Two players won't be spending the second half of the season with Michigan State, which all things considered, may not be that bad of a deal for them.
Freshman forward Mike Merrifield will return to junior hockey for the rest of the year, before coming back to Michigan State in the fall. Merrifield had only played in 6 games in the first half of the season, though he did register a goal in Tuesday's exhibition loss to the NTDP U18 team. This probably isn't a bad decision given that Merrifield probably should have been playing junior hockey all year anyway. After succeeding in the NAHL as a rookie last year, he was scheduled to play in the USHL this year, but was called to campus early due to offseason departures, and he obviously wasn't ready.
Defenseman Ryan Turek was released from the team for failing to meet the expectations of the team. Turek's lack of success is pretty disappointing. He was a 4th round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues--incidentally, drafted in the same round by the same team as Travis Erstad, who is now playing D-3 hockey. Turek was also among the first group of "early commits" to choose a school years in advance of actually enrolling in college.
Freshman forward Mike Merrifield will return to junior hockey for the rest of the year, before coming back to Michigan State in the fall. Merrifield had only played in 6 games in the first half of the season, though he did register a goal in Tuesday's exhibition loss to the NTDP U18 team. This probably isn't a bad decision given that Merrifield probably should have been playing junior hockey all year anyway. After succeeding in the NAHL as a rookie last year, he was scheduled to play in the USHL this year, but was called to campus early due to offseason departures, and he obviously wasn't ready.
Defenseman Ryan Turek was released from the team for failing to meet the expectations of the team. Turek's lack of success is pretty disappointing. He was a 4th round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues--incidentally, drafted in the same round by the same team as Travis Erstad, who is now playing D-3 hockey. Turek was also among the first group of "early commits" to choose a school years in advance of actually enrolling in college.