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College Notes: Niagara, Simmons-Fischer, Cheremeta

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Niagara University officially announced their 2019 recruiting class today, including three notable NCAA transfers. The most well-known name is likely former UMass-Lowell defenseman Croix Evingson. A 2017 seventh-round pick of the Winnipeg Jets, Evingson was the NAHL’s Defenseman of the Year in his draft year and his size and scoring ability made him an intriguing prospect. However, after two seasons of limited usage and production at Lowell, Evingson opted for a change of scenery and is now set to join Niagara. The big, offensive defenseman will look to re-establish his pro value this season and next in hopes of landing with the Jets down the road. Joining Evingson are Merrimack College graduate transfer defenseman Ryan Cook and former Air Force Academy forward Walker Sommer.

  • Braidan Simmons-Fischer, son of former NHL defenseman and current Detroit Red Wings Director of Player Personnel Jiri Fischer, has committed to nearby Western Michigan University, according to MIHockey. Entering his draft year, Simmons-Fischer remains somewhat of an unknown commodity. Splitting his early years of hockey between several pedestrian seasons of bantam-level play in Michigan and a dominant season at the junior level in Austria, Simmons-Fischer has had one of the stranger developmental paths of any prospect to this point. However, there is enough to his size – similar to his father’s frame but even more menacing as a forward – and hockey bloodlines that a strong program like WMU is willing to bet on his progression. More will surely be known about Simmons-Fischer’s potential after this upcoming season, which he will spend with the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers in his first true test against top competition.
  • Mark Cheremeta has left Boston University, marking yet another loss for the storied program. Since the end of last season, BU has seen Jake Oettinger, Joel Farabee, Chad Krys, Bobo Carpenter, Dante Fabbro, and Shane Bowers leave for the NHL, as well as a couple of players transfer to another school, and now young role player Cheremeta is headed to the USHL. The Dubuque Fighting Saints announced Cheremeta as a member of their training camp roster after selecting him in the third round of the USHL Entry Draft this year, marking his departure from BU after just one year. What Cheremeta will do next with his developmental path remains a mystery. Ironically though, he is set to play alongside Terriers commit and L.A. Kings prospect Braden Doyle with Dubuque this season.

Metropolitan Notes: Devils Moves, Flyers Roster, Backstrom

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There still remains a number of intriguing free agents available on the open market, including Jake Gardiner, Ryan Dzingel and Micheal Ferland. However, despite having $20.77MM in projected cap space remaining on their roster, it’s unlikely the New Jersey Devils will be adding one of them unless their asking price drops significantly, according to The Athletic’s Corey Masisak (subscription required).

That cap number is somewhat deceiving as New Jersey has several restricted free agents they must deal with, including Pavel Zacha, Will Butcher, Mirco Mueller and Connor Carrick, amongst others. No player should walk away with too significant a deal, meaning the Devils would have the cap space to sign one of those free agents, but that still seems unlikely. The team already made their major moves earlier, trading for P.K. Subban and signing winger Wayne Simmonds in free agency. That, however, doesn’t mean they are done making moves.

“I made some calls,” Shero. “This week will be the same thing, and we certainly would want to see what’s out there, if there’s a chance as we go into the summertime and the rest of the summer into training camp.”

  • Sam Carchidi of Philly.com comes up with an early projection of the Philadelphia Flyers’ lineup with one interesting hole on the team’s third line. The scribe pencils in Nolan Patrick centering Oskar Lindblom, but lists the other wing position to a mystery man, likely to be battled during training camp. He notes that there are two logical candidates to win the role including veteran Scott Laughton as well as youngsters Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee. The 20-year-old Frost, a 2017 first-rounder, wrapped up his junior career last season and combined for 79 goals and 221 points over his last two years for the Soo Greyhounds of the OHL. The 19-year-old Farabee, a 2018 first-rounder, signed with the Flyers after one season with Boston University in which he scored 17 goals and 36 points in 37 games.
  • While the discussions of whether the Washington Capitals will be able to retain goaltender Braden Holtby after next season has been discussed, the Washington Capitals have another significant free agent as well next offseason in Niklas Backstrom. The Washington Post’s Barry Svrluga suggests that the Capitals are almost certainly going to find a way to bring the veteran center back. Backstrom will be 32 by then, but has been such an integral piece to the first line next to Alexander Ovechkin, that it seems inconceivable the team will allow the veteran to walk away, especially without a young center waiting in the wings, which Washington does not have. Backstrom is still putting up solid numbers as he scored 22 goals and 74 points last season.

