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.
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5 comments:
Ryan is a good kid....it had to be something other than his play. He has been a regular on defense for the Spartans this season, and with Sturges out for the season they cannot afford to just let another d-man go. Lets hope he can fix whatever is wrong andcontinue his education elsewhere.
releasing players from the team? Must be more to the story as Turek has been a regular in the line-up. another issue like AJ Thelen?
What exactly was the AJ Thelan issue? Was it more than just marks?
Granted that this is a blog, so by definition, there will be those that want to gossip/speculate when someone fails; but let's keep in mind that these are young kids, and that although most of them are no longer minors, they still should be allowed some sense of privacy; this is, after all, supposed to be a blog about hockey; the team did the right thing by being vague in its release language; Comley runs a respectable program so why not just leave it alone.
Leave the skeletons in the closet, there are always differnet sides to stories and actions. these are big time programs, and it takes a huge comittment off and on the ice to be a part of sucess. Kids make mistakes and they are held accountable.
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