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.
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