Monday, April 23, 2018

NESCAC in the Pros

Periodically we give an update on former NESCAC players plying their trade in the pro ranks. LPfan2004 gives you a run down on the NESCAC players in the various leagues across the globe this season.


The NESCAC is a great conference that always offers many surprises, such as its sixth seed making the DIII Frozen Four in Lake Placid last month. It also can produce some decent pro players, so I am back with an update of NESCACers in the pros.

AHL
While Jon Landry did not play in the AHL or in any other professional hockey league for the first full season since graduating from Bowdoin in 2006, Evan Buitenhuis signed an ATO (amateur tryout contract) with the Toronto Marlies during Hamilton's Spring Break. While he did not play in a game before being cut on April 9th, Boots has taken some good first steps as he attempts to follow in Guy Hebert’s footsteps and become the first NESCAC NHL player in over 15 years.


ECHL
We had a couple CACers play in the ECHL this year. Evan Neugold, the former Middlebury Panther, got called up from his SPHL team, the Knoxville Ice Bears and was loaned out to the Adirondack Thunder and South Carolina Sting Rays. In 27 games, he tallied two goals and two assists, with 10 minutes in the penalty box and a positive one plus/minus. The other ECHL player was Jack Burton, the former Colby Mule, who played 65 games for the Indy Fuel this season. In those games, he had 3 goals, 8 assists, 67 penalty minutes,and a negative 11 plus/minus. The Fuel just lost their first round playoff series, with Burton having an assist in Game 2.

As noted in the News and Notes on Friday, Trinity's Tyler Whitney also got to play one game in the ECHL with the aforementioned Sting Rays on an ATO. 





SPHL
As I said, Evan Neugold is on the Knoxville Ice Bears. He had 21 points in 18 regular season games, and currently has a goal and an assist in three playoff appearances. Mason Pulde, the former Tufts netminder who didn’t make the Middlebury Panthers before transferring to Tufts, also made a SPHL roster this year; he plays for the Peoria Rivermen after starting off the season in the FHL for the Watertown Wolves. He played very well in his ten regular season appearances, earning SPHL Player of the Month honors for March/April. Currently, the Rivermen and Ice Bears are clashing in the SPHL semifinals, reuniting two former NESCAC foes.  

International
Surprisingly, international leagues held most of the NESCAC pros this past season. Louis Belisle, another Middlebury product who formerly played in the ECHL and SPHL, played in the French top division for Nice. In 44 games, he had nine goals and 23 assists, totaling 22 minutes in the box with a positive one plus/minus.

Bowdoin alum Kyle Hardy ('11) also started playing in the French top division after leaving Brunwick. He then went to Switzerland and England, but found himself back in France. He now has a home at Grenoble, where he totaled 47points in 44 regular season games last year as the captain. Earlier this month, The New England Hockey Journal chronicled his pro journey .

 There were at least four other NESCACers who played internationally this year. Colin Downey (Bowdoin) played in the French second division for Tours. Ryan Cole (Trinity) played in the Norwegian top division for Konsvinger. Kenny Matheson (Hamilton) played in the German fourth division for EHC Zweibrucken and EC Pfaffenhoffen. Finally, Sean Kavanagh (Tufts) also laced up his skates in the German fourth division, for EV Fussen, where he had 12 points in nine regular season games.







As always, thank you for reading Hockey in the `Cac. Sorry for being gone  for a while. If we missed any players, let us know in the comment section below. I’m LPfan2004, and I’ll see you next time.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Friday, April 20, 2018

Offseason News and Notes 4/20/18

It's the offseason, but that doesn't mean there aren't things NESCAC hockey related that are going on. We have plenty to catch you up on below.

 Individual Accolades
Perhaps one day hibernating New York City talk radio royalty Mike Francesa and Boston sports fanatic Bill Simmons will argue over DIII men' s hockey awards in the same manner they debate Lebron James vs James Harden for MVP  ,but for now the boys from the NESCAC will just  have to settle for mentions from ye humble blog boy. We can also hope that Simmons' Ringer.com will stop completely ignoring the fourth North American major pro sporting league, but I digress.

Things kicked off with the conference honors back at the end of February when hockey was still to be played. Conn College swept the NESCAC conference honors for the first time in program history (Connor Rodericks - Player of the Year, Jim Ward - Coach of the Year, Paul Capozzi  - Rookie of The Year ) after their all-time best finish of second in the NESCAC regular season. All First Team members made the team for the first time with the exception of Trinity's Anthony Sabitsky, who made his second straight appearance on the first team and third All-NESCAC selection overall. Future Frozen Four bound Colby landed blueliner Michael Decker on the 2nd team and no school had more than two players selected across the two teams.


First Team All-NESCAC
Position Name Institution Class Hometown
F Jason Brochu Hamilton Jr. Saint-Bruno, Quebec
F Dylan Holze Wesleyan Sr. Lynbrook, N.Y.
F Anthony Sabitsky Trinity Sr. Sicklerville, N.J.
D Liam Feeney Trinity So. Foxboro, Mass.
D Phil Johansson Amherst Jr. Saint-Zotique, Quebec
G Connor Rodericks Connecticut College So. Buzzards Bay, Mass.
Second Team All-NESCAC
Position Name Institution Class Hometown
F David Italiano Williams Jr. Toronto, Ontario
F Thomas Lindstrom Amherst Sr. Brooklyn Park, Minn.
F Jacob Moreau Connecticut College So. Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec
D Michael Decker Colby Sr. Algonquin, Ill.
D Chad Malinowski Wesleyan Jr. Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.
G Evan Buitenhuis Hamilton Sr. Burlington, Ontario

 From NESCAC official release, here


Next up were the American College Hockey Association (ACHA) awards at the D-III Frozen Four in Lake Placid, NY. Colby's Blaise MacDonald, who led the Mules from the sixth seed in the NESCAC tournament to the final four teams in the DIII nation, earned the Ed Jeremiah Award for best coach at the DII level. The last NESCAC coach to earn the honor was Amherst's Jack Arena, who earned the award in 2015. On the ACHA All-American teams, a pair of NESCAC goalies made the cut. Rodericks earned a 2nd Team All-East spot and Evan Buitenhuis earned a 3rd Team All-East selection. 

