Rem Pitlick Commits to Minnesota

Shattuck-St. Mary's '97 born forward Rem Pitlick verbally committed to play college hockey for Minnesota. Pitlick is the son of former Gopher and long-time NHL defenseman Lance Pitlick.

Pitlick has long been considered a talented offensive player, but his incredibly small size--Shattuck listed him at 5'3" 130 lbs. last year--has raised some concerns about his long-term potential. Last season,  finished third on Shattuck-St. Mary's U16 team in scoring with 15 goals and 37 assists for 52 points. In the spring, the Waterloo Blackhawks of the USHL made him their first round pick in the Phase 1 draft, selecting him 12th overall.

In many regards, Pitlick has followed the same path as incoming Gopher freshman Taylor Cammarata, who was also a scoring prodigy at a young age, before heading off the Shattuck-St. Mary's, where he had great success. Also like Cammarata, Pitlick makes up for a lack of size and explosive skating ability with excellent hands and keen hockey sense. It's perhaps no coincidence that Pitlick will also play for the same USHL team that Cammarata starred with for two seasons. That said, Cammarata was much more dominant in his U16 year at Shattuck, and was ready to play in the USHL at age 16, whereas Pitlick will return to Shattuck, suggesting that perhaps the enormous size differential he has to face is starting to catch up to him a little bit.

Pitlick will be a high school junior next season, making him eligible for the Gophers' 2015 recruiting class, though would likely spend a year or two after graduation playing junior hockey before joining Minnesota's team.