Which Prospects Crack the Opening Night Roster?

[George Zipp]

I really don’t expect Carbonneau to make the team but he sure looked like a man against boys at the development camp. Perhaps because I had my eye on him but he looked very talented.

I think he’d be much better served going to BC than to attend camp and try to make the NHL. I think the thought of him being close to NHL ready is a crock of poo. He’s more physically developed than most 18 yr olds and he’s on the older side of his draft class but he really needs to work on passing, playmaking, utilizing teammates more etc. He’s simply not pro ready.

He could do that development in the Q but he’s already played 3 years there and college hockey is a higher caliber and l think he’d be better served going that route. But…he’d have to delay signing a contract and thus the $97.5k signing bonus that’d come with it. My guess is he may choose to take the money (he’ll get the money either way but it’d be delayed a bit if he went the college route).

I have been refreshing this page daily to see if his name pops up under the Brigadoon-Bologna Armoire
https://www.sportsnet.ca/juniors/articl ... ege-ranks/

Incidentally I count about 20 players going to the ECAC mostly to Clarkson, Quinnipiac, St. Lawerence. 0 for my team. I notice a lot of the players heading to college are undrafted older players, and there could be reasons both general logical college decisions as well as potential extensions of career reasons for that.

If he goes Q he remains open for the 9 game trial, but I wouldn't expect him to go to college midseason, nor would I expect him to commit all next season to college if he doesn't commit before the beginning of this one. Would he really play a long competitive year on an excellent team in juniors and then emerge from that with the mindset he's not quite ready? You can tell he thinks he is readier than he is.

Yeah, lots of undrafted 20 yr olds and CHLers that have aged out of Jrs are now going the NCAA route instead of USports or trying to get a AHL/ECHL deal.

There would be no going to college mid-season if Carbo attended Blues training camp or signed an NHL contract. The NCAA would consider him a pro if he did either of those things and he’d thus lose his amateur status.

Just what is happening with NIL in college hockey?

I don't hear much about it unlike the other majors.

There’s not a lot of confirmable details out there. I’ve heard it’s not much but I’ve also heard numbers ranging from $100k to $250k thrown out there for big names like McKenna and Martone. I’ve heard the teams from the Big East and the Big Ten are the ones with the most money to throw around. Yet I’ve also heard that the visa Canadians (and anyone from. Europe as well) would be on, would make it impossible to take NIL money. And yet I’ve heard there’s a work-around for that.

Sounds all pretty wishy washy? Yeah, it does. The TL;DR version is: I don’t know. There’s a lot of conflicting info out there. Probably because it’s so new but also because it’s something a lot of people probably don’t really want the details to be known about.

Unless it’s an older article pretty sure McKenna committed to Penn St today. Safe to say with all the NIL money in Happy Valley that he broke the record for college hockey. I’d love to know what they are paying him. Guessing it’s WELL north of 250k.

[rezero]

Dvorsky makes the team. He almost made it out of camp last year. This year he sticks.

Unless Dvorsky’s defense improves I think he will be back in Springfield learning a 200’ game. Last year his offense gave him a shot, but his defense was not NHL ready. This is one of the items they talked about last year and the question will be how much he improved last year.

Alexandrov has a shot to make the Blues out of camp as he had a great second half for Springfield last year.

[clemonsonroots]

They want a prospect to make the team and take the 3rd line wing opening. If one doesn't, then Joseph and Texier will both still be here opening night. I put it at 60 percent chance Dvorsky 20 percent chance we keep both Joseph and Texier 15 percent chance Carbonneau 5 percent chance one of Stenberg, Pekarcic, Stancl, Mrsic, Peterson, kaskamaki, or dean make the roster opening night. Personally, I want Carbonneau on that line. I know he is young but I salivate at the thought of a third line of Neighbors Schenn Carbonneau. It would be a nightmare for other teams. I would slide Suter to the 2nd line between Holloway and Kyrou. If they keep Schenn there, that is great too, but I feel like what Suter does best is exactly what you need between those two. They can use their speed and puck skills while Suter can excel at winning faceoffs, putting himself in the right position to accept a great scoring opportunity and be the defense focused forward to enable those two to create offensively. I like the idea of the physical line of Neighbors/Schenn/Carbonneau along with the offensive ability being a grinding, deflating trio pushed onto other teams.
My ideal lineup:
Buchnevich Thomas Snugeruud
Holloway Suter Kyrou
Neighbors Schenn Carbonneau
Toropchenko Bjustad Walker
Joseph Sunny

[zamadoo]

They want a prospect to make the team and take the 3rd line wing opening. If one doesn't, then Joseph and Texier will both still be here opening night. I put it at 60 percent chance Dvorsky 20 percent chance we keep both Joseph and Texier 15 percent chance Carbonneau 5 percent chance one of Stenberg, Pekarcic, Stancl, Mrsic, Peterson, kaskamaki, or dean make the roster opening night. Personally, I want Carbonneau on that line. I know he is young but I salivate at the thought of a third line of Neighbors Schenn Carbonneau. It would be a nightmare for other teams. I would slide Suter to the 2nd line between Holloway and Kyrou. If they keep Schenn there, that is great too, but I feel like what Suter does best is exactly what you need between those two. They can use their speed and puck skills while Suter can excel at winning faceoffs, putting himself in the right position to accept a great scoring opportunity and be the defense focused forward to enable those two to create offensively. I like the idea of the physical line of Neighbors/Schenn/Carbonneau along with the offensive ability being a grinding, deflating trio pushed onto other teams.
My ideal lineup:
Buchnevich Thomas Snugeruud
Holloway Suter Kyrou
Neighbors Schenn Carbonneau
Toropchenko Bjustad Walker
Joseph Sunny

I agree with you here. Even if Carb only gets a 9 game stint, if he comes in and earns a spot I'd like to see them give it to him and see if we've got something special here. With the option to send him to Jrs, I don't think it would hurt his development as a guy turning 19 in Nov. He's a RH shot, natural RW, who will have to beat out a bunch of LH shooters. It puts him on a line with our best protectors and some guys who can help bring him along.

