Terriers begin season with the Dutchmen

BU hockey gets back to action tonight in an oddly scheduled September regular season game against the #16 ranked Union Dutchmen. This will be a great way for the Terriers to see how they stack up early in the season as they play two quality ECAC teams with an exhibition game in between the next two weekends.

*Courtesy of Go Terriers

The Terriers bring in 9 freshmen to this year's team highlighted by future first round pick Brady Tkachuk and this year's first round pick Shane Bowers as well as NHL draft picks Kasper Kotkansalo, David Farrance and Cam Crotty on defense. Ultimately, this team will go as far as the returning players take it. Captain Brandon Hickey should have a great senior year on defense with Bobo Carpenter, Patrick Harper and Jordan Greenway pacing the top 6 forwards with Jake Oettinger being a stud in net. Union returns a 41 point scorer in Sebastian Vidmar but the Dutchmen have some of their own holes to fill left by Mike Vecchione and Spencer Foo. Official prediction is a 3-2 BU victory.

NHL Draft Preview/Drinking Game

The NHL draft takes place this weekend in Chicago and as usual Boston University is expected to have numerous picks in the first round and 5-6 picks throughout the course of the draft. Rising sophomore goalie Jake Oettinger, who will probably get robbed of the Richter this year because dumb people love Joe Woll even though Oettinger is the better goalie in every statistical category, is expected to be a late first round pick. Shane Bowers, an incoming freshman, is also expected to be a late first round pick. The other expected draft picks for the Terriers include defensemen David Farrance(3rd-4th), Cam Crotty(3rd-5th) and Kasper Kotkansalo(3rd-5th). When these three are drafted BU will have 7 defensemen drafted by NHL teams on their roster which is more than the Bruins currently have on their roster(6). There is also a strong chance all seven of these picks are drafted in the 5th round or higher.

A tough hit for the Eagles: Eeli Tolvanen, a likely first round pick tomorrow, has received a thumbs down from the BC admissions department.

— USHR (@USHRhockey) June 23, 2017

BU continues to own the recruiting trail

Excited to play college hockey at Boston University. Looking forward to being a part of the BU tradition! Can't wait to be a Terrier! 🐾

— Shane Bowers (@shanebowers15) October 27, 2016

BU picked up a huge commitment for next season yesterday with star forward Shane Bowers of the USHL announcing his commitment to BU. Bowers picked BU over BC and Wisconsin because he probably wants to win in college and then play in the NHL which you can only do at one of those three schools right now. Bowers is the latest addition to another stacked class for David Quinn and Co. and should be the last the forward commitment for the 2017 class. Bowers joins classmates Logan Cockerill, Brady Tkachuck, Ty Amonte, and Hank Crone as forwards for next year's class.