INCH Top 15 Recruiting Classes

[www.insidecollegehockey.com]

01 Minny
02 NoDak
03 Michigan
04 UMD
05 BC
06 Denver
07 MSU
08 Wisco
09 CC
10 Ferris St
11 UNH
12 Miami
13 UVM
14 Yale
15 BGSU

Bleech.

I do not necessarily agree or disagree with INCH although there can not be much dispute about the top 4 classes they list. On the plus side not many of the kids that make those top 4 classes so impressive will remain in college for 4 years. However, I feel we have a very good class coming in to replace a small departing senior class. Like INCH my opinion is largely based on what I have read and not what I have seen in person. Two in coming players Connors and Kennedy were rated NHL Central Scouting in the 2004-05 midterm rankings. The player with the best offensive potential is probably Barlow and he is just too small to get NHL Central Scouting attention. Barlow, Connors and Kennedy probably have as much or more talent and potential as Knoepfli, Iggulden and Varteressian had as freshmen. We also pick up Mugford who seem like he will be Varteressian type player. On defense our losses are significant but we return a solid core of starters. The recruits seem like they are of similar to what what we knew about Cook and Downs when they came in. We also pickup a needed backup goalie.

I try to compare incoming freshman classes to departing senior classes when they we freshman. On this comparison it seems to me that Schafer has steadily been improving the team for say 5 of the last 6 years or even 6 of the last 7. A very young team or injuries or early departures for the pros may drag the team down in a given year but I am just trying to estimate in my mind the aggregate talent potential on the ice.

By the way. That Yale freshman class that INCH rates #14 looks awesome on paper. I do not know enough to really think about who they rate #5 to #13 but Yale has 2 NHL draft picks in their freshman class and 4 other freshmen who were NHL Central Scouting rated. In days of yore that would have been Harvard's freshman class. I guess Harvard's new coach has not yet got his recruiting perfected. Since the Yale class is heavy on the prep school player I do not think we had a realistic shot at many of them.

If I follow that freshman versus seniors line of reasoning Harvard has been in a decline for the last three years. Still a very talented team but not what they once were.

It seems to me like many of our incoming freshman have spent a year or two outside of high school. Many play in Canada and some in the other leagues in the US. (I don't follow very much the amateur US/Canadian leagues).

Do we ever get players right out of high school? Or out of the "prep" schools? Why/why not?

I understand why a lot of the Massachusetts & esp. Boston area prep stars would head to Harvard/BC/BU, but why wouldn't we be able to get a few of these guys over Harvard, Yale, etc? We've got the best hockey tradition in the ivies!

[Q]Preppy Wrote:I understand why a lot of the Massachusetts & esp. Boston area prep stars would head to Harvard/BC/BU, but why wouldn't we be able to get a few of these guys over Harvard, Yale, etc? We've got the best hockey tradition in the ivies! [/q]

When it comes to the prep school hockey stars, I suspect we're talking about kids who are much more serious not necessarily just about their education, but their educational pedigree. And whether or not our reputation relative to the Harvards and Yales is deserved, it is what it is.

I've never spoken to the coaches about it, though, so I could just be blowing smoke. It's just my best guess.

Beeeej

It's also a question of connections. Schafer and the current assistants have a lot more connections in Canada (esp. BC) so they focus their recruiting efforts there. One of Schafer's first assistants, Matt Carlin, had a lot of connections in the prep school world but the others have not.

As long as you can recruit talented players it doesn't really matter where they come from. Since Schafer is doing that there's no reason to fight with BU/BC/Harvard/Yale over the prep school kids.

The caliber of Prep school has dropped a bit in recent years. There are still some big time players coming from there but not nearly as many as there were in the early 90's. Schafer has said that he thinks prep school kids don't have the desired maturity coming in. David Hovey being the best example of that and he was one of the last prep kids to play at Cornell.

Iggulden came to us right out of a prep school (Ridley College).

I wonder if anyone ever compares recruiting classes four years later, to see how well the predictions hold up. Or at least one year later, since the ratings probably intentionally avoid speculating about who will stay for four years.

Well, you can't go back far enough on INCH, but here are the last 3 recruiting top 12/15 classes:

2005:

[www.insidecollegehockey.com]

2004:

[www.insidecollegehockey.com]

2003:

[www.insidecollegehockey.com]


Looking at '04, I'd say that compared with their impact as a freshman class, Denver was very underrated, BU was overrated. In '03, BC's class was a bust compared to the ranking given here, neither BC nor BU deserve to be ranked ahead of that Cornell class. Similarly I think that Pokulok/Krantz/Sawada were impact players enough as freshman that they definitely deserve to make the '04 top 15.

[Q]Trotsky Wrote:

Iggulden came to us right out of a prep school (Ridley College).[/q]

I was talking about New Enlgand Prep Schools - a totally different level of play and atmosphere than Canadian Prep schools.