Recruits 2024 and Beyond

[ursusminor]

official announcement with no new details https://bchl.ca/bchl-agrees-to-terms-with-five-alberta-based-teams

[The Rancor]

Since Cornell also gets players from the BCHLwhich left Hockey Canada, this may be of interest.

https://bchlnetwork.ca/report-five-alberta-junior-hockey-league-teams-make-bold-move-to-join-bchl/

Interesting development for sure. The BCHL and stronger AJHL teams have for years been producing more high level D1 talent than the eastern Canada Junior A leagues, and this move seemingly will exacerbate that trend.

So the 5 teams moving to BCHL so that players... don't have to wear a full face protection? It's going to make the league more competitive, but that is one part I don't understand. Is Major Junior still playing with visors/half shields?

[Pghas]

I dont know the answer to this 100% but remember one of the Cornell coaches at some point saying that commits are admitted students who then use their deferral to go play juniors.  So does that mean that kids who get de-committed still matriculate at Cornell?

[scoop85]

A mid-season update on our listed recruits:

• Erick Roest, G, Sherwood Park Crusaders (AJHL) -- 28 GP, 2.75 GAG, .909 save pct.
• Alex Pelletier, LW, Avon Old Farms Prep -- 12 GP, 15 G, 8 A
• Cole Tuminaro, D, Sioux  City (USHL) -- 20 GP, 0 G, 1 A
• Aiden Long -- LW, Madison (USHL) -- 27 GP, 4 G, 4 A
• Giovanni DiGiulian -- C, Kent School Prep -- 13 GP, 13 G, 10 A
• Connor Arsenault -- C, St. Andrews Prep -- 30 GP, 13 G, 14 A
• Hudson Gorski -- D, Chicago (USHL) -- 29 GP, 0 G, 3 A
• Michael Sandruck -- RW, Rochester Jr. Americans (NAHL) -- 4 GP, 1 G, 0 A; previously, Bishop Kearney Selects 18U AAA -- 34 GP, 19 G, 24 A
  
• Nicholas Wolfenberg -- D, Salmon Arm (BCHL) -- 14 GP, 0 G, 5 A
• Charlie Major -- C, Chicago (USHL) -- 31 GP, 14 G, 14 A
• Donovan Hamilton -- D, Cedar Rapids (USHL) -- 23 GP, 1 G, 2 A
• Justin Katz -- G, West Kelowna (BCHL) 7 GP, 3.11 GAA, .891 save pct.
• Chase Pirtle -- RW, Victoria (BCHL) -- 54 GP, 32 G, 24 A
• Tyler Wishart -- RW, Merritt and Cranbrook (BCHL) -- 19 GP, 3 G, 9 A

I believe Katz has been battling injuries the past couple of seasons, while Roest, who is a recent commit, is having an excellent season. As for the guys likely to be coming in next year, Pirtle and Major look to be the most promising of the forwards. As for the defensemen, it doesn't appear that this group is as offensively gifted as our current group, but I'm just going by the stats. The prep school guys are putting up big numbers, but those tend to fall off when they hit the junior ranks. I know DiGiulian is on the NHL Central Scouting mid-season list, but I don't believe any of our other recruits made the cut.

Heisenberg has deleted Wishart from our recruit list. Justin Katz was recently traded to Powell River.

[Trotsky]

Still shows as Cornell on Elite Prospects, but there appears to be an X tweet where he announces for RPI.

[BearLover]

I dont know the answer to this 100% but remember one of the Cornell coaches at some point saying that commits are admitted students who then use their deferral to go play juniors.  So does that mean that kids who get de-committed still matriculate at Cornell?

I know of at least a couple instances where a player who was at one point recruited for the Cornell hockey team ended up matriculating anyway, in some cases playing for the club team. So, if you're asking about Wishart, unless there is some atypical reason why he decommitted, my guess is that it will be his own decision whether he would like to matriculate at Cornell and not play varsity hockey, or alternatively try to play college hockey elsewhere.

[scoop85]

Still shows as Cornell on Elite Prospects, but there appears to be an X tweet where he announces for RPI.

I think what you see on X is him retweeting another kid who announced his commitment to RPI

[BearLover]

Dec looks like a good recruit. He seems to be the second most productive first year player on St. Andrews (elite Canadian prep school) varsity team. The most productive first year player is Aiden Lane, Harvard commit.

Recent recruits from St. Andrews:
Connor Arsenault (coming in 2024 or 2025)
Luke Devlin
Jonathan Castagna
Justin Ertel
Matt Stienburg
Morgan Barron
Matthew Galajda

Outside of Galajda, who was one of the best few college hockey goalies all four years, every single one of those players who was eligible to be drafted ended up getting drafted by an NHL team. Did I forget any recent St. Andrews products?

[ursusminor]

Wishart  is not an  RPI recruit.

On a separate topic, as of 2/1/24, 5 AJHL teams including Sherwood Park formally switched to the BCHL. They begin playing under the BCHL auspices on 2/2. https://bchl.ca/bchl-announces-finalized-franchise-agreements-and-integration-with-five-alberta-based-teams So you can switch Roest to BCHL.

