Thursday, March 13, 2008

Top NCAA hockey free agents 2008 --> NHL/AHL/ECHL

Lots of people are looking around for names of free agent (non-drafted) college players who are about to turn pro. This will be a running post -- names and information will be added over the next few weeks. I'm no expert on this, mind you, but I want to know this information and if you can't find what you're looking to read, write it yourself I guess. Did someone say that before? If not, I'll claim it. It sounds good.

Peter Mannino, G - Successful goaltender for DU, finishing his senior year. Here's a feature article on him to get you started.

Mike Radja, F - Senior forward for Univ. of New Hampshire. Here's some info on him. More interesting reading is the elevator cage match against UND's T.J. Oshie earlier this year that got him suspended. Nice.

Ryan Duncan, F -- Last year's Hobey Baker winner, a lot of people thought he'd turn pro last year, but he has a chance at a national championship with North Dakota so who would question that.

Bryan Marshall, F -- Senior forward out of UNO (That's Nebraska-Omaha, former home of Nashville's goaltender Dan Ellis). He finished third in points per game in the nation this year. Here's a story published just yesterday about him. He's been out with a knee injury but is nearly ready to return.

Mike Moore, D -- Princeton defender who can score and hit, majoring in mechanical and aerospace engineering. The guy doesn't mess around.

Mike Brennan, D -- Boston College. Here's his profile.

I'll add more names in a few days. More and more underclassmen are turning pro early, but it's harder to predict who will make the jump.

Here's one who might:
Michael-Lee Teslak, G -- Michigan Tech goalie. Here's his profile.
Edit: Teslak has joined the Flyers organization.

Jack Hillen, D -- He led defensemen nationwide in points per game with .95 as a senior with Colorado College. He's very good at golf, so a southern destination may be appealing. He looks kind of like Mark Popovic. Profile here.

Jean-Philippe Lamoureux, G -- He led the nation in GAA this year with a 1.65 playing for North Dakota. The downside: he's only 5'8. He'll get a chance to play pro, but his NHL potential is probably limited. Top-10 Hobey Baker Finalist this year.

Simon Lambert, F -- This senior out of RIT was named a Top-10 Hobey Baker Finalist this year. The team captain led the AHA in scoring, and his 51 points in 37 games are tied for third in the nation. (Edit to add: He signed with ECHL Victoria on Mar. 26).

David Leggio, G -- Senior out of Clarkson. Profile here.

Eric Ehn, F -- Profile with a photo of him in uniform -- Air Force uniform. He's only 5'9 and there's some question on whether he owes time to the Air Force on duty as well.

Brett Wilson, F -- Junior out of Princeton. Profile here. Looks more like a coach than a player.

Lee Jubinville, F -- Another junior out of Princeton. Jubinville is 5'10.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

\\More interesting reading is the elevator cage match against UND's T.J. Oshie earlier this year that got him suspended. Nice.//

There's not a doubt in my mind that Oshie provoked the guy. The NoDak team has a well-earned reputation (as you pointed out in an earlier blog entry) of being exceptionally violent as far as college hockey goes. Jack Johnson was considered a mama's boy by those thugs. True story.

The best college hockey site I know of is "The Blog That Yost Built", not surprisingly centered on the University of Michigan:

http://www.yostbuilt.blogspot.com/