Recruiting wars

[kaelistus]

I always heard it as: Oh Really, Its Engineering?

[pfibiger]

I don't think we mentioned him in this thread, but Nanaimo has picked up a huge, bruising defenseman who played last year for the Saskatoon Contacts, who won the Telus Cup. He won the MVP of the tournament..

Some talk on the BCHL forum:
"The kid is a tank. He's 6'4" and 205lb. By the time he's done this season he should be 215 and by the time he heads to school a lean mean 220lb (so long as his trainer has a clue.) He's nice kid too, hard to believe he's only 17. Could pass for 19-20 easily. "

"By about January, the player that will make you say wow will be Eric Gryba from Nanaimo. He is an elite player. The type of guy who would play 25 in the WHL this year. He will be a player to watch. I predict he will be the best Dman in the BCHL next year after 25 games"

Anyway, it turns out the kid is a good student, and I just ran across this in an article:

"The futures ‹ believed to be the rights to D Eric Gryba, are expected to be announced at a news conference in Saskatoon today. Gryba, Portland's second pick, 23rd overall, in the 2003 draft, hasn't committed to the WHL and may end up at an Ivy League school"

The fact that he's headed to Nanaimo, and is being recruited by an Ivy League school (or is at least thought to be), makes it sound like Schafer has his eye on him. Other bits I've read about him make it sound like he could end up more or less at any school he wanted, hope he ends up in Ithaca. In addition to Nash, if we could pick up 1-2 of Gryba, Chad Morin, and Simon Danis-Pepin, that would be an incredibly solid defensive recruiting class.

[profudge]

Another 2 defensive bruisers one going to North Dakota and one possible for ND:

[Q]Tysen Dowzak (D, 6-5, 223 pounds)

Humongous in street shoes and larger than life on skates. Six-foot-five and still growing. Didn't have the best showing at the Select 17's, but it's obvious why everyone is drooling.

The former Shattuck standout will skate for the USHL's Lincoln Stars this year before moving to college in the fall of 2006, quite possibly to North Dakota. A top-10 prospect for the 2006 NHL Draft in the opinion of most observers.[/Q]

and

[Q]Not for Joe Finley, the 6-7, 240-pound defenseman from Edina, Minn., who played for the USHL's Sioux Falls Stampede last year. This September, he’ll step into the breach as a blueliner at North Dakota.

"It's been a whirlwind," said the 18-year-old Finley, who in 55 USHL games last year scored three goals and 18 points and compiled 181 penalty minutes.[/Q]

[pfibiger]

a bit on Brendon Nash from "Research on Ice":

----------------------------------------
Strong On The Pitch, Smooth On The Ice
 
Some use roller hockey as a means to prepare. Others like soccer.
 
Salmon Arm Silverbacks defenseman Brendon Nash, however, prefers rugby over all the rest.
 
"Rugby's a great training for hockey," says the 6-3, 200 pound Nash. "It helps keep you in shape because you rarely get a break, you have to play as a team, it's full contact, and it teaches you how to take a hit."
 
You Fox Sports World rugby watchers out there know exactly where Nash is coming from!  
 
Nash's conditioning has always been a fine compliment to the 18 year-old's offensive skills, which caught the eye of several schools last year, particularly Cornell, whose 'scholarship' offer Nash accepted just over two weeks ago.
 
A left handed shot, Nash will play a second season in Salmon Arm before heading to Ithaca, N.Y., in the fall of 2006.
 
"I was considering a few other schools," the Kamloops, BC, native explains, "but Cornell just seemed right. The school has a great tradition, and their coaches (head coach Mike Schafer and assistant Brent Brekke) both came to visit me last year, and I made a trip to Cornell in September."
 
His reaction to the scenic ECACHL campus? "I really liked it," Nash says, "it was so green, it reminded me of home."
 
On the ice, Nash looks right at home almost anywhere you put him.
 
"He really has a great set of hands, that's what I noticed about him most," explains Silverbacks' coach/GM Garry Davidson, who recruited Nash from the AAA N. Kamloops Lions. "But he also has very good size, which I think has pro potential. He understands if he truly commits himself, he'll be able to do great things down the road."

Even as a BCJHL rookie, Nash did well from a production standpoint (ironically, his lone goal came early in the post-season), but like many young offensive minded defensemen, he devoted much of his time to improving his performance in his own end.
 