[Trotsky]

Still shows as Cornell on Elite Prospects, but there appears to be an X tweet where he announces for RPI.

I think what you see on X is him retweeting another kid who announced his commitment to RPI

Oh, OK, thank you!

I'm not down with Xitler so I can't see the actual content, only some peripheral data.

[Pghas]

I dont know the answer to this 100% but remember one of the Cornell coaches at some point saying that commits are admitted students who then use their deferral to go play juniors.  So does that mean that kids who get de-committed still matriculate at Cornell?

I know of at least a couple instances where a player who was at one point recruited for the Cornell hockey team ended up matriculating anyway, in some cases playing for the club team. So, if you're asking about Wishart, unless there is some atypical reason why he decommitted, my guess is that it will be his own decision whether he would like to matriculate at Cornell and not play varsity hockey, or alternatively try to play college hockey elsewhere.

Yes, thats why I am asking - I know of another kid who plays for the club team now after a similar scenario, and was at a Cornell recruitment weekend with my son over the summer and vaguely remember something about kids being admitted and using a deferral to play juniors.  thanks all.

[Pghas]

We seem to be bouncing back and forth between threads a bit here...hope this is the right one.

Had the opportunity last night to watch Gio DeGiulian play.  He's going to be a great player for us.  Wheels, wheels, wheels and great hands.  Not sure if he is playing juniors after Kent or maybe just comes straight to Cornell? Anyway, he was the best player on the ice ( I thought).  And man founders' league prep school hockey is fantastic.

[Trotsky]

Not sure if he is playing juniors after Kent or maybe just comes straight to Cornell?

I suspect a year on the USHL, like most of them do.  That would have him at Lynah right at his 20th birthday.

[BearLover]

We seem to be bouncing back and forth between threads a bit here...hope this is the right one.

Had the opportunity last night to watch Gio DeGiulian play.  He's going to be a great player for us.  Wheels, wheels, wheels and great hands.  Not sure if he is playing juniors after Kent or maybe just comes straight to Cornell? Anyway, he was the best player on the ice ( I thought).  And man founders' league prep school hockey is fantastic.

I assume he'll play a year in the USHL, even if he gets drafted, unless the coaches think he's ready now. I think it's basically a function of who leaves the program after this year and how many LW we are bringing in (Elite Prospects lists Gio as a LW). Which depends on whether Penney, O'Leary, and Rego are on track to graduate or if they plan to stay one more year (Cornell hockey refers to them as juniors, i.e. it does not count the canceled season of 2020-21).

Next year Cornell will certainly bring in Major, Murray, and a goalie (Roest or Katz), maybe Pirtle too. Murray is also listed as a LW, so I assume Gio plays a year of juniors.

Notably, Gio is our only recruit who was listed in the Central Scouting Midterm Rankings, and I believe that a team must sign a drafted player within four years of the draft or that player becomes a free agent. Which means, if Gio is drafted and he plays a year of junior hockey, and the team that drafts him wants to sign him, there will be tremendous pressure on Gio to sign before his senior year even starts, and we'd potentially lose a year of his services. Someone more knowledgeable about this should let me know if I'm wrong—but if I have this right, then we really should be bringing in drafted players ASAP.

[ugarte]

We seem to be bouncing back and forth between threads a bit here...hope this is the right one.

Had the opportunity last night to watch Gio DeGiulian play.  He's going to be a great player for us.  Wheels, wheels, wheels and great hands.  Not sure if he is playing juniors after Kent or maybe just comes straight to Cornell? Anyway, he was the best player on the ice ( I thought).  And man founders' league prep school hockey is fantastic.

I assume he'll play a year in the USHL, even if he gets drafted, unless the coaches think he's ready now. I think it's basically a function of who leaves the program after this year and how many LW we are bringing in (Elite Prospects lists Gio as a LW). Which depends on whether Penney, O'Leary, and Rego are on track to graduate or if they plan to stay one more year (Cornell hockey refers to them as juniors, i.e. it does not count the canceled season of 2020-21).

Next year Cornell will certainly bring in Major, Murray, and a goalie (Roest or Katz), maybe Pirtle too. Murray is also listed as a LW, so I assume Gio plays a year of juniors.

Notably, Gio is our only recruit who was listed in the Central Scouting Midterm Rankings, and I believe that a team must sign a drafted player within four years of the draft or that player becomes a free agent. Which means, if Gio is drafted and he plays a year of junior hockey, and the team that drafts him wants to sign him, there will be tremendous pressure on Gio to sign before his senior year even starts, and we'd potentially lose a year of his services. Someone more knowledgeable about this should let me know if I'm wrong—but if I have this right, then we really should be bringing in drafted players ASAP.

i'm honestly not worried about the difference between 3 years of a more seasoned player who is good enough to be signed away and the potential for 4 years of a player who is good enough to start as a frosh since either one is going to get dragged away by money if they're good enough and the team is making the decision on the value of USHL competition as training.