Having a Seat Over There: Tyler Motte

Another member of Detroit Honeybaked is headed to Ann Arbor. MHNet gets the HT on this one. Tyler Motte has committed to Michigan to join the incoming class of 2013. He's a 5'11" 178 forward. He's posted 21-14--35 in 32 games so far this season, which ranks him first in goals and second in points on his team. He's been held off the scoresheet in just eight games and has 5-2--7 in his last five games. He's 7th in goals and 13th in points in the MWEHL. Honeybaked is 28-2-2 on the season. Their only two losses have come to JT Compher's Team Illinois.

Motte has been really good ever since he joined the MWEHL. He's averaged over a point per game in all four of his seasons and has 84-68--152 in 125 career games. He was (again) first in goals and second in points on last year's Honeybaked squad.


The Scouting News (yeah, I know...) used the word "indefatigable" to describe him, which is kind of awesome.

The coach of the Port Huron Fighting Falcons commented six months ago that: "He's playing like an 18- or 19-year-old, and for a '95 to do that is pretty amazing ... If he plays with Honeybaked, they're going to have the best player in the nation."

So yeah, sounds like another good get!

While I'm having a seat over here, MHNet also tweeted a good article about Compher which gets extra bonus points for giving a shout out to this site--or at least one of the commenters on it! The director of player personnel for USA Hockey compared him to Ryan Kesler, which, yeah I'd be okay with that....


The Daily has been killing it. They've got a really great--and really long!--feature about Carl Hagelin. In the article we find out about the strange violin celebration during the Big Chill.

“Two of my cousins (came from Sweden) and one of them said ‘You should do the violin, (Axel [his uncle, who was killed in the tsunami a few years ago-ed]) would’ve loved it,’ ” Carl said. “So we talked before, and said ‘That would be great, my dad would’ve loved if you did that.’ We were kind of joking around then. But when I scored, I felt like that was the right thing to do.”

Michael Florek mentions what might be the stupidest NCAA violation ever in his article about the fans giving Carl the Swedish flag:

Right now, the flag sits in Hagelin’s locker. The plan is to take it back to Sweden. But it might have to get by compliance first.
“Someone said it might be against NCAA rules to keep the flag so we’ll see what happens,” Hagelin said. 

Fine. Put it back in the crowd for the rest of the season, waive it in St. Paul and give it to him when he's no longer a student athlete. You gotta be in compliance. This is a hand-made flag. We're not talking about something minor, like free cars whenever you want to use them.

I agree with Mark Burns: If we're getting to St. Paul, it's going to have to start with the defense. We've got the talent on the blueline and between the pipes (amazingly) to make a run. I don't think we're going to outscore teams, but play solid defense, get solid goaltending and you give yourself a chance.