USA Hockey Announces Invitees For 2019 Summer Showcase

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After Canada released their group yesterday, USA Hockey has announced their 44 invites for the 2019 World Junior Summer Showcase, the first step towards participating at the next World Junior tournament. GM John Vanbiesbrouck and head coach Scott Sandelin will be evaluating all 44 players over a short period in Plymouth, Michigan between July 26-August 3 where they will take on teams from Canada, Sweden and Finland.

The list of players includes many already drafted names, but also some that are available this weekend in the 2019 Entry Draft. The full group is listed below:

G Drew DeRidder (2019 draft eligible)
G Spencer Knight (2019 draft eligible)
G Isaiah Saville (2019 draft eligible)
G Dustin Wolf (2019 draft eligible)

D Slava Demin (VGK, unsigned)
D Ty Emberson (ARZ, unsigned)
D Jordan Harris (MTL, unsigned)
D Drew Helleson (2019 draft eligible)
D Zach Jones (2019 draft eligible)
D Ryan Johnson (2019 draft eligible)
D Christian Krygier (NYI, unsigned)
D Jackson LaCombe (2019 draft eligible)
D K’Andre Miller (NYR, unsigned)
D Alec Regula (DET, unsigned)
D Mattias Samuelsson (BUF, unsigned)
D Spencer Stastney (NSH, unsigned)
D Jayden Struble (2019 draft eligible)
D Alex Vlasic (2019 draft eligible)
D Bode Wilde (NYI)
D Cam York (2019 draft eligible)

F John Beecher (2019 draft eligible)
F Matthew Boldy (2019 draft eligible)
F Bobby Brink (2019 draft eligible)
F Cole Caufield (2019 draft eligible)
F Jack Drury (CAR, unsigned)
F Joel Farabee (PHI)
F John Farinacci (2019 draft eligible)
F Parker Ford (2019 draft eligible)
F Jon Gruden (OTT)
F Curtis Hall (BOS, unsigned)
F Trevor Janicke (2019 draft eligible)
F Blade Jenkins (NYI, unsigned)
F Arthur Kaliyev (2019 draft eligible)
F Owen Lindmark (2019 draft eligible)
F Luke Loheit (OTT, unsigned)
F Robert Mastrosimone (2019 draft eligible)
F Blake McLaughlin (ANA, unsigned)
F Shane Pinto (2019 draft eligible)
F Jacob Pivonka (NYI, unsigned)
F Nick Robertson (2019 draft eligible)
F Alex Turcotte (2019 draft eligible)
F Luke Toporowski (2019 draft eligible)
F Oliver Wahlstrom (NYI)
F Trevor Zegras (2019 draft eligible)

Notably not on the list is potential first overall pick Jack Hughes, who is still eligible for the tournament but will likely be playing in the NHL for the 2019-20 season.

Philadelphia Flyers Shopping No. 11 Pick

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As GM Chuck Fletcher himself said earlier today, it’s still early in the off-season. The Philadelphia Flyers have another eleven days and a few hours yet to decide what they want to do with their first-round selection this year, the No. 11 pick. With that said, it sounds like Fletcher would prefer to forget about that countdown and instead trade the Flyers’ 2019 first-rounder. Speaking to the media this morning, Fletcher revealed that he’s “mentioned to teams that we’re in play, but there hasn’t been a big push for the pick yet”, adding that “it’s certainly a good chip that if moved, it could help” to land a major piece for the team.

While teams aren’t generally looking to trade away their first-round pick, one of the more valued assets in the NHL, nevertheless a pick as high as No. 11, the Flyers are one of the few teams who would be comfortable passing up a top selection for the right price. Philadelphia held picks No. 14 and 19 in the first round last year and grabbed forwards Joel Farabee and Jay O’Brien. Farabee was Hockey East’s Rookie of the Year at Boston University and is a candidate to break camp with the Flyers next season. O’Brien admittedly struggled in his first collegiate season, but the BCHL-bound prospect is likely to pay off down the road. The team also nabbed big defenseman Adam Ginning in the second round. Philly also had two first-round picks in 2017, the first notably being the No. 2 pick used on Nolan Patrick and the other being No. 27, which landed Morgan Frost, who has since recorded back-to-back 100+ point seasons for the OHL’s Soo Greyhounds and will also fight for a spot next season. Fellow OHL star forward Isaac Ratcliffe fell to the team in the second round, while they got a steal in another forward, the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s Noah Cates, in the fifth round. With a young, deep defense corps and wunderkind keeper Carter Hart already in place in the NHL and such a strong pipeline of prospects, especially at forward, skipping the first round this year would not hurt the Flyers, especially if they can use the pick to add an established veteran player to the roster.