The New England Hockey Writers Association closed things out in early April with the DII/DIII All-Stars. Rodericks again was honored along with Colby's Sean Lawrence, whose incredible goaltending in postseason play led the Mules to Lake Placid. Trinity sophomore Liam Feeney was the only NESCAC skater selected as he made the blueliner All-Star corp.  MacDonald won Co-Coach of the year with Salve Regina's Zech Klenn, who led the Seahawks to their first ever title game in his first season behind the bench. 

Of note, Bowdoin's Camil Blanchet did not win, but he was a finalist for the Hockey Humanitarian Award, which was announced at the D1 Frozen Four in St. Paul, MN last week. 

The NESCAC was snubbed with no selections on All-USCHO teams. 

Kraft Hockeyville
Each year since 2006, Kraft has hosted a contest to name a city or town Hockeyville, with a rink from the winning municipality earning money for an upgrade and the opportunity to host an NHL preseason game. Since 2014, the contest has been split up into separate American and Canadian contests.

This season's American iteration included two NESCAC hometowns among the four finalists, Middlebury, Vermont and Clinton, New York, home to Hamilton and the historic Clinton Arena. Each year the Continentals play one of their home games at Clinton Arena and this past season the game - a tie between Hamilton and Conn College - was part of the Hamilton/Clinton celebration of 100 years of hockey in the central NY village.

Hamilton College hit the social media campaign trail hard for Clinton Arena in the digital contest voted for by the general public. Proponents for the former home of the Clinton Comets included the school's official accounts, the hockey team's accounts, former Cont Guy Hebert and  hockey historian /TV commentator Stan Fischler, who has no official connection to the town or school, but appreciates Clinton's hockey connection to vanquishing Hitler.

When NHL commissioner Gary Bettman opened the envelope on live TV last Saturday during an intermission of an NHL playoff game, he not only wasn't booed, but he earned the admiration of Oneida County when he announced Clinton, NY had been named Kraft Hockeyville USA 2018. Members of the Hamilton team were on site along with local residents for the viewing party (video below from the AHL's Utica Comet's twitter feed. The nearby AHL Team was all-in for Clinton as well).

Clinton Arena will get $150,000 for upgrades and will host a yet to be determined NHL preseason game for next season.



 Spring Break 
Some students spend their spring break studying, others catch up on school work, still others have spring team activities and finally a very small minority of NESCAC senior hockey players get to head to the ECHL, SPHL and AHL on Amateur Tryout (ATO) contracts in pro hockey.

It was a small class this spring with only three signings and only one player actually getting ice time. Trinity senior and 100 point club member Tyler Whitney kicked it off in March when he signed an ATO with the ECHL's South Carolina Sting Rays, who employ his older brother, Steven Whitney. The younger Whitney got to play one game before being released.

That's better than Middlebury goalie Stephen Klein, who was signed for one day with the ECHL's Colorado Eagles, before being cut only 24 hours without even dressing. Go figure.

2016-17 NCAA DIII player of the year Evan Buitenhuis got a golden opportunity with an ATO with the Toronto Malple Leafs AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies. Buitenhuis dressed for a few games before eventual AHL goalie of the Year Garrett Sparks returned to the Marlies from a short stint with the big club. The former Continental remained on the roster several more weeks but would not dress again before being cut last week in the final week of the regular season.

LPfan2004 will have an update on other NESCAC alums in the pros, including international players, later this weekend.





A New Arena
Stick to Sports?

No thank you, says graduating Amherst senior Johnny Arena, who announced his candidacy as a Democratic candidate for the Massachusetts House of Representatives 2nd Franklin Seat at the end of last month. The 23 year old, who served as Director of Hockey Operations for his father Jack Arena's Amherst men's hockey team, will take on incumbent Sussanah Whipps Lee this fall.

For more info on Arena's candidacy, see The Greenfield Recorder's article on his announcement here. 
Humboldt Strong
You are likely aware of the horrific tragedy that befell a Canadian Junior A hockey team, the Humboldt Broncos, and by extension the entire hockey tournament, two Fridays ago on April 7th. The Saskatchawan team was headed to Nipiwan for game 5 of a SJHL playoff series when their bus collided with a semi-truck, leaving sixteen dead and thirteen injured.

NESCAC teams don't tend to recruit that far west in Canada, but they do recruit Canadian Junior A players that have a similar experience on buses as the SJHL. Even if they didn't play juniors, NESCAC players know the experience of bonding on long bus rides while in the NESCAC, traveling from points as far west as Clinton, NY all the way up to Waterville, ME.  The bus ride was a theme of Colby's Frozen Four run with the team on the road for the final six weeks of the season from the end of the regular season up to the national semifinals in Lake Placid, NY.

The Berkshire Eagle's Howard Herman spoke to Canadian members of the Williams team (here) about the horrific event and NESCAC players and coaches have been active online in the social media campaigns to support Humboldt, including the #sticksoutforhumboldt (Colby coach Blaise MacDonald's and Trinity coach Matt Greason's tweets below as examples) and the #JerseysForHumboldt (Amherst and Colby team photos below).





Posted by at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)