruins. Tyler Fukakusa, Matthew Wilde, Trevor Hoskin. Jack Richard was injured all last year but great at Niagara as a freshman. Now, not every player who produced in line with them has been as good, but playing in that weak of a league shouldn't write anyone off from the jump
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Well, there's another interesting test case this season. Last year's OJHL leading scorer and over-ager, Colton Smith, is at Clarkson. However, he had 3 years in major junior before that. He wasn't a big time scorer but he had successful seasons before dropping down and would definitely appear on paper to be a superior prospect to Ziliotto. It will be interesting to see how he does in Potsdam.
 
rpi82 said:
Well, there's another interesting test case this season. Last year's OJHL leading scorer and over-ager, Colton Smith, is at Clarkson. However, he had 3 years in major junior before that. He wasn't a big time scorer but he had successful seasons before dropping down and would definitely appear on paper to be a superior prospect to Ziliotto. It will be interesting to see how he does in Potsdam.
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I don’t think Colton smith is at clarkson? I don’t see him on the roster for this year. Unless I missed him
 
rpi82 said:
Well, there's another interesting test case this season. Last year's OJHL leading scorer and over-ager, Colton Smith, is at Clarkson. However, he had 3 years in major junior before that. He wasn't a big time scorer but he had successful seasons before dropping down and would definitely appear on paper to be a superior prospect to Ziliotto. It will be interesting to see how he does in Potsdam.
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I do agree that Smith seems better than Ziliotto, but NZ gave both 3.50 stars as their most recent rating. Ziliotto had 14 points in 28 games (0.50 PPG) in his partial season in the OHL last year while Smith had 28 points in 68 games (0.41 PPG) in his last OHL season -- not much different. Ziliotto's 15 points in 7 games (2.14 PPG) this year is far from a complete season, but Smith's 95 points in 55 games (1.73 PPG) is somewhat lower. Smith appears to be the tougher player. It will be interesting to follow Smith this year.
 
Engineers said:
I don’t think Colton smith is at clarkson? I don’t see him on the roster for this year. Unless I missed him
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I should delete my previous post, but from the Clarkson Roundtable, https://roundtable.letsgotech.com/f...kson-men-s-hockey-2025-2026?p=71605#post71605 from poster cutothefrozen4.
I believe ndlax stated it, rude awakening for these major junior guys, I’ve known plenty of “not the smartest” guys that just had to work hard to push through Clarkson to get the degree, it’s hard, no shame to Smith but another blow before the season. This major junior stuff comes with a lot of extra stipulations, maybe should balance it out with guys that have always wanted the dedicated college path.
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Ralph Baer said:
I should delete my previous post, but from the Clarkson Roundtable, https://roundtable.letsgotech.com/f...kson-men-s-hockey-2025-2026?p=71605#post71605 from poster cutothefrozen4
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Thanks Ralph. I knew he committed there but hadn’t heard he didn’t make it to campus for the fall. I wondered how all those kids that chose a route which, at the time, ruled out ever playing in the NCAA could suddenly change directions and qualify. Many probably kept up so they’d have USports as a fallback option, but it wouldn’t surprise me that some were just not ready for college.
 
Ralph Baer said:
I do agree that Smith seems better than Ziliotto, but NZ gave both 3.50 stars as their most recent rating. Ziliotto had 14 points in 28 games (0.50 PPG) in his partial season in the OHL last year while Smith had 28 points in 68 games (0.41 PPG) in his last OHL season -- not much different. Ziliotto's 15 points in 7 games (2.14 PPG) this year is far from a complete season, but Smith's 95 points in 55 games (1.73 PPG) is somewhat lower. Smith appears to be the tougher player. It will be interesting to follow Smith this year.
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Smith’s Windsor team was terrible during his last year in the OHL. The year before they had a much stronger team and he scored at a more than 3/4 points per game clip as an 18 year old.
 
Ralph Baer said:
Pirri only played 2 years in the OJHL. He was traded during his second year, so there are three lines in his stats. In addition, the OJHL as well as the other so-called TIer-II leagues have gone downhill, (The BCHL is in never-neverland, neither Major nor Tier-II.) Lastly, Pirri was only 18 when he arrived at RPI while Ziliotto will be 21. Nevertheless, I do think that ZIliotto will be a useful player.
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I mentioned that it was different recruiting scenario back then. The art of scouting at any level is trying to determine where a kid is on his development arc. Time will tell how good our coaches are at it.
 
rpi82 said:
Thanks Ralph. I knew he committed there but hadn’t heard he didn’t make it to campus for the fall. I wondered how all those kids that chose a route which, at the time, ruled out ever playing in the NCAA could suddenly change directions and qualify. Many probably kept up so they’d have USports as a fallback option, but it wouldn’t surprise me that some were just not ready for college.
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All of our incoming players passed the first hurdle -- getting to campus. Here's to them all being able to keep up academically. It never ceases to amaze me how much better hockey players do at RPI than they did in the 1960's. A lot of reasons for that.
 
Ralph Baer said:
All of our incoming players passed the first hurdle -- getting to campus. Here's to them all being able to keep up academically. It never ceases to amaze me how much better hockey players do at RPI than they did in the 1960's. A lot of reasons for that.
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There is a structured academic support program to help players juggle athletics and academics. I suspect none of that existed in your day - and very little in mine. With each generation there has been a shift to increasing support resources for students in general. While many of us think back to the old days when things were tougher (one of my work-study jobs was processing the paperwork for students that flunked out, including a few friends), it really made no sense from a business perspective.
 
rpi82 said:
There is a structured academic support program to help players juggle athletics and academics. I suspect none of that existed in your day - and very little in mine. With each generation there has been a shift to increasing support resources for students in general. While many of us think back to the old days when things were tougher (one of my work-study jobs was processing the paperwork for students that flunked out, including a few friends), it really made no sense from a business perspective.
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You are exactly right. The general rule of thumb from a higher ed business perspective, It's less expensive to help the student (if you can) and keep them enrolled rather than sending them home and then trying to fill that seat. It also often times leads to a student who figures things out and is a stronger individual and student for having come out the other side of their struggles. ..character building.
 
Curious on some opinions here. Based on Ralph's list the only guys I would say are >50% likely to make it to RPI are Gosselin, Dwyer, and Chemrouk. We all like to follow the recruits, but Eric said this summer that they want to specialize on 20 y/o players in the US, O and QMJHL, so I would expect him to lean on Cory to turn over the pipeline in the next 6 months pretty dramatically.
I'd rank probability as follows:

Gosselin
Dwyer
Chemrouk
Matthews
Lariviere
Zilliotto
Oakenfold
Adrian
Shaw
 
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