However, the team is obviously prepared to make the pick if Fletcher and company are unable to find the right move. “If we keep (the pick) and stay at 11, we’re going to get a good player,” Fletcher said. Assistant GM Brent Flahr also spoke with the media, praising the depth of this draft class:

At number 11, somebody will fall to us… I think from 3 to 15 there will be a lot of the same names, but teams will have them ordered differently and I think that bodes well for us… The way we look at it, we will take the best player at 11. I think as we go in the draft, we have some young defensemen that are in the NHL right now, and a couple coming, but we probably like to add defensemen depth to our organization going forward, whether it’s at 11 or the second or third round, we will see.

Judging by Flahr’s comments and the aforementioned organizational forward depth, Flyers fans can likely expect one of two things with the No. 11 pick: either the team could trade it, as appears to be the favored route of Fletcher, or if they are unable to or simply decide to keep it, could target a name like Cam York, Philip Broberg, or Victor Soderstrom to add a top defenseman to the pipeline. We’ll find out in less than two weeks as the NHL Draft draws close.

 

Philadelphia Flyers Expected To Be Aggressive This Offseason

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After a disappointing 2018-19 season, the Philadelphia Flyers find themselves in a situation in which they have many pieces that could make them a playoff team, but not enough to actually take that next step. The franchise, who many thought would be a playoff contender last year, instead struggled out of the gate, before both general manager Ron Hextall and head coach Dave Hakstol lost their jobs and the team limped to a disappointing finish.

The Flyers, now under the control of new general manager Chuck Fletcher, are ready to make their next move and upgrade their team for a playoff run, according to NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman. The team has $33.4MM in cap space available to them and, while they do have some restricted free agents they must sign (including Ivan Provorov, Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim), they still should have quite a bit of cap space to make key moves. Rumors also suggest the team may be willing to move defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere in the right deal to add more scoring and a second-line center. Fletcher tells Kimelman that, one way or another, the team will be aggressive this summer:

I think we’re going to be very aggressive in the trade and free agent markets in the sense of looking into every possible situation that can help us. The unfortunate part is the vast majority of things you look into don’t work out. … So we’re going to be very aggressive in trying to fill the holes we feel we have. I don’t know if I can say we’ll be able to fill all of them.

However, Philly.com’s Sam Carchidi added today that the team would be willing to move their first-round pick, if it means filling all of those holes, and that Fletcher has already been listening to offers. “If we can get a good player at the right stage of his career and with some term left on his contract, we’d certainly look at it,” Fletcher said, while adding that if they don’t get the right offer, they’d be happy to keep the pick.

If the team cannot pull off a big trade, Fletcher has said the team would be more than willing to bring in veteran players on short-term deals. The other option would be to allow some of their top young prospects to earn their way into the lineup a little quicker than originally anticipated. The team does have a number of interesting prospects, including forwards Morgan Frost, Isaac Ratcliffe, and Joel Farabee, who will all be turning pro this season. Fletcher feels that this depth of young talent could be ready to make a difference this year, if necessary:

[The young players] certainly could be [roster options]. I think the odds would be against them making our team coming out of camp. But I don’t like cutting players before training camp. I say that because I think our expectation is we’ll find a player or two to come in. For 20-year-old kids, in Farabee’s case 19, to get some playing time in the [American Hockey League] is always a preferable option. But if they come in and they earn it, and there’s been players every year that seem to do it around the league, then certainly we won’t hold them back.

NCAA All-American Selections Announced

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The college hockey season is wrapping up, beginning with Thursday night’s Frozen Four semifinal games, tonight’s end of the year awards banquet, and finally tomorrow’s National Championship game. Many awards were handed out tonight, including the Hobey Baker Award, but the NCAA also announced this year’s All-American rosters, as voted on by the American Hockey Coaches Association. The teams are as follows:

First-Team All-Americans – East

G Cayden Primeau, Northeastern University (MTL)
D Adam Fox, Harvard University (CAR)
D Cale Makar, University of Massachusetts (COL)
F Mitchell Chaffee, University of Massachusetts
F Ryan Kuffner, Princeton University (DET)
F Nico Sturm, Clarkson University (MIN)

