Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Michigan State Gets Top Recruit

Michigan State picked up a major recruit today when they got a commitment from Ontario forward Matt Duchene. Duchene wouldn't start at Michigan State until 2009. He's considered a top 5 draft pick in the 2009 NHL Draft.

Whether or not ever makes it to Michigan State will be the big question. Duchene will be eligible for the OHL Bantam draft next season, and OHL teams will be very interested in him. Not only will State have to worry about the advances of major junior, but Duchene will be drafted the summer before he would join Michigan State, meaning he could sign with an NHL team prior to attending college. If he stands firm in his commitment to college though, he will be a huge pick-up for Michigan State.

10 comments:

Eric J. Burton said...

It seems kind of early to start getting verbal committments out of players 3 years out.

Chris said...

He's the fourth player to commit for 2009. My guess is you might see a couple more for 2009 in about a month after the Select 15 Festival.

State had to take a chance on him before the OHL got a hold of him.

Anonymous said...

goon, Jack Johnson committed to UM as a 15 year-old, so it's not unprecedented.

Chris said...

Jack Johnson was the youngest player ever to commit at the time at the age of 15 years, 8 months.

I believe the youngest player ever to commit to a college is now David Wohlberg, who committed to Michigan at the age of 15 years, 1 month. He was about twenty days younger than Nick Pryor was when he committed to Wisconsin.

Anonymous said...

i'm planning on having a boy in a couple years, and my ovum has already verbally committed to michigan (~2027 or so). he'll skate before he walks.

Anonymous said...

very nice kristen.............Jack Johnson's granddaddy endowed a scholarship to UofM, so they sorta had to return the favour. Jack is good, but needs to mature with his game. He should play a couple more years and then go pro- where he will learn some lessons from the real goons in the show league.
He is tough now, but will dissappear there.

Chris said...

You're right. JJ's commitment to Michigan had everything to do with favoritism and nothing to do with ability. I heard he wasn't even the best player on his own team when Michigan offered him a scholarship. Some guy that didn't even play college hockey was like, way better.

Anonymous said...

He will end up in the OHL....period.

Anonymous said...

Wow Chris, whatever happened to that other guy Johnson played with anyway? Must have ended up being a bust.

Chris said...

He got shipped off to some hellhole. I'm pretty sure we've heard the last of him.