With three members of last season’s blueline corps departed for the pros, BU will be looking for sophomore Max Nicastro to step up and assume a leading role at both ends of the ice. The Californian with the heavy shot earned All-Hockey East Rookie honors last season and followed it with a standout performance in the Detroit Red Wings prospect camp. Inside College Hockey’s annual A-Z feature profiles Nicastro and quotes BU Associate Head Coach Mike Bavis saying the sophomore has an “NHL shot and is the kind of uber-talent hybrid player that BU hasn’t seen in a long time.”
►Another key member of the sophomore class, forward Alex Chiasson, a second round Stars draft choice, was ranked at #100 on McKeen’s list of the top 150 NHL prospects.
►Eagle Tribune hockey writer and Warrior Rink Rat blogger Mike McMahon has begun previewing the 10 Hockey East teams in reverse order of his prediction for the final league standings. Thus far, he’s posted previews of Providence and UMass.
►NHL.com has weighed in on the news that Terrier Head Coach Jack Parker is one of four 2010 recipients of the Lester Patrick Trophy for service to hockey in the United States.
Looking ahead
2013 BU recruit Adam Erne, who originally was set to play this season with the New Jersey Rockets (AJHL) will instead be skating in the USHL for the Indiana Ice, who drafted the '95 in May. Last season, the power forward starred for the LA Selects Bantam AAA team.
2011 recruit Alexx Privitera has left the NTDP and will man the blueline for the new Muskegon Lumberjacks franchise in the USHL. Privitera had a 4-10-14 line in 52 games for the U17s last season.
USHL pre-season play begins tonight and several future Terriers will be in action in the coming week. Privitera and Muskegon take on Chicago tonight, while 2011 recruit Matt O’Connor and Youngtown play the Steel on Saturday. On Tuesday, the Cedar Rapids Roughriders, with 2011 recruit Cason Hohmann and 2014 recruit Anthony DeAngelo, match up with Waterloo. Next Friday, 2013 recruit Matt Grzelcyk and the NTDP U17s face off against Youngstown.
Looking back
USHR reports that former BU All-American Boomer Ewing has retired as a player after two pro seasons. He was ECHL rookie of the year with the Wheeling Nailers in 2008-09. Boomer will become assistant coach of the EJHL Bridgewater Bandits, assisting Todd Stirling, whose father, Steve Stirling, captained BU's 1971 national champs and recently was named assistant coach of AHL Binghamton.
New England Hockey Journal previews the 2010-11 Washington Caps with a focus on its many New England connections, including former BU All-American Tom Poti, who begins his fourth season in D.C.
In his most recent Hockey Notes column, The Boston Globe's Fluto Shinzawa reports that former BU co-captain John McCarthy will head to Sharks training camp with a good opportunity to make the San Jose roster. Last season, his hard work in Worcester earned him a four-game "cup-of-coffee" in the NHL.
A pair of former Terriers, Ryan Weston and Kevin Schaeffer, are heading West this season to play for the ECHL Las Vegas Wranglers. Weston split last season between Las Vegas and the AHL San Antonio Rampage, while Schaeffer played 52 games with the Charlotte Checkers and 18 games for two AHL clubs. A few other ex-Terriers have a stop in Vegas on their resume. Dan Spang spent part of the 08-09 season there participating in Governor Rod Blagojevich Prison Uniform Night, poking fun at the then-indicted former Illinois governor. Former Hockey East Player of the Year and Hobey Baker Award finalist John Curry began his pro career with a brief stint on the Wranglers before moving up to the Penguins top farm team. He'll compete for the backup spot on the Pittsburgh roster this year.
Avalanche Rookie camp begins this Tuesday in Centennial, Colo., with former Terriers Kevin Shattenkirk, Colby Cohen and Zach Cohen on hand. All three made their pro debuts last April with the AHL Lake Erie Monsters, playing for former BU associate head coach David Quinn. They'll all be aiming for a spot on the Colorado roster, seeking to join Brandon Yip who scored 11 goals in 32 games for the Avs last season.
UMass head coach and former BU associate head coach Don Cahoon has signed a contract extension that will keep him behnd the Minuteman bench through the 2012-2013 season. In 1970-71, Cahoon was a lightning-fast winger was a winger on a line centered by Steve Stirling on the first Terrier national championship team, which marks its 40th anniversary this season.
That team’s manager—and THFB contributor—Chris Henes, was quoted in the current issue of Sports Illustrated, but not about hockey. In a retrospective on the first-ever AFL football game, matching the Patriots and the Broncos (Sept. 9, 1960), SI Senior Writer Dick Friedman, describes the experiences that evening of a pair of ten-year olds--he and Henes--who were in attendence at BU's Nickerson Field (former Braves' Field) and were able to walk down to the end zone after the game as the players departed.
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