First-Team All-Americans – West

G Hunter Shepard, University of Minnesota – Duluth
D Quinn Hughes, University of Michigan (VAN)
D Jimmy Schuldt, St. Cloud State University (VGK)
F Taro Hirose, Michigan State University (DET)
F Patrick Newell, St. Cloud State University (NYR)
F Rem Pitlick, University of Minnesota (NSH)

Second-Team All-Americans – East

G Andrew Shortridge, Quinnipiac University (SJS)
D Jeremy Davies, Northeastern University (NJD)
D Joseph Duszak, Mercyhurst University (TOR)
F Blake Christensen, American International College
F David Cotton, Boston College (CAR)
F Josh Wilkins, Providence College

Second-Team All-Americans – West

G Joey Daccord, Arizona State University (OTT)
D Jack Ahcan, St. Cloud State University
D Bobby Nardella, University of Notre Dame (WAS)
D Scott Perunovich, University of Minnesota – Duluth (STL)
F Mason Jobst, Ohio State University (NYI)
F Blake Lizotte, St. Cloud State University (LAK)
F Troy Loggins, Northern Michigan University

The St. Cloud Huskies led the way with four All-American selections, which is little surprise from a team that was ranked No. 1 in the country for much of the year. Yet, St. Cloud won’t be playing in the National Championship game this year. Instead, it will be the UMass Minutemen and UMD Bulldogs. UMass, the only other team with two first-team selections, features the Hobey Baker winner Makar, while Duluth includes two All-Americans as well. Northeastern goalie Primeau was also named the Mike Richter Award winner as the best goalie in the country and was one of two selections from the Huskies. While not included among the All-Americans, Boston University forward Joel Farabee (PHI) was named the Tim Taylor Award recipient as rookie of the year.

Dante Fabbro To Sign With Nashville Predators

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It’s not a very good day to be a Boston University hockey fan. After Jake Oettinger and Joel Farabee both signed earlier today, Chris Johnston of Sportsnet is now reporting that Dante Fabbro will also forego his final season with the Terriers and sign a three-year entry-level contract with the Nashville Predators. Getting Fabbro under contract was extremely important for the Predators, as the highly touted defenseman could have become an unrestricted free agent next summer had he returned to BU.

There was some speculation that Fabbro was interested in waiting and testing the free market due to the depth on the Nashville blue line, but instead he’ll join an organization that has made a habit of developing high-end defensemen over the years. The 20-year old certainly has that pedigree, after being selected 17th overall in 2016 and steadily improving his game over three years at BU. In fact, Fabbro recorded 33 points in 38 games this season as captain for the Terriers and was a nominee for the Hobey Baker award.

Fabbro also brings a wealth of international experience, as he was a key part of the last two world junior tournaments, winning a silver and gold medal as part of the Canadian contingent. Still even with all that success, it’s unclear where he stands in the Nashville pecking order. The Predators already have seven defensemen signed to one-way contracts for next season, including one of the best top-four in all of hockey. Fabbro could certainly slide into the third pairing, but wouldn’t be getting the kind of minutes that Nashville may want for him. That could lead to him at least starting the year in the AHL, where the Milwaukee Admirals would likely use him as an all-situations option including on the powerplay.

Philadelphia Flyers Sign Joel Farabee

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It won’t only be Jake Oettinger leaving Boston University to turn pro this season, as Joel Farabee has signed his entry-level contract. Farabee, a first-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, will be starting a three-year entry-level contract to begin the 2019-20 season. He could also join the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on an amateur tryout contract in order to recover from a recent injury and get some experience down the stretch.

While Oettinger’s departure may have been expected, Farabee’s certainly wasn’t so. The forward still had three years of college eligibility and is still even young enough to compete in the next World Juniors (where he already secured a silver medal this year). However, after dominating as a freshman—even winning the Hockey East Rookie of the Year award—he very well could feel as though he’s ready to take the next step in his development and even compete for a spot on the Flyers next season.

Selected 14th overall in 2018, there is a lot to like about Farabee’s game. A product of the US National Development Team program, the 6’1″ forward is an outstanding offensive contributor that can also be a game-changing defensive presence even when lining up on the wing. His active stick and incredible edge work results in turnovers and counter-attacks, while his willingness to engage physically when necessary allows his game not to be limited to the perimeter.

While there is no guarantee he can crack the Flyers lineup in 2019-20, recording 36 points in 37 games as a teenager was an very impressive performance for Farabee. Training camp for Philadelphia will be quite interesting, as the team will also have top CHL performer Morgan Frost vying for an opportunity. The pair of forward prospects have battled over the years on the international stage, but could very well be the key to the Flyers offensive attack in the years to come.

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