I'll reiterate what I said on twitter this afternoon. Would have loved to had Zach Stepan. Would have LOVED to have him. But we have no rooom in the 2012 class for another forward at this point. We've already got Zulinick, Kerdiles, and McGuire locked up for 2012 and Navin locked for 2012 or 2013.
I'll take Kerdiles and Zulinick over Stepan any day of the week and twice on Sundays. I love McGuire and have for years as well. It's a toss up between him and Stepan as to who will produce more at the college level. Navin also provides a lot more flexability than Stepan as he's willing to be a 2012 or 2013 where as I don't think we'd have that opportunity with Stepan.
Potential 2012 fowards:
Seniors
Derek Lee
Keegan Meuer
Ryan Little
Juniors
Mark Zengerle
Tyler Barnes
Michael Mersch
Jason Clark
Jefferson Dahl
Gavin Hartzog
Sean Little
Sophomores
Brendan Woods
Cody Strang
Matt Pappe
Tyler Lapic
Freshmen
Morgan Zulinick
Nic Kerdiles
Corbin McGuire
Brad Navin
This is assuming that Craig Smith signs early. That has us at 18 forwards for 2012. Obviously we would hold Navin back so that would put us at 17. Most likely we'll lose one or two of Barnes, Mersch, Zengerle etc. to a contract or someone else to natural attrition and Little can always be moved back to defense.
Moral of the story was we just ran out of spots for Stepan. It's a good problem to have. Would have loved him, but we'll be more than fine.