2008 Recruit Profile: Kieran Millan

With the unsettled situation in the Terriers' goal, BU fans are wondering what incoming recruit Kieran Millan, now is his second season with Spruce Grove (AJHL), will bring to the table. His stats only tell part of the story, so we’ve asked Gord Montgomery, sports editor of the Spruce Grove Examiner, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the future Terrier netminder:

Kieran started the year slowly, which seems to be a common trait among players who have signed a Letter of Intent with a U.S. Division I school, but stay to play one more year in the AJHL. He suffered an early-season upper body injury that hampered his effectiveness in net at the start of the season. In all, he ended up missing about six weeks of playing time, which set his development back a bit. Since returning however, he has again established himself as the Saints No. 1 tender, although he has had moments he'd probably like to forget. As of late, he's been sharp and his play has helped the club regain the momentum they had in the middle part of the year. The Saints have freed up the defencemen to go up ice in pursuit of the puck, meaning they have total confidence in Kieran as their last line of defence should one of the blue line corps get caught up ice.

Kieran's main strength is his play recognition. He's able to read what is about to happen and make the correct move when required, most often in time. He has quick feet and covers the net from side-to-side extremely well and his glove hand is fast. If he has one weakness, it's perhaps his penchant to go down too quickly at times on shots, leaving the top of the net empty. Since he's not an overly big goalie, dropping too fast can cause problems but he more than makes up for that with his other skills. As for him handling the puck outside of the crease, in all honesty he's better off letting the defence play it instead, but given some time to work on that part of the game I'm sure he can improve.

He came in as a rookie last year and played well and has continued to improve, so that process will continue at BU. Kieran has loads of potential and BU should be thrilled to have this young man, who is well-spoken and not afraid of facing tough tests, coming to their team next year.

Millan, who is 5'11" and turns 19 next August, had a fourth consecutive strong outing on Thursday, in Spruce Grove’s 4-3 win over Bonneyville. In the four games, he yielded just seven goals. Of the four games, the only loss was 2-0 to league powerhouse Camrose, in which Millan stopped 23 of 24 shots. In 2006-07, he was named to the AJHL North All-Rookie team.