Gophers Hockey: Clay Hanus and Jake Boltmann commit to Minnesota

Minnesota received a pair of verbal commitments Thursday night from Twin Cities defensemen Clay Hanus and Jake Boltmann. Both are HS freshmen and 2001-born birthdays.

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Hanus, a teammate of Gopher commit Mike Koster on the Minnesota U16 Blades (a team coached by former Gopher Lance Pitlick), is considered to be one of the best MN-born defensemen in his age group. A left hand shot listed at 5’10”, 165 lbs, he is the son of former SCSU forward Tim Hanus (1988-1992).

Our Chris Dilks wrote about Hanus as part of his NAHL Showcase story earlier this week.

Clay Hanus-D-Minnesota Blades-A very talented defenseman that is a powerful, smooth skater, but had a little trouble with his decision-making and puck-moving at the faster U16 speed compared to some of the other times I’ve seen him.

Boltmann is the latest to commit from Edina, a pipeline that now features a half-dozen players including defensemen Clayton Phillips and Ben Brinkman. (Another Edina defensman, Ryan Zuhlsdorf, is a college freshman playing for the Gophers.) He is a right hand shot who attended the Minnesota Model camp this past summer.

More from Dilks:

Jake Boltmann-D-Edina-Boltmann is a good skater that uses his speed to push the puck up the ice offensively.

Both Hanus and Boltmann would not be on campus until 2019-2020 at the earliest. When they eventually depends upon their development and a growing number of commits in that age group.