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Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

Re: Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

Dutchfan said:
Kelly Zajac scored twice in today's scrimmage at Devils camp. I also found this photo of Kinkaid on the Hockey's Future boards.

9785169-standard.jpg
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He looks good in the uni even if he does have a lousy number.
 
Re: Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

News announcement from Johnston's team on his committing to Union..
http://www.sjhl.ca/news_item.aspx?news_id=2153

This seems to confirm that he will be back in the SJHL next season. Some very nice words about Union and sounds like Bennett was the main recruiter. An excellent student too..
 
Re: Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

Has their been anything redeeming about this offseason?

Leaman departs -- not unexpected, but still a big loss.

Kinkaid departs -- same as Leaman.

Awful schedule -- Just 14 of 34 games at home is pretty **** lousy. I don't think any local fan was hoping for a schedule so slanted towards the road.

LaPlante not coming -- A major shock. The guy was potentially the starting goalie. Baffled as to why that infraction wasn't known about.

At least one recruit de-commits with Leaman gone.

And we lost some games on the schedule, right?

All that excitement from last year? Long gone.
 
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Re: Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

AnthonySaxe said:
http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/schott/2011/jul/13/goalie-laplante-not-coming-to-union/

Laplante DQ'd from college hockey by NCAA after playing pro briefly.

Offseason continues to get worse.
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20 minutes, wow, I'll say briefly is right. Late to find out but thankfully before he played in any games at Union. The NC$$ really has some arcane rules. Look at all of the kids playing this summer in NHL Development camps which is OK and a kid playing 20 minutes in an exhibition has touched the third rail.
 
Re: Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

rdf8585 said:
Has their been anything redeeming about this offseason?

Leaman departs -- not unexpected, but still a big loss.

Kinkaid departs -- same as Leaman.

Awful schedule -- Just 14 of 34 games at home is pretty **** lousy. I don't think any local fan was hoping for a schedule so slanted towards the road.

LaPlante not coming -- A major shock. The guy was potentially the starting goalie. Baffled as to why that infraction wasn't known about.

At least one recruit de-commits with Leaman gone.

And we lost some games on the schedule, right?

All that excitement from last year? Long gone.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen any lost games on the schedule as of yet. As far as I know, you still have all 34. The one game in question was a mistake on UCONN's part.
 
Re: Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

FlagDUDE08 said:
I don't care who you root for in college hockey, losing anyone to Major Junior is not good whatsoever.
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Agreed. This has been a huge problem which college hockey has tried to address though I have seen little to indicate any progress is being made.
 
Re: Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

Wholin1 said:
Agreed. This has been a huge problem which college hockey has tried to address though I have seen little to indicate any progress is being made.
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There's no progress because, unless you change the amateur definition, you can't really do much of anything. The NC$$ dug themselves in a hole on this one, and they don't have the cards to get out of it without changing their own high-level policy.
 
Re: Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

Wow.. that really sucks. I did think it was a little strange that Heisenberg never had Laplante listed for Union on his teams page and wonder if he knew or suspected something. Have to believe the coaches weren't 100% aware of this, as that is major gaffe if they had any inkling. Question now is where the 3rd goalie comes from. Is very late to try to dig someone up and get them accepted for the fall. Schott speculates that maybe they can accelerate Stevens, who is planning to go to the USHL, though personally I think he could use another season in juniors.. however you cut it this is not good news.
 
Re: Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

NCAA rules will never make sense. Chris Cahill can play a whole season of semi-pro hockey in France and still be eligible while Lapalante plays 20 minutes of an exhibition game and loses all 4 years of eligibility.
 
Re: Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

I think there is more to the LaPlante situation than meets the eye. I also would not count out the possibility of another good goalie commit in the next few days or weeks.
 
Re: Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

Dutchfan said:
NCAA rules will never make sense. Chris Cahill can play a whole season of semi-pro hockey in France and still be eligible while Lapalante plays 20 minutes of an exhibition game and loses all 4 years of eligibility.
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Actually I think Laplante could sit out a year and then play, there is some kind of whacky NCAA formula that allows this.. but according to Schott, Bennett doesn't want to do that, which probably makes sense with Stevens coming the season after next.
 
Re: Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

ADK11 said:
Actually I think Laplante could sit out a year and then play, there is some kind of whacky NCAA formula that allows this.. but according to Schott, Bennett doesn't want to do that, which probably makes sense with Stevens coming the season after next.
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I remember that now. If I recall correctly the player would llose a year of eligibility automatically plus a one game for each major junior appearance or something like that. All in all this is a crappy situation this late in the offseason, however I firmly believe Union will be more than fine with Grosenik handling the goaltending duties. That said it would be nice to find a capable backup just in case.
 
Re: Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

Dutchfan said:
I remember that now. If I recall correctly the player would llose a year of eligibility automatically plus a one game for each major junior appearance or something like that. All in all this is a crappy situation this late in the offseason, however I firmly believe Union will be more than fine with Grosenik handling the goaltending duties. That said it would be nice to find a capable backup just in case.
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You could always wait for a walk-on. Obviously there's no guarantees you'll get a David Leggio or anything, but you never know. Quite frankly, I don't blame Coach Bennett for saying no. If the player wasn't going to be up front about all experience (including major junior exhibitions), maybe the maturity is not where Coach Bennett wants.
 
Re: Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

FlagDUDE08 said:
You could always wait for a walk-on. Obviously there's no guarantees you'll get a David Leggio or anything, but you never know. Quite frankly, I don't blame Coach Bennett for saying no. If the player wasn't going to be up front about all experience (including major junior exhibitions), maybe the maturity is not where Coach Bennett wants.
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I don't think its quite that simple. He played a portion of an exhibition game for a team he never officially joined 3-4 years ago. I'd bet he had absolutely no idea that his NCAA eligibility was in question and didn't give it a second thought. I don't know if this should have come up in the NCAA clearinghouse thing (or if he had done that yet), but IMO he is almost the biggest victim here. Being 20 years old his NCAA options are vey limited - would need to find a school NOW that will be willing to park him for a year. So instead of potentially being a starting goalie for an NCAA team that just sent a goalie to the pros, he'll most likely end up in a Canadian university and get almost no pro exposure.
 
Re: Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

ADK11 said:
I don't think its quite that simple. He played a portion of an exhibition game for a team he never officially joined 3-4 years ago. I'd bet he had absolutely no idea that his NCAA eligibility was in question and didn't give it a second thought. I don't know if this should have come up in the NCAA clearinghouse thing (or if he had done that yet), but IMO he is almost the biggest victim here. Being 20 years old his NCAA options are vey limited - would need to find a school NOW that will be willing to park him for a year. So instead of potentially being a starting goalie for an NCAA team that just sent a goalie to the pros, he'll most likely end up in a Canadian university and get almost no pro exposure.
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Perhaps this is why Paul Kelly has been touring the USA and Canada giving parents information about their options regarding playing college vs. major junior. I agree that it sucks for Mr. LaPlante and I hope that he does find a way to keep playing (even if he goes to somewhere like Penn State and waits it out with a club team), but it sounds like Coach Bennett is looking to move on and find someone else. Obviously he can't comment on recruits until they've registered with the college (i.e. sent in their application and put down a deposit), so there's no information on who is coming in, if anyone.
 
Re: Union Hockey 2011 Off Season Thread-"Union, We've Paid Our Dues"

wasn't Dillon Pieri (Goalie) supposed to be coming this fall?
 
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