Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Terrier Hockey Offseason Recap

A lot has happened in the last month or so of the offseason of BU hockey with more still to come later this summer.

1. Now former Terrier goalie Matt O'Connor has had a busy month of May as he has graduated from BU(in 3 years) and signed a two year entry level deal with the Ottawa Senators. Ottawa always seemed like the favorite for the Toronto native as he could go there and compete for playing time right away as well as play somewhere close to his family. Congrats to Matt on his new deal and best of luck moving forward.

2. Charlie Coyle, Nick Bonino and Jack Eichel showed the world what BU hockey was about at the World Championships. All three Terriers played pivotal roles on a team that took home Bronze over in Prague. It was certainly great to see them all contribute and help lead their country to a medal. Eichel definitely proved that he belongs with NHL talent throughout this tournament. This doesn't mean it's a sure thing he is leaving BU since there is NHL talent throughout the BU roster but no fan with a functional brain can fault him if he did leave for the NHL.

3. BU received commitments from Brady Tkachuk and Max Prawdzik. Tkachuk is the youngest son of former Terrier and NHL star Keith Tkachuk. He is slated to play for the USNTDP the next few seasons and will most likely arrive on Comm Ave in 2017. He was drafted by the London Knights of the OHL where his older brother just committed to play but it appears that many people believe he will keep his commitment to play for the Terriers. Prawdzik will be arriving at BU this fall to join the competition in net along with sophomore Connor LaCouvee and redshirt junior Sean Maguire. It will be an open competition in net as none of the goalies have started regularly at the NCAA level. Maguire has the most experience and would be the favorite in my eyes but it all depends how well he recovers from taking a full year off.



4. Former Terrier forward Kevin Duane has transferred to Quinnipiac. Duane only got in the lineup four times last season and was going to face an uphill battle to gain more ice time in the coming seasons with the stacked recruiting classes arriving the next few seasons. We certainly wish the Duane train the best of luck at Quinnipiac. He is a solid hockey player who knows what he does well and makes the most of it. It was just going to be tough for him to earn ice time over the high end skaters and playmakers that the staff has coming in these next few years.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
="en" dir="ltr">Auston Matthews has yet not made a decision on joining Zurich next season. A decision will be made this week...&mdash; Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) href="https://twitter.com/DarrenDreger/status/599985643146616832">May 17, 2015</blockquote>

5. Top prospect for the 2016 NHL draft Auston Matthews will decide what league he will play in next season this week. It should be noted that the insiders also claimed he was going to make a decision last week so this could drag out longer than this week and it is certainly Matthews' right to do so. He is considering the NCAA(BU has been rumored as the front runner), the Swiss league which has reportedly offered him 500k for the season and the WHL's Everett Silvetips which probably also offered him 500k but if you ask them its a "small stipend". Matthews' decision will be huge news whenever he makes it no matter where he goes but we'll be unbearable on twitter if he commits to BU so don't say we didn't warn you. If he commits to NCAA he immediately becomes a favorite for next year's Hobey Baker award along with Jimmy Vesey(Hobey Hat Trick last year) and Eichel(defending champ) if he returns to BU after being drafted next month.

It doesn't seem like the odds of Matthews going the NCAA route are that high but there have been no clear signs of what he plans to do besides rumors of the Swiss league a few weeks ago. If him and/or Eichel are on BU's roster next year, they are instantly the favorite for the National Championship  and if neither of them are, I'll still be booking a flight to Tampa for next April. The Terriers are incredibly deep throughout the lineup next season with 8 capable dmen and 16 forwards who have seen or will see significant ice time in their careers.

Very early and probably incorrect predictions of the lineup next year.

(#)- round drafted

* indicated projected draft round

Projected Lineup w/ Eichel

Greer(3*)-Eichel(1*)-O'Regan(5)
Oksanen- JFK(2*)- Baillargeon(6)
Lane-Olsson- Roberto
Greenway(1*)-Letunov(2)-Piccinich(6)

Carpenter(7*), Kelly, Lawrence, Phelps, Mactavish, Moran

Grizz(3)- Macleod(5)
Hickey(3)-Fortunato
Somerby(6)-MacAvoy(1* 2016)-Diffley(7*)-Switzer

Maguire(4)
Lacouvee
Max Prawdzik
Bernie Corbett(1*)


Projected Lineup w/o Eichel

Oksanen-O'Regan(5)- Greer(3*)
Letunov(2)-JFK(2*)-Baillargeon(6)
Lane-Olsson-Roberto
Greenway(1*)-Moran-Piccinich(6)

Carpenter(7*), Kelly, Phelps, Lawrence,MacTavish

Grizz(3)- Macleod(5)
Hickey(3)-Fortunato
Somerby(6)-MacAvoy(1* 2016)-Diffley(7*)-Switzer

Maguire(4)
Lacouvee
Max Prawdzik
Bernie Corbett(1*)

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