Recruits 2014

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Is it just me, or is the quality of our recruiting much better this year?

So far, it's just quantity.  Quality is proven on the ice.

[CAS]

Cornell has 2 played drafted this year who are expected to play for the Red next fall - Beau Starrett and Anthony Angello.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Cornell has 2 played drafted this year who are expected to play for the Red next fall - Beau Starrett and Anthony Angello.

And Sucks has how many draftees every year?  I'll give Schafer a little more credit for utilizing talent than Donato, but the proof is in the pudding.

[Jim Hyla]

Is it just me, or is the quality of our recruiting much better this year?

So far, it's just quantity.  Quality is proven on the ice.

Of course that's true, but the same could be said at any level of sports recruiting, or drafting. If we are getting more of those, and I don't have the stats to say yes or no, I'm happier. I'd rather have more acknowledged "Class A" recruits, than have them go to the competition.  Wouldn't you?

[Trotsky]

Is it just me, or is the quality of our recruiting much better this year?

So far, it's just quantity.  Quality is proven on the ice.

The quantity is impressive, anyway.  In most seasons the list of "commitments who didn't come this Fall but are expected in future years" is about 8 or 9.  This year it's 15.

This may just reflect that colleges are getting commitments from younger and younger players.  It's not as if the roster is growing, so what seems to be happening is we are getting commitments for years out farther into the future.  And of course as we've seen many times lately, those commitments are not locked in.

[Rosey]

Cornell has 2 played drafted this year who are expected to play for the Red next fall - Beau Starrett and Anthony Angello.

And Sucks has how many draftees every year?  I'll give Schafer a little more credit for utilizing talent than Donato, but the proof is in the pudding.

Yeah, I made a similar point last year. Union had one NHL draft pick when they steamrolled to the NCAA title. Cornell seems like a less-extreme Harvard in the "makes use of highly-ranked recruits" category.

[Cop at Lynah]

Whatever happend to our pipeline to the Nanaimo Clippers ?  We had a great run of getting top end talent from that organization 5-10 years ago.  Was it the assistant coaches,  Brekke & Garrow. who had that area on the radar ?

[CAS]

Yes Union had only 1 drafted player, albeit an outstanding one.  But the other 3 teams in the Frozen Four were loaded with draft picks.

[Trotsky]

Whatever happend to our pipeline to the Nanaimo Clippers ?  We had a great run of getting top end talent from that organization 5-10 years ago.  Was it the assistant coaches,  Brekke & Garrow. who had that area on the radar ?

Their coach may have moved on.  IIRC he and Schafer had a mutual admiration thing going on.

[pfibiger]

Whatever happend to our pipeline to the Nanaimo Clippers ?  We had a great run of getting top end talent from that organization 5-10 years ago.  Was it the assistant coaches,  Brekke & Garrow. who had that area on the radar ?

Bill Bestwick was the coach and GM of the Clippers for like 15 years. His daughter was a CU hockey player.

There was some weirdness around the time Braden Birch moved from the Ontario to the BCHL to play for the clippers, and then was traded to the AJHL pretty quickly, didn't play, and ended up back in Ontario. It may be total coincidence and I'm reading too much into it, but that was right around the time we stopped getting players out of the Clippers or parking players there.

That said, recruiting over the last 10 years seems to have swung from the BCHL to Ontario to the US. Those Nanaimo-heavy teams (06-07 for example, with 5 Clippers on the roster) were 17/27 players from Canada (really 18 of 26 if you consider Justin Krueger Canadian, and remove Matt Hedge from the roster as he wasn't recruited). This year's team has 10 Canadians (maybe 9.5, Christian Hilbrich is listed as Canadian but his Bio says his family lives in the states now). This change seems to be about shifts in assistant coaches and where their recruiting contacts are, combined with the shift in relative strength of leagues.

[Chris '03]

Is it just me, or is the quality of our recruiting much better this year?

So far, it's just quantity.  Quality is proven on the ice.

The quantity is impressive, anyway.  In most seasons the list of "commitments who didn't come this Fall but are expected in future years" is about 8 or 9.  This year it's 15.

This may just reflect that colleges are getting commitments from younger and younger players.  It's not as if the roster is growing, so what seems to be happening is we are getting commitments for years out farther into the future.  And of course as we've seen many times lately, those commitments are not locked in.

This.  It's hard to get very excited about early commitments.

[ugarte]

Yes Union had only 1 drafted player, albeit an outstanding one.  But the other 3 teams in the Frozen Four were loaded with draft picks.

And most of Union's roster was collecting a pension from their first jobs. This isn't a criticism of the recruiting - do what works within the rules - but a 23-year-old who isn't a draft target may well be better on the ice than a teenager getting drafted for his potential.

My basic position is that in the absence of a scout's eye or the ability to compare statistics across a wide variety of pre-college leagues, I'd rather have more highly-rated kids than fewer. It's great that Schafer finds/develops these diamonds in the tundra (and it's great that Donato squanders his) but I'm still going to get a little more excited if there's some external validation of a recruit's potential when the news breaks that he's heading to Cornell.

[KeithK]

Is it just me, or is the quality of our recruiting much better this year?

So far, it's just quantity.  Quality is proven on the ice.

The quantity is impressive, anyway.  In most seasons the list of "commitments who didn't come this Fall but are expected in future years" is about 8 or 9.  This year it's 15.

This may just reflect that colleges are getting commitments from younger and younger players.  It's not as if the roster is growing, so what seems to be happening is we are getting commitments for years out farther into the future.  And of course as we've seen many times lately, those commitments are not locked in.

This.  It's hard to get very excited about early commitments.

Agreed.  but in the current environment it would be worrisome if we weren't getting a bunch of early commitments, even if we expect a decent attrtion rate from them.

[RichH]

Yes Union had only 1 drafted player, albeit an outstanding one.  But the other 3 teams in the Frozen Four were loaded with draft picks.

And most of Union's roster was collecting a pension from their first jobs. This isn't a criticism of the recruiting - do what works within the rules - but a 23-year-old who isn't a draft target may well be better on the ice than a teenager getting drafted for his potential.

Isn't Air Force notorious for this? And well, Ned's great teams?

Looking at the rosters. Union currently has seven 23+ year-olds (They had nine at the FF in April). Cornell will get one in a couple weeks (Lowry). Of note, Cornell has a 22 year-old Sophomore (Weidner).

In the NCAA Final, the only teenager on the ice for Union turned 20 the next day. CU has six skaters under 20.

[ugarte]

Yes Union had only 1 drafted player, albeit an outstanding one.  But the other 3 teams in the Frozen Four were loaded with draft picks.

And most of Union's roster was collecting a pension from their first jobs. This isn't a criticism of the recruiting - do what works within the rules - but a 23-year-old who isn't a draft target may well be better on the ice than a teenager getting drafted for his potential.

Isn't Air Force notorious for this? And well, Ned's great teams?

Looking at the rosters. Union currently has seven 23+ year-olds (They had nine at the FF in April). Cornell will get one in a couple weeks (Lowry). Of note, Cornell has a 22 year-old Sophomore (Weidner).

In the NCAA Final, the only teenager on the ice for Union turned 20 the next day. CU has six skaters under 20.

Exactly! It's a tactic! Guys in their 20's with diminishing pro prospects looking for college degrees are people too! It's the same logic that allows teams with seniors like Mercer and Lehigh to knock off Duke.*

This post was 99% to make fun of Duke.