The Bemidji Pioneer reports that Bemidji State recruit Zach Franko has backed out on his commitment to the school. The 17 year old from Winnipeg wasn’t slated to be on campus until next season, but after impressing the Kelowna Rockets at a tryout camp, he has decided to go to the WHL.
For some recruits going to the CHL is absolutely the right move. Zach Franko probably isn’t one of them. He’s listed at 5′10″ and people who have seen him play multiple times say that’s stretching the truth a bit. Although smaller players have made greater breakthroughs in the NHL lately, being able to have an impactful career when a player is 5′10″ is pretty rare. Franko would have likely been better served getting his college degree so he has something to fall back on, rather than getting no education in the WHL.
Chad Brownlee, who had a four year career with Minnesota State, releases his debut album today. After four years at MSU, where the defenseman had 11 points (4 goals) in four years, he played a year in the ECHL for the Idaho Steelheads, but a series of injuries cut his pro hockey career short.
Brownlee’s first single, titled “The Best That I Can” reached the top 20 on the Canadian country singles chart (who knew there was such a thing), and his debut album, which is self titled, goes on sale today.
To order his album, you can go to his website, and to hear a sampling of his songs, you can go to Canada’s version of the CMT website
Since many readers of our Too Many Men site are new to college hockey, I plan on giving them a Hobey watch list that feature guys that everyone knows about (i.e. Gustav Nyquist, Cam Atkinson, etc.). This leaves the darkhorses for you guys. Now, as you’ll see with my first candidate, some of these guys (and probably all of them) will be players that the college hockey fan will know, but they are all players who, for one reason or another, are on the backburner for Hobey consideration.
1. Chay Genoway, D, North Dakota
Genoway was cruising along last year, with 4 goals and 10 points in his first 9 games before receiving a season ending hit from St. Cloud’s Aaron Marvin. Genoway will once again likely be the driving force on the power play for the Fighting Sioux and he looks to have all of the qualities voters look for in a Hobey winner (especially defenseman): he’ll be at least a point per game scorer, he’ll play on a very good team (and one that won’t allow many goals as he is joined by great defensemen like Ben Blood, Andrew MacWilliam, Derrick LaPoint and Derek Forbort), and he has shown the off ice character to come back from a terrible injury.
2. Denny Kearney, F, Yale
Although Yale returns both Brian O’Neill and Broc Little, I like Kearney’s chances to win the Hobey just as much. He had 12 goals and 37 points in 35 games last year for the nation’s highest scoring offense, and Kearney has a knack for scoring big goals. He scored two of them in Yale’s 1st round NCAA tournament win over North Dakota last year, and had a big assist in the Ivy clinching win over Cornell last year. Kearney looks to step into the leadership role for the Bulldogs and, assuming Yale will be a Frozen Four contender, Kearney will get a boost from playing for a good team and with a good offensive unit.
fun fact: Kearney’s sister is Hannah Kearney, who won a gold medal in moguls at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
3. Mike Lee, G, St. Cloud
The Huskies have been a prolific offensive team in the past, but this year the Huskies might have to lean a bit more on their defense. Lee shared time with Dan Dunn last year, but still posted the 2nd best save percentage in the WCHA with a .917 mark. Losing defenseman Garrett Raboin hurts, but this Husky D corps isn’t built to score goals, it’s built to keep the puck out of the net. That could drive Lee’s save percentage even higher. Sharing time with Dan Dunn might hurt his candidacy, but Cody Reichard was a viable candidate last year even with Connor Knapp posting great numbers as well. If Dunn has a couple of off starts it could highlight Lee’s numbers even more.
4. Andy Taranto, Alaska
The Nanooks made their first NCAA trip last year, driven by Taranto. Taranto led the CCHA in Freshman scoring last year with 18 goals and 42 points in 39 games. Even with Taranto’s nice play, Alaska was 8th in the CCHA in scoring at just 2.77 goals per game. This could work either way. On one hand, it will be a lot tougher for Taranto to rack up assists if he doesn’t have reliable teammates to score goals. But if he has a big year anyways, and carries an otherwise low scoring team into the NCAA tournament, voters will take notice. Also helping Taranto’s cause will be if the voters recognize how hard it is to score goals in the CCHA.
5. Cory Conacher, F, Canisius
Every year a smaller conference team will have someone on the Hobey top 10 (except for this past season) and while Jacques Lamoureux is the more obvious choice, Conacher has a shot. The Senior has gone from 7 goals as a Freshman, to 12 as a Sophomore and 20 in his recently completed Junior season. Canisius was the 9th ranked scoring offense last year, and Conacher led them in both goals and points (20-53). Conacher’s 1.51 pts per game last year were 2nd in the country behind only Maine’s Gustav Nyquist.
Canisius and Conacher will benefit from Robert Morris and Niagara joining the conference. Niagara was 43rd in scoring defense and Robert Morris was 49th last year. With the losses at RIT and Air Force, Canisius looks like they could sneak an NCAA bid out of Atlantic Hockey, and if they do expect to see Cory Conacher’s name on the Hobey top 10 list.
And as for the off ice part of it? Conacher is an academic all conference performer, and, oh yeah, Conacher happens to suffer from Type 1 diabetes. There’s no question who I’m rooting for this year.
Source: Yardbarker
The preeminent conference in college hockey, the WCHA has it all. At the top are always some of the best teams in the country, and it features a deep mix of good teams of varying styles. Even Michigan Tech and Alaska-Anchorage, traditionally the bottom 2 teams in the conference, put up fights against the other teams in the conference.
This year is no different. Three teams at the top of the conference have the ability to win the national title, and the conference is as many as 8 quality teams deep.
Taking a different tactic than my other previews, here is a blurb on each team in the WCHA (in roughly the order I expect them to finish):
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Not really, that just happens to be what I’m eating right now. I’m so healthy.
The Union Hockey Blog makes some preseason ECAC picks. He likes Dartmouth and Cornell a lot more than I do, and oddly enough I like Union’s team more than he seems to (Union Hockey Blog)
A story on my least favorite UND player ever (Goon’s World)
Speaking of Sioux hockey, this is the first year all the players on the roster committed under Dave Hakstol (Schlossman)
A look at how to improve the hockey experience at UMass (Fear the Triangle)
A good thought, but I can’t take someone seriously who in one breath says treat female fans as seriously and in the next has a “hockey boyfriend power rankings” (Wrap around curl)
St. Cloud Sophomore David Eddy is ineligible for the fall (Husky Hockey Time)
Source: Yardbarker
Last year ECAC Hockey had two NCAA tournament teams. Yale upset North Dakota in the first round, while Cornell, a possible national title contender, lost to New Hampshire in the first round. In all it was a fairly disappointing tournament for the conference.
This year ECAC looks like it could possibly be a one bid league, with a couple key early departures hurting potential NCAA bid hunters.
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