It's only a week until Michigan hockey fans get a first look
at the 2011-12 Wolverines in an exhibition game against the University
of Ontario Institute of Technology. For the first part of
my season preview, let's take a look at the departures and the players
who will be joining the squad.
Departures:
Scooter
Vaughan, Chad Langlais, Carl Hagelin, Ben Winnett, Matt Rust, Louie
Caporusso, and Bryan Hogan exhausted their eligibility. Brandon Burlon
decided to forego his senior season and signed a professional contract.
Also, Jacob Fallon and Tristin Llewellyn will not be back. Llewellyn was
out of eligibility anyway, and it was determined that Fallon would not
return. That's ten players gone from a team that made the National
Championship game last season, and almost all of them were heavy
contributors.
Scooter Vaughan was the most improved
player on the team and one of the most improved players in the country.
He really took to playing forward, and after scoring just 14 points in
his first three seasons, he exploded for 14-10--24 as a senior. He also
had a +15 rating, after being a +10 through his first three seasons. He
scored some darn pretty goals as well.
Langlais was the
iron man. The Wolverines played 173 games during his career and he was
in the lineup for all of them, setting the Michigan record for
consecutive games played. Only Ted Kramer suited up that many times for
the Maize and Blue, and had that damn ref kept the whistle in his pocket
two years ago, Chad would stand alone at the top. As it is, he played
the most games of any Michigan defenseman in history and finished his
career 16th for points amongst defensemen.
It almost
completely goes without saying that Carl Hagelin is a huge loss. He was a
staple on Michigan's penalty killing unit since he arrived on campus,
locked down the CCHA's Best Defensive Forward award as a senior, won
numerous academic awards, won the team MVP award twice, and, oh, just
happened to put up 152 points in 171 games and registered a +78 rating. 6
of his 18 goals a year ago were game-winners. Who will ever forget his
Senior Night magic against Western Michigan? Plain and simple, one of my
favorite Wolverine players of all-time. He makes the pantheon with
Ortmeyer and JMFJ.
Winnett never put up the offensive
numbers that were expected with him coming out of the BCHL and all
(21-27--48 for his career), but he developed into a very-solid two-way
player. He played his best hockey at the end of his career. He had the
game-winning goal against North Dakota in the NCAA Semifinals this past
season and also scored in the National Championship game.
Rust
was just a solid all-around guy. He posted 111 points in 164 games,
including 40 points as a junior. While he didn't have the kind of season
offensively as a season that I'm sure he was looking for, he was an
integral part of the team and still managed to end the year second in
assists and third in points. He was also a killer faceoff guy, Camp
Randall Hockey Classic not withstanding.
Hogan will go
down as having had one of the strangest careers in the history of
Michigan hockey. As a freshman, he was expected to come in and compete
for playing time from the get-go. He caught mono, Billy Sauer got it
together, and Hogan barely played. Then Sauer had another meltdown at
the Pepsi Center and Hogan was thrown in in the Frozen Four. He had one
of the best statistical seasons in the history of our program as a
sophomore (24-6-0, 1.97, .914) and then was done in by his groin in
back-to-back seasons. His injury against Notre Dame as a junior turned
the reigns over to Shawn Hunwick and the magical run a couple years ago.
Senior year, he split time with Hunwick but seemed to be in position to
be named the full-time starter before he injured his groin again and
Hunwick led the squad to the National Championship Game.
I
don't know that we ever got the full story on Burlon. Various rumblings
indicated that he was unhappy about being a healthy scratch in the
Frozen Four after missing some time late in the season. Whatever the
reason, he decided to turn pro. He had 5-13--18 last season with a +14
rating and ended the year as an All-CCHA Honorable Mention. It would've
been really nice to have him back for his senior year, but I think the
Wolverines will have an easier time handling a loss on defense than they
would have been able to deal with David Wohlberg, for instance, turning
pro.
(It's also worth mentioning that goaltender John
Gibson never made it to campus. Apparently there's this league called
the OHL. I hadn't heard of them either. Anyway, when he found out about
that league, it proved to be too tempting and he decided to go that
route.)
Incoming Players:
Looking to replace the excellent senior class are a group of nine freshmen.
Mike
Chiasson was a late addition to the class. He committed in late-May,
which pretty much put an end to the rumors that Burlon had a change of
heart and was going to return for his senior year. He's the son of
former NHLer (and Red Wing) Steve Chiasson, and wears #3 just like him.
He's an older freshman (20) and brings 122 games of USHL experience to
the table. He had 4-11--15 for the Omaha Lancers last season, and was
unanimously selected as team captain. With the losses of Burlon,
Langlais, and Llewellyn, there are some minutes to be had on the blue
line. Given his age and USHL experience, I'd expect that he would be
able to come in and play right away.
Brennan Serville
is another defenseman, and a highly-regarded one at that. A former
Canisius commit, he was a 3rd-round pick of the Winnipeg Jets in the
2011 entry draft. GM Kevin Cheveldayoff cited his skating ability and
his size as reasons that they drafted him fairly early on. Serville is
listed at 6'3", 194. He played for the Stouffville Spirit of the OJHL
and posted a 3-27--30 line in 36 games. He also represented Canada
(along with Zach Hyman) in the 2010 World Junior A Challenge. He sounds
like he has the potential to be a big-time player at this level. I'm
looking forward to finally seeing him on the ice.
