Thursday, December 19, 2024

WJC Camps begin; Aiden's Journey; A-Rating for Wang; Macklin Magic


 

2025 World Junior Championships

The 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship begin in Ottawa on December 26 and run through January 5.  Team USA will seek to repeat as champions. Last year, Lane Hutson skated for Team USA, which defeated host Sweden in the gold-medal game in Gothenberg.

At U.S. World Junior Selection camp, NHL.com reports Cole Eiserman is “exhibiting confidence, and a big shot.”

"It's obviously a very hard division [Hockey East], a lot of older, bigger teams, and it's different hockey. But that's been something Coach Pandolfo has been great with," Eiserman told NHL.com. "You have to kind of change the way you play sometimes for different teams and that's just a pro-style type game. He gets it. He's done it for a while and it's really good to kind of listen to him."

Eiserman leads Boston University with nine goals and is tied for second with 15 points in 16 games as a freshman.

"I think that high-risk players like making high-risk plays and we hear all the terminology of how puck management goes," [Team USA GM John] Vanbiesbrouck said. "But you got to take what happens with these types of players and not always over-evaluate ... you got to make mistakes. It's a game of mistakes. There's no out of bounds and that's why we got good goaltending, good defense. They need to be free enough to know that they can make mistakes and make plays. And I think that with Cole, he's very aware he's playing for Jay Pandolfo and Jay was one of the best two-way players in the NHL. That's why they won Stanley Cups in New Jersey because of guys like Jay Pandolfo, so he's obviously working with him and his game is maturing."

● NHL.com Day 2 of US World Junior Selection

Sophomore Tom Willander returns for a second season on the backline for Sweden’s WJC team.

“He’s the rock on the blueline,” said [TSN Scouting Director Craig] Button. “He reminds me so much of Charlie McAvoy. Charlie McAvoy, he’s like Drew Doughty-esque, they’re not going to put up these gaudy offensive numbers, but they’re going to do everything in the game that is helpful to winning and necessary to winning, and that’s what Tom is.”

● TSN Cowan, Yager, Willander set for big roles at this year’s World Juniors

 

►BU Hockey Stats’ First Half Recap of both the Men’s and Women’s programs includes analytics for all Terrier skaters.

Cole Hutson is the only Terrier this season to record 4+ points in a game. 15 different Terriers recorded multipoint games, led by Quinn Hutson with 5, and Cole Eiserman and Shane Lachance with 4 each.

20 different Terriers have recorded a point this season, including every player with at least 14 games played, 16 have recorded a goal. Goalie Mathieu Caron has two points on the season so far, both assists. He is just the fourth goalie since at least 2002-03 with multiple points in the season—John Curry (2005-06), Matt O’Connor (2014-15), and Connor LaCouvee (2015-16).

►The Cole Hutson to Eiserman to Quinn Hutson goal in the 4-2 win over UMass is #2 on Hockey East’s goals of the week.

►Sophomore defenseman Aiden Celebrini, who was drafted in the sixth round of the 2023 Entry Draft by his hometown Vancouver Canucks, details his hockey journey in a Vancouver Building Blue feature.  

►Which BU uniforms have produced the best results this season? BU Hockey Stats is on it.

Looking ahead

2025 recruit Haoxi (Simon) Wang joins NTDP right-shot defenseman Charlie Trethewey as BU 2025 recruits who received an A rating from Central Scouting, whose players to watch list has only six A-rated skaters who are currently playing NCAA hockey or are committed to a school. 

NHL.com Senior Draft Writer Mike Morreale profiled the 6’6”left-shot defenseman  last month before he left the OJHL and signed with OHL Oshawa. Here are video highlights of his first game with the Generals.

 

Looking back

► Macklin Celebrini scored his 11th goal and added his 11th assist for the Sharks, but Winnipeg rallied to edge San Jose, 4-3.  Through Tuesday’s games, he is tied for the rookie lead in goals and is tied for second in points (22) with Lane Hutson. Celebrini has had seven multi-point games in the 22 he’s played.

► Hutson assisted on a pair of goal in the Canadians 6-1 thumping of Buffalo. He is the rookie leader in assists (21) and the top-scoring rookie defenseman.

@thehabitant reports that Hutson “has 11 points in his last 10 games, and is now tied for 6th most assists among all NHL defencemen.”

● MontrealGazette.com Canadiens' Lane Hutson has a passion for the game 

Has Hutson been surprised by his success so far as a rookie? 

“I mean, you never really know what to expect,” he said. “It’s such a hard league and there’s so many great players. But I think it starts with the guys here (in the locker room). They’ve helped me so much kind of adjust. There’s so much more that I want to build on and learn. Just trying to be a better player a week from now, two weeks from now. A different player a month from now.

► Matt Grzelcyk’s first goal of season gave the Penguins a third-period tie with the Kings and Pittsburgh went on to a 3-2 overtime win. The two-time All-American and Terrier captain has 16 points in his first season with the Penguins. With Grzelcyk's goal, @BU Hockey Stats reports, “all 16 Terrier skaters in the NHL with 11+ GP have now scored a goal this season.”

► Charlie McAvoy assisted on David Pasternak’s overtime game-winner in the Bruins 4-3 win against Calgary. McAvoy has a 5-8-13 scoring line.

►Clayton Keller scored his 11th goal in Utah's come-from-behind, 3-2 win over Vancouver. The 2017 Hockey East Rookie of the Year and 2017 WJC Gold Medal winner and All-Star has 30 points in 31 games.

Women's Team 

Terrier head coach Tara Watchorn served as an assistant coach for Canada’s National Women’s Development Team, which won a silver medal in the Six Nations Tournament in Tampere, Finland.

Sophomore Alex Law had two goals and two assists in four games for Canada, including a goal in the title game loss to Team USA.

Director of Hockey Operations Kaitlyn Scales served as the equipment manager for Team USA.

 

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