The Michigan Daily reported yesterday that the Michigan hockey team has suspended defenseman Tristin Llewellyn and forward Jacob Fallon for the remainder of the season. A reason for the suspension was not given, beyond that it was behavioral and not related to hockey.
This ends Llewellyn's Michigan career as he is a senior. He was maddening at times with his penchant for taking bad penalties at key times, but he brought a physical presence to the blueline.
Coach Berenson said that Fallon will have a chance to return next season. But after he got in trouble for two off-ice incidents last year with the NTDP (resulting in him leaving that program), you have to wonder how many second chances he has left after another non-hockey incident resulted in a semester-long suspension from the team. Fallon hasn't played all that much as a freshman, but he's looked pretty decent in the games I've seen. Hopefully he will stick around, but it certainly wouldn't be a surprise to see this be the end of his Michigan career as well.
I'm not sure what the rules are on sending players to the USHL. I know Michigan State had sent a freshman back to the USHL last season after it became evident he wasn't going to play all that much. They also tried to do it with Corey Tropp and it didn't fly because he had already enrolled for the spring semester and apparently playing for another team would kill his eligibility. I suspect Fallon would fall into the latter case, then. If that's true, he'd either have to stick it out at Michigan and serve his suspension or be done as a Wolverine. He was drafted by a WHL team back in the day.
These suspensions probably don't hurt Michigan all that much as things stand now. Fallon wasn't playing all that often and I thought Clare and Bennett looked really good on Saturday against Michigan State. Llewellyn brought some things to the table, but it had to be hard to trust him when you never knew if he was going to do something completely idiotic and put the team in a bad position. I don't think that it's a bad thing for Clare and Bennett to see some more ice time. It does hurt the depth, and it would be make any future injuries a little bit more troublesome.
3 comments:
It's really too bad that athletes get the attitude that they are "entitled" to do whatever they please. There has been a rash of these kinds of stories lately, and I feel, that if they were made to live with the consequences (instead of Mommy and Daddy always bailing them out) there would be a real life lesson learned. This is not just in college sports but also professional athletes doing boneheaded things. What a waste of talent!
Without Llewellyn, how are we ever going to be the #1 team in the nation in "dumb penalties"?
Moffe
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