"I think I'm a pretty good passer," Nash muses, "but I focused on what I needed to do behind my own blueline. I need to be sure I'm making the right decisions and not get caught running around."
 
"His comments are right on," agrees Davidson, "and it's good that he knows his strengths and where he needs to improve. He picks things up quickly though, and next year, I expect him to really take charge and become a solid two-way defenseman."
 
Nash comes from a family of six. His parents are Greg and Shannon (his father owns a home siding company), and he has two sisters and a younger brother, sixteen year-old Riley, a center/left wing who will skate for Team Pacific at the World Under-17 Challenge later this year.
 
Brendon graduated from Brocklehurst Secondary School this spring, and this fall he'll be taking classes at the University of British Columbia's Salmon Arm extension campus in hopes of getting a leg up academically when his freshman year at Cornell comes rolling around. He considered joining the WHL's Vancouver Giants, who owned his CHL rights, but Nash felt D-I was the route he wanted to take.
 
"I gave the WHL some consideration," says Nash, "but having been at Salmon Arm and seeing all the players the club has sent to college, I felt that college was the more valuable option."
 
"I think his decision to go to Cornell was a good one," adds Davidson, who also helped send Silverback center Evan Barlow onto Cornell this fall. "It's a good fit, and if Brendon hadn't done so, I think lots of schools would have quickly been lining up for him."  

[pfibiger]

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

 So Nanaimo has "co-coaches" now?  Never heard that one before.  Sounds like a recipe for distaster unless it's really just a pleasant way of pushing Bestwick upstairs.[/q]

In case anyone cares, Mike Vandekamp left Nanaimo without ever co-coaching a game to coach in the WHL, and it looks like Bill Bestwick is back to being the lone sheriff in town. That can't hurt our recruiting ability in Nanaimo.

[annon]

According to a post on USCHO, you got a commitment from one of the top Canadian forwards, Blake Gallagher, a Nova Scotian playing for Notre Dame in Sask.

[mgl11]

see article on Gallagher...

http://www.prairiesportslink.com/article.aspx?art_id=6835

[Tub(a)]

[Q]mgl11 Wrote:

 see article on Gallagher...

[/q]

Sounds exciting, even if he will probably only be here a season or two.

http://www.subwayhockey.com/20042005/20042005statistics.htm

Notice that of his 58 goals, 18 were on the Power Play and 7 were short-handed.

[profudge]

Also note the  +/-  of  51  head and shoulders and whole upper body above the rest of his team  ....  pretty amazing?   even w/  team record of      36W-21L-1T-1OTL

[ithacat]

Here's another blurb on Gallagher: http://hockeyrecruits.blogspot.com/

At 5'7" he might stick around longer than a year or two. Who knows? Looking forward to seeing Topher, Justin, & Blake...but is the Big going small?B-]

[ithacat]

Unless that's a negative. The page doesn't specifiy + or -. Normally I'd assume a +, but in absence of any -s I'm not sure.

[JimHyla]

[Q]ithacat Wrote:

 Unless that's a negative. The page doesn't specifiy + or -. Normally I'd assume a +, but in absence of any -s I'm not sure.[/q]With 58 goals and 104 points, if he's  -51, well ::nut:: .

[ithacat]

[Q]JimHyla Wrote:

 [Q2]ithacat Wrote:

 Unless that's a negative. The page doesn't specifiy + or -. Normally I'd assume a +, but in absence of any -s I'm not sure.[/Q]
With 58 goals and 104 points, if he's  -51, well  .[/q]

I was trying to be a little cheeky...must remember to use emoticons.  ::help::

[calgARI '07]

I think it's noteworthy that the chances of smaller, skilled forwards leaving early are far less than the bigger forwards Cornell has been bringing in the last couple years.

[pfibiger]

I read a bit about him on a message board where someone was asking about him being recruited by the QMJHL, and the person who knew his family said he'd had his heart set on playing D1 hockey for a long time. I'd hope that that, combined with his size, would keep him at school for a while. I also saw this about him when discussing Nova Scotia players. Looks like in addition to being a goal scorer, he's good on faceoffs and isn't afraid to bang.


*"Blake Gallagher* - This guy was amazing, won every draw he took, skates well, has super offensive awearness and is not afraid to get his nose dirty. Why on earth he was never drafted into the QMJHL beats me, he diffently has the talent and abilty to be a good player at that level by far my favorite player in the whole game."