‼️🚨BREAKING🚨‼️
— College Puck NXT (@CollegePuckNXT) June 30, 2026
The Boston University Terries have received a commitment from Alessandro Di Iorio!
🅱️🐾
3rd round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft by @BlueJacketsNHL
The ‘08 born Forward from Vaughan, Ontario had 31 points in 45 GP during the 2025-26 season for @StingHockey pic.twitter.com/I152JXFQtP
Terriers have received a commitment from Sarnia Sting forward Alessandro Di Iorio. The 6'1", 188 right-shot center was selected by Columbus in the third round of last week's NHL Entry Draft, taken at #94 overall. PuckPreps, which rates him as a 4.5-⭐️STAR prospect, reports he'll arrive for the 2027-28 season. We'll look to confirm that.
The Athletic's Cory Pronman reported:
Di Iorio is a hardworking two-way center who skates well and has a lot of energy in his game. The No. 2 pick in his OHL Draft, Di Iorio has quality puck skills, vision and finishing ability, although his pure offensive play isn’t super exciting. He creates offense more through his effort and supporting the play than being a creative player.
Di Iorio spent the past two seasons with the Sting and also played on Canadian National Teams at the 16U, 17U and 18U levels. Last year, a pre-season elbow injury limited him to 45 regular-season games but he still produced a 12-19-31 line. When he returned to the lineup, Di Iorio was named team captain.
The Vaughn, Ont., native produced 38 points in 58 games in his first year with the Sting, after starring in the Vaughn Kings organization where he won regular-season championships at the 14, 15 and 16 levels.
The Hockey News' draft profile:
Di Iorio has developed into a dependable two-way center. He can create turnovers by applying pressure to puck carriers and has shown an ability not just to get into shooting lanes, but to lay his body on the line with blocked shots. Di Iorio's defensive abilities have allowed him to become an effective penalty killer as well as a matchup center in the OHL.
As for the offensive zone, Di Iorio is better known as a perimeter player. Listed at 6'0", 188 lbs, he is skilled enough to beat defenders in one-on-one situations, which allows him to create open space in order to create scoring chances. Di Iorio has also shown strong playmaking abilities, as he can anticipate where his teammates will be and deliver passes to them in stride.
On the international level, Di Iorio has experience with several future Terrier teammates.
He played in the 2023 Youth Olympic Games on Canada’s U16 team along with Tynan Lawrence and 2027 recruit Braidy Wassilyn, leading the tournament in goal-scoring and his team in points (6-1-7 in four games).
A year ago he skated on Canada's gold-medal World U18 team along with Xavier Villeneuve, scoring twice and adding an assist. This past Spring he played in the WJC 18U again, this time with Lawrence, tallying three assists.
In between, he and Lawrence helped Canada claim a bronze medal at the 2025 Hlinka-Gretzky tournament.
● TheHockeyWriters.com Di Iorio draft profile
► With the new commitment, BU has nine current or future players chosen in the 2026 Entry Draft, one behind Michigan State with 10.
►Development camps have begun for many NHL teams. Here are the Terriers in attendance:
Chicago: Villeneuve, Sacha Boisvert; Philadelphia: Devin Kaplan. Jack Murtagh, Carter Amico; Vancouver: Aiden Celebrini, Caleb Malhotra, Niklas Aaram-Olsen; St. Louis: Lawrence, Luke Schairer; Nashville: Viktor Norringer; Columbus Di Iorio; Ottawa: Brandon Svoboda; Pittsburgh: Charlie Trethewey; Islanders Kamil Bednarik, Cole Eiserman; Devils: Conrad Fondrk; Anaheim: Rian Chudzinski; Colorado: Shawn Carrier; Montreal Ben Merrill, Braidy Wassilyn; San Jose: Haoxi Wang, Brady Knowling; and Boston: Jonathan Morello.
Parker MacKay of the Bruins on BU's Jonathan Morello:
— Mark Divver (@MarkDivver) July 1, 2026
"He's a powerful skater. He plays an honest game. He's never going to cheat. He gets to hard areas. ... I think he understands what he is and the identity he needs to play with to have success"
►Our friend BurntBoats posted his updated Roster Projections graphic just before the latest commitment, so that name is missing. In addition, Zachary Morin is no longer a BU commit.
►Lawrence posted his final Draft Diary entry for NHL.com, focusing on last week's draft day when he was selected at #11 overall by St. Louis.
Looking back
A pair of Terriers who played for the Panthers have new homes. Evan Rodrigues, who won the Stanley Cup twice with Florida, was sent to New Jersey in a trade for Jacob Markstrom. ERod, who is in the final year of a four-year contract, has 270 career points (107G-163A) over 11 seasons. With Florida, he was a middle six forward who saw time on both power play and penalty kill units, roles he's expected to fill in New Jersey. A Devils blog calls hims "a Swiss army knife type."
AJ Greer, who also was Rodrigues' teammate on BU's 2015 national finalist team, has inked a four-year, $4.25 million average annual value contract with Anaheim that includes a 10-team no-trade clause. He had been traded to the Ducks over the weekend and completed his new deal just before he was to become an unrestricted free agent. In a career year, Greer rang up 17 goals and 15 assists for the Panthers.
● NHL.com Devils acquire Rodrigues from Florida
● ESPN.com Ducks sign AJ Greer to 4-year deal with $4.25M AAV
