Recruiting update

First the potentially bad news: 2009 commit Ethan Werek was headed to the Kingston Frontenacs (OHL) training camp last week but sprained a knee in an exhibition for the Junior A Stouffville Spirit for whom it was expected he would play the next two seasons. The Kingston Whig Standard’s news coverage gives the impression that Werek, ranked among the top 10 prospects for the 2009 NHL draft, had decided to pursue Major Junior rather than college hockey. However, as the Western College Hockey blog points out:

A number of other college prospects are currently attending OHL training camps. Two players that have committed to college, Minnesota's Sam Lofquist and Northeastern's Daniel Erhlich are attending London Knights camp. Other players like Kyle Quick, Corey Morbeck, and Zach Tatrn are also attending camps. They are allowed to skate in the camp, so long as they pay their own way, and don't play in any exhibition games. Note: Erhlich reportedly has received an offer from London.

We'll report on further developments.

USHR reports that BU, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Dakota are the leading contenders for highly regarded Salmon Arm/BCHL center Derek Lee, “an excellent puck distributor, the kind of pivot who makes everyone around him look like world beaters." Lee, who’s 5’9”, 150 lbs and played on last winter’s BC Under-17 Team, would be a 2008 recruit...

The same Web site reports that Choate junior forward Mark Goggin, who just returned from the Czech Republic where he played for the U.S. U18 Select Team, has BU along with UNH, Miami and Dartmouth on his list. A 2009 recruiting target, Goggin’s older brother committed last week to Dartmouth where their father played in the early ‘80s...

He’s a “smooth skating defenseman with good size from New Rochelle, N.Y, ” who has played junior hockey in New Jersey and has been a standout on Travis Howe’s East Coast Selects spring/summer tournament team. That would be incoming freshman Kevin Shattenkirk, right? Nope. That profile also fits 6’1” 190, Kevin Clare, a ’92 left-shot blueliner, who recently visited BU, BC, and UNH. Clare, who may also visit some Western schools, would be a 2010 recruit. He was a standout for the North Jersey Avalanche (AYHL) last season and moves up to the EJHL Jersey Hitman this season. Clare is expected to receive an invitation to NTDP tryout camp in the Spring, and so is his Avalanche and East Coast Selects teammate John Parker. He took home a "Best Forward" award at this summer's Jr. Chowder Cup, playing on the winning Brandywine team with 2009 recruiting target Kyle Palmieri who joins the NTDP U 17s this year. Parker is a 5-11, 170 center who will begin the coming season with the New Jersey Rockets, a program current Terrier Luke Popko played for. We've heard nothing to suggest he's on BU's recruiting radar, but with that name, he certainly ought to be.