I decided to take a brief break from my college hockey addiction, and switch over to major junior hockey for a couple minutes today, particularly to check out how players with colle hockey ties were doing.
Probably the least surprising news is that former Minnesota commit Peter Mueller and Angelo Esposito, who was highly recruited by just about every school at Shattuck-St. Mary's are each leading their respective leagues in rookie scoring. Mueller has 7 goals and 12 assists in his first 14 games in the WHL, while Esposito has 17 goals and 18 assists in just 16 games in the more wide open QMJHL.
On a much more surprising note, Jeff Kryzakos, who left Western Michigan last season in his first year at the school, is currently 11th in the OHL in scoring with 12 goals and 14 assists in 14 games.
A change in scenery also seems to helped former Wisconsin Badger Matt Auffrey. Auffrey left the Badgers a few weeks ago, and has put up 3 goals and an assist in his first four games.
Jared Boll, who left Minnesota-Duluth to play in the OHL, is also having a nice rookie campaign. He's scored 5 goals and 4 assists in 14 games, which is good for 16th among rookies this year.
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4 comments:
The statistical success of these pre-college age guys in the CHL like Mueller and Esposito further convince me that NCAA is the better route for top players to take. Mueller, Esposito and others who have gone that route would have been pushed harder by the physical maturity and stregth of the older college guys and they would be facing players with similar skills.
You can bet that neither of these two players would have stepped into NCAA hockey this year and put up big numbers right away like they are in the CHL. That says a lot to me about how overrated the CHL is when all its defenders pipe up about how much better their game is compared to college hockey.
seconded.
Not only that, but NCAA defensive systems are much more sophisticated than CHL hockey. A player playing NCAA hockey will be more prepared for professional defenses than a CHL player.
I watched Jared Boll play in the USHL last year. All he is, is an enforcer.
Will be interesting to see if leaving college was the right thing, not sure thou.
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