Phil
Di Giuseppe really intrigues me. He was a member of the OJHL's
Villanova Knights the past two seasons. Last year he scored 24 goals and
assisted on 39 others in 49 games. He also posted 16 points in 10
playoff games. Those numbers were good for 29th in league scoring (47th
in goals, 26th in assists), but now keep this in mind: Di Giuseppe is an
October of 1993 birthday. Of the 28 players that finished ahead of him
in scoring, there were 5 92s (including Zach Hyman, who we'll get to in a
minute), 8 91s, and the rest were 90s. Not only was he the
highest-scoring 1993 birthday in the league, he's
almost a 94
birthday. That's why I'm really interested to see what he's going to
become in his career. He put up really nice numbers and he'll only be 17
when he plays his first game for the Wolverines. He has good size
(6'1", 200) as well. He's kind of an under-the-radar recruit because
there isn't a ton of information out there about the OJHL and it wasn't
his draft year, but he could be another guy that replaces some of that
scoring that was lost in the offseason.
Zach Hyman is
the third of our incoming recruits that played in the OJHL last year.
Dominated might be a better word. He had 42-60--102 in 43 games, which
was good for second in the league in scoring. (The kid that had 109
points played in 5 more games and was 2 years older). He was third in
goals and second in assists. The accolades kept rolling in: He was named
the Canadian Junior A Player of the Year, the top pro prospect, the
most gentlemanly player, and the MVP of the Hamilton Red Wings. His
story is well-documented: A Princeton commit, he decided to look around
after Princeton's head coach took the top job at Penn State. He and his
brother Spence (a 2012 or 2013 commit) both committed on the same day to
Red Berenson. Hyman was a 5th round pick of the Florida Panthers in
2010, at least partially due to concerns about him continuing to play in
the OJHL instead of opting for the OHL like former linemates Jeff
Skinner and Tyler Seguin.
As I mentioned when he committed,
8 of the last 11 players to win CJHL Player of the Year and then play
college hockey scored 10 goals and 30 points as a freshman. One of the
guys that didn't ended up winning the Hobey. All 11 ended up being
productive college players (with at least one 30-40 point season to
their credit). This is the guy to watch.
Andrew Sinelli
is an interesting story. He committed to FYS a couple years back. At
that time, he was right there with Luke Moffatt at the top of the MWEHL
scoring ranks. Since then, he hasn't been nearly as prolific
offensively, but it sounds like he's kind of reinvented himself. He
calls himself a high-energy forward that likes to hit and likes to block
shots. When he's in the lineup, I'd expect to see him spending some
time on the penalty kill. He filled that role in the USHL and with
Winnett, Caporusso, Vaughan, Hagelin, and Rust all graduating, there are
plenty of spots available on the PK. He had 6-3--9 in 45 games last
season and 6-11--17 the year before.
I cited Di
Giuseppe as an intriguing prospect, but Travis Lynch might be right
there with him. He, too, calls himself a fast player that likes to throw
his body around. He comes from the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL.
Actually, he may have more offensive punch than has been previously
thought. In the first 30 games for the Gamblers, he had 5-3--8 (he had 5
points through 24 games). That was right around the time he committed,
so I had him pegged as a checker and penalty killer. He absolutely
caught fire in the second half of the season and ended up second on the
team in goals, 4th on the team in points, and rose up into the top-25 in
league scoring. After scoring points in 8 of the first 30 games (which
was the halfway point of the season), he was only held
off the
score sheet seven times the remainder of the year. In the final 30
games, he posted 15-21--36. If he had kept up that pace the entire
season, he would've been 4th in the league in goals, sixth in assists,
and fourth in points. Suddenly, the checker/PKer looks like another guy
that could contribute offensively as well.
Mike Szuma
is a preferred walk-on on the blueline. He hails from Novi and played
for the Michigan Warriors in the NAHL last year. He posted 7-15--22 in
56 games and was invited to the NAHL Top Prospect Showcase. Coach Moe
Mantha said that he can play both ends of the ice, and that he's a
mobile defenseman.
Alex Guptill is the fifth forward in
the class. He played in the OJHL for a couple of seasons before moving
to the USHL's Waterloo Black Hawks for the 2010-11 campaign. He's tall,
if not big (6'3", 189). He fought through an injury-plagued season to
score 13-12--25 in 43 games. The Dallas Stars made him a 3rd round
selection in the 2010 Draft. I didn't have a link about this when I
originally posted about it, and I don't see it in his MGoBlue bio, but I
wrote before that he received a top prospect award from the OHA that
was previously given to Mike Cammalleri, Andrew Cogliano, and Jeff
Carter.
The final new Wolverine is goaltender Luke
Dwyer. He's a sophomore that previously started for four years at Ann
Arbor Huron and was all-state twice.
Melissa from The Yost Post has her take on the new
defensemen and
forwards.
