We also got Hutton from the freakin' SIJHL. Central Scouting and the top tier leagues aren't the only ways to find talented players who can contribute at the NCAA D1 level.
As Goon pointed out, this topic has been an issue for a while for Lowell (since Whitehead left). Coach MacDonald was trying hard, and almost had it set at one point ... until they threatened to kill our program which lost us a couple of recruits.Just curious, is there ever any discussion by the fans or team over the "senior heavy" team UML has every 4 years? It seems like it will/is difficult to sustain a consistent level of play when every 4 years they will struggle with a freshman laden team, get a bit better as they become sophmores and then basically hope things work out that "senior" year. Have they ever tried to try to get the classes more balanced?
[B]Year 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11[/B]
Freshmen 14 6 7 6 10
Sophomores 5 15 5 7 6
Juniors 1 3 14 5 6
[U]Seniors 7 1 3 12 5[/U]
Totals 27 25 29 30 27[B]2010[/B]
[U]Name POS TEAM (League) HT WT DOB GP G A PTS PIM[/U]
Tyler Brickler LW Westside Warriors (BCHL) 5'11 175 01/27/91 9 3 1 4 7
Nick Curry RW Springfield Jr Blues (NAHL) 6'0 185 11/02/89 31 11 22 33 22
Josh Holmstrom RW Sioux Falls Stampede (USHL) 6'0 175 09/05/89 22 5 11 16 16
Julian Melchiori LD Newmarket Hurricanes (CCHL) 6'1 180 12/06/91 26 7 13 20 10
Joe Pendanza LW Boston Jr. Bruins (EJHL) 5'10 180 11/22/90 25 10 18 28 8
Will Rayner RD Lincoln Stars (USHL) 6'1 190 01/19/90 5 0 0 0 6
Chad Ruhwedel RD Sioux Falls Stampede (USHL)5'11 170 05/07/90 22 2 6 8 8
Shayne Thompson LW Brockville Braves (CJHL) 5'11 195 06/13/89 31 19 29 48 36
[U]Name POS TEAM (League) HT WT DOB GP W L T % GAA[/U]
Marc Boulanger G Olds Grizzlys (AJHL) 5'11 165 03/27/90 24 10 8 4 90.3% 2.94
Doug Carr G Cornwall Colts (CJHL) 6'2 200 03/12/89 32 25 4 3 92.0% 2.42
T.J. Massie G Boston Jr Bruins (EJHL) 5'11 165 05/03/90 15 5 5 2 91.4% 2.96
[B]2011[/B]
[U]Name POS TEAM (League) HT WT DOB GP G A PTS PIM[/U]
William Eiserman LD NH Jr. Monarchs (EJHL) 5'11 187 07/21/92 17 0 6 6 10
Colton Saucerman RD Des Moines Bucaneers (USHL) 5'9 170 05/05/92 24 0 0 0 56
Terrence Wallin RW The Gunnery 5'10 166 04/06/92 0 0 0 0 0
[B]2012[/B]
[U]Name POS TEAM (League) HT WT DOB GP W L T % GAA[/U]
Chris Eiserman G NH Jr. Monarchs (EJHL) 6'3 210 07/28/93 14 11 2 0 91.5% 2.70Of course there are good players from every league, we are talking about league depth, not special situations based upon a kids familiy location etc.
Falite was a Junior Bruin from the EJ, coached by his brother in law
Lowell would get more players from the USHL. the problem is with todays teams getting players 16-17 which Lowell would have a hard time doing, (maybe in the future they will be able to do such). Most of the USHL players are already commited. So its hard to get players from there, because 90 per cent are already taken. But looking at next year, they have 3 coming in (same as 06 with Holmstrom, Dehner and Schaus).
Since you've been to some USHL games, have you seen any of the Lowell commits that are playing there right now (Saucerman for 2011, Rayner, Holmstrom and Ruhwedel) ... any thoughts on them?Have been at many USHL games this year and have neevr seen Lowell there.
BTW, this is not factual. 178 current USHL players (at least according to the front page of the USHL site) have committed to NCAA D1 schools, but your statement this year alone isn't true. Quite a few of those kids committed prior to this hockey season (or even this calendar year). I do understand what you're saying though.179 kids and counting so far this year alone have committed to D 1 schools out of USHL.
Since you've been to some USHL games, have you seen any of the Lowell commits that are playing there right now (Saucerman for 2011, Rayner, Holmstrom and Ruhwedel) ... any thoughts on them?
BTW, this is not factual. 178 current USHL players (at least according to the front page of the USHL site) have committed to NCAA D1 schools, but your statement this year alone isn't true. Quite a few of those kids committed prior to this hockey season (or even this calendar year). I do understand what you're saying though.
Thanks for the info.My sleeper in the league who has not signed on yet is Greg Wolfe of the Chicago Steel.
Thanks for the info.
Wolfe's got a 10-11-21 line in 24 games for Chicago. He's a '90 birthdate ... had 21 goals in 41 games for them last year. Wonder if we're even looking at him?
U Mass Lowell could have grabbed Decosta and others with a little effort.
DaCosta was certainly a good pick up by MC, but you can't blame other teams not picking him up on "effort." A player's junior stats often don't translate to how that player will contribute at the next level. UMass recruited Kevin Jarman for the 03-04 season out of the AJHL and his stats were amazing, yet he was very very disapointing at the college level. It's also still early for DaCosta, and although he has certainly had a nice start I think time will tell how much he contributes in the NCAA. We can also use Zane Kalemba as an example as he played in the USHL then played for the Flin Flon Bombers. Who would have thought he would be such a good player?
you very obviously have no details on the situation. he was offered as an 18-year-old and was supposed to have been a freshman last year at 19 (it took the mack that long to get him through the clearinghouse). even then the mack thought he was going to be their top player right away.DaCosta is a 20 year old freshman who might never have been ruled eligible and was playing against kids three years younger than him. How were the top programs even supposed to know it wasn't just that he was much older than the rest of the competition, but that he was actually good?
you very obviously have no details on the situation. he was offered as an 18-year-old and was supposed to have been a freshman last year at 19 (it took the mack that long to get him through the clearinghouse). even then the mack thought he was going to be their top player right away.
thanks for the baseless conjecture though.
from what i read (forget where), despite his being a good student that speaks english well, he didn't pass his TOEFL or whatever that test is called and the NCAA said he could get his GED while playing junior last year and that'd fly.I knew they had trouble with him earlier this year, but I didn't realize how long that process actually took. This probably explains why he, the second coming of christ, is playing for merrimack.
you very obviously have no details on the situation. he was offered as an 18-year-old and was supposed to have been a freshman last year at 19 (it took the mack that long to get him through the clearinghouse). even then the mack thought he was going to be their top player right away.
thanks for the baseless conjecture though.
Carr has been selected to play in the 2010 Battle of Ontario on January 2, 2010.
http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2220070
Thanks for the information, I'm looking forward to seeing Joe in a Lowell uniform.I just wanted to comment on recruit Joe Pendenza, who is coming to Lowell next season. I played with him for a bit a couple of years ago and he is a very good player with excellent hands and is very quick. He certainly makes good decisions with the puck and is good at finding teammates in tough situations. The kid is an absolute workhorse and an overall really good kid. Look for him to make an immediate impact next season.