I'll be very surprised if Novak and Foo come this Fall. They both have a year or 2 of junior eligibility left and had very unremarkable seasons this past year. Novak was essentially in Junior B and Foo was a 3rd liner in AJHL. Brown, Rinaldi, Burton & Harrison pretty much have to come this year as they are aging out of Jr. Since only need to replace 4 roster spots, wouldn't anticipate any more forwards unless losing someone I don't know about. Would expect Brown, Rinaldi & Burton to see icetime right away. Brown is a bigtime sniper and Rinaldi & Burton are very fast. Rinaldi may have more offensive upside and Burton sounds like a Match Hatch type.
Newhouse is listed at 5-8, 168# on his USHL team website and I'd be surprised if he comes in much bigger than that. Junior teams usually exaggerate size if anything. Kolias is listed as either 5-9 or 5-10 & 160ish. He kinda looks taller from pictures & video, so maybe 5-10. We won't know for sure about either until they show up and are measured. Both are very good skaters and had decent seasons in USHL, but nothing remarkable (20 points in ~60 games). Taylor by comparison had significantly better numbers, though could have been result of playing on a very good team. From what I've seen on video, Newhouse plays a very controlled game & is an excellent passer. Despite being small, he is pretty stocky and strong on the puck, though not exactly a physical presence. Kolias takes a few more chances and plays on the edge a little more, and has good puck skills. He's played 2 seasons in the USHL with similar numbers, so is not clear if he's plateaued or has room to be the offensive force that BU obviously though he might become. He does look like he has room to get bigger/stronger.
Expecting either of them to become a Ghost or a Bodie is probably wishful thinking, as neither look that dynamic at this point, though they could become important players in their own right. My biggest concern is just that each year seems to lose size & physicality on defense, and there was a problem this past season controlling things in front of U's net and preventing bigger forwards from driving the puck into the slot. Replacing 6-2 Gingras and 6-0 Henry, who were two of U's more physical d-men last season, with 5-8 to 5-10 160-pounders is a concern. This leaves Light, who is big though not super physical, and DeSimone who is not really very physical at all. I understand that small, quick, puck moving defensemen can more than survive in college hockey, but I'm also sick of seeing bigger forwards from RPI, Cornell, etc. jamming the slot and crashing U's net all the time.
