Ohio State picked up two commitments from players in Ontario today. The first is Cornwall forward Ian Boots. He's a gritty player with very nice scoring ability.
The second player is one for the future. Forward Kelly Geoffrey of the Markham Midget Waxers also committed to the Buckeyes for the 2008 season. Geoffrey is pretty small, but also a talented playmaker. What's interesting is that Goeffrey is probably only the fourth best player on his midget team.
The other three players; Cody Hodgson, Michael del Zotto, and Steve Stamkos are considered to be three of the best players in Ontario for their age group. All three are expected to be very high picks in the OHL Draft this summer. Perhaps it's Canadian homerism, but I've seen Hodgson ranked ahead of US propsects like Phil McRae and A.J. Jenks. It's probably pretty unlikely that any of the three will ever end up playing college hockey, and probably rightfully so. They're probably better off going straight to the OHL than playing than spending two more years playing in a weaker junior league. One interesting caveat to this story is that Michigan recruiting guru Bob Miller hints at the fact that Hodgson may be interested in playing in the NCAA. That certainly would be interesting. If this were after the OHL draft, I'd write it off to a negotiating ploy to get a better deal with whichever team drafted him. Since it's before the draft, and toying with the NCAA would only hurt his draft stock, the story is a little more interesting to me, but I'd still be very surprised if he ever played college hockey.
Also, news of the players selected to the NTDP for next season is slowly starting to leak out. Chris Heisenberg has some of the players that agreed to play there up on his site. It had been reported that Jenks, Czarnik, Wohlberg, Florek, and Montpetit had all agreed to spots on the team before the tryout. Clemente was pretty much a lock to get one of the goal spots too. Mike Cichy and Joey Marciano are two guys that I had heard a lot of good things about and are listed on the team. I'll plead ignorance on Lorenz, Hegarty, Bogosian, and Corkum. Nick Pryor is also listed as being on the team. So go ahead anonymous Gopher fans. Start taking your shots at him now.
The second player is one for the future. Forward Kelly Geoffrey of the Markham Midget Waxers also committed to the Buckeyes for the 2008 season. Geoffrey is pretty small, but also a talented playmaker. What's interesting is that Goeffrey is probably only the fourth best player on his midget team.
The other three players; Cody Hodgson, Michael del Zotto, and Steve Stamkos are considered to be three of the best players in Ontario for their age group. All three are expected to be very high picks in the OHL Draft this summer. Perhaps it's Canadian homerism, but I've seen Hodgson ranked ahead of US propsects like Phil McRae and A.J. Jenks. It's probably pretty unlikely that any of the three will ever end up playing college hockey, and probably rightfully so. They're probably better off going straight to the OHL than playing than spending two more years playing in a weaker junior league. One interesting caveat to this story is that Michigan recruiting guru Bob Miller hints at the fact that Hodgson may be interested in playing in the NCAA. That certainly would be interesting. If this were after the OHL draft, I'd write it off to a negotiating ploy to get a better deal with whichever team drafted him. Since it's before the draft, and toying with the NCAA would only hurt his draft stock, the story is a little more interesting to me, but I'd still be very surprised if he ever played college hockey.
Also, news of the players selected to the NTDP for next season is slowly starting to leak out. Chris Heisenberg has some of the players that agreed to play there up on his site. It had been reported that Jenks, Czarnik, Wohlberg, Florek, and Montpetit had all agreed to spots on the team before the tryout. Clemente was pretty much a lock to get one of the goal spots too. Mike Cichy and Joey Marciano are two guys that I had heard a lot of good things about and are listed on the team. I'll plead ignorance on Lorenz, Hegarty, Bogosian, and Corkum. Nick Pryor is also listed as being on the team. So go ahead anonymous Gopher fans. Start taking your shots at him now.