On the other hand, I've been hoping Dvo takes that spot and would be fine with it, but now I'm leaning towards keeping those Springfield guys together and letting them learn and grow together as the new core. Let Dvo stay at C. Suter/Bjugstad signings pushed the depth down to allow Dvo and Dean to keep developing in Springfield, but at the same time not be buried and be ready for first callups.

Springfield will be stacked with all the Euro guys drafted in the last several years and Dean/Dvo centering the top-6. Breeds winning culture.

[somni]

Another surprise player could be Kaskimäki. He's 21 and will turn 22 in February. He's only had one year with Springfield, so maybe he's more of a mid-season callup. But Army did mention him on the season end press conference.

[STL fan in MN]

I really don’t expect Carbonneau to make the team but he sure looked like a man against boys at the development camp. Perhaps because I had my eye on him but he looked very talented.

I think he’d be much better served going to BC than to attend camp and try to make the NHL. I think the thought of him being close to NHL ready is a crock of poo. He’s more physically developed than most 18 yr olds and he’s on the older side of his draft class but he really needs to work on passing, playmaking, utilizing teammates more etc. He’s simply not pro ready.

He could do that development in the Q but he’s already played 3 years there and college hockey is a higher caliber and l think he’d be better served going that route. But…he’d have to delay signing a contract and thus the $97.5k signing bonus that’d come with it. My guess is he may choose to take the money (he’ll get the money either way but it’d be delayed a bit if he went the college route).

I have been refreshing this page daily to see if his name pops up under the Brigadoon-Bologna Armoire
https://www.sportsnet.ca/juniors/articl ... ege-ranks/

Incidentally I count about 20 players going to the ECAC mostly to Clarkson, Quinnipiac, St. Lawerence. 0 for my team. I notice a lot of the players heading to college are undrafted older players, and there could be reasons both general logical college decisions as well as potential extensions of career reasons for that.

If he goes Q he remains open for the 9 game trial, but I wouldn't expect him to go to college midseason, nor would I expect him to commit all next season to college if he doesn't commit before the beginning of this one. Would he really play a long competitive year on an excellent team in juniors and then emerge from that with the mindset he's not quite ready? You can tell he thinks he is readier than he is.

Yeah, lots of undrafted 20 yr olds and CHLers that have aged out of Jrs are now going the NCAA route instead of USports or trying to get a AHL/ECHL deal.

There would be no going to college mid-season if Carbo attended Blues training camp or signed an NHL contract. The NCAA would consider him a pro if he did either of those things and he’d thus lose his amateur status.

Just what is happening with NIL in college hockey?

I don't hear much about it unlike the other majors.

There’s not a lot of confirmable details out there. I’ve heard it’s not much but I’ve also heard numbers ranging from $100k to $250k thrown out there for big names like McKenna and Martone. I’ve heard the teams from the Big East and the Big Ten are the ones with the most money to throw around. Yet I’ve also heard that the visa Canadians (and anyone from. Europe as well) would be on, would make it impossible to take NIL money. And yet I’ve heard there’s a work-around for that.

Sounds all pretty wishy washy? Yeah, it does. The TL;DR version is: I don’t know. There’s a lot of conflicting info out there. Probably because it’s so new but also because it’s something a lot of people probably don’t really want the details to be known about.

Unless it’s an older article pretty sure McKenna committed to Penn St today. Safe to say with all the NIL money in Happy Valley that he broke the record for college hockey. I’d love to know what they are paying him. Guessing it’s WELL north of 250k.

Yep, McKenna to Penn State now seems official.

According to this Penn St recruiting twitter page, he got in the neighborhood of $700k to play there.

https://x.com/hvhorizonspsu/status/194 ... 1K-FGmcAg

[skilles]

I really don’t expect Carbonneau to make the team but he sure looked like a man against boys at the development camp. Perhaps because I had my eye on him but he looked very talented.

I think he’d be much better served going to BC than to attend camp and try to make the NHL. I think the thought of him being close to NHL ready is a crock of poo. He’s more physically developed than most 18 yr olds and he’s on the older side of his draft class but he really needs to work on passing, playmaking, utilizing teammates more etc. He’s simply not pro ready.

He could do that development in the Q but he’s already played 3 years there and college hockey is a higher caliber and l think he’d be better served going that route. But…he’d have to delay signing a contract and thus the $97.5k signing bonus that’d come with it. My guess is he may choose to take the money (he’ll get the money either way but it’d be delayed a bit if he went the college route).

I have been refreshing this page daily to see if his name pops up under the Brigadoon-Bologna Armoire
https://www.sportsnet.ca/juniors/articl ... ege-ranks/

Incidentally I count about 20 players going to the ECAC mostly to Clarkson, Quinnipiac, St. Lawerence. 0 for my team. I notice a lot of the players heading to college are undrafted older players, and there could be reasons both general logical college decisions as well as potential extensions of career reasons for that.

If he goes Q he remains open for the 9 game trial, but I wouldn't expect him to go to college midseason, nor would I expect him to commit all next season to college if he doesn't commit before the beginning of this one. Would he really play a long competitive year on an excellent team in juniors and then emerge from that with the mindset he's not quite ready? You can tell he thinks he is readier than he is.

Yeah, lots of undrafted 20 yr olds and CHLers that have aged out of Jrs are now going the NCAA route instead of USports or trying to get a AHL/ECHL deal.

There would be no going to college mid-season if Carbo attended Blues training camp or signed an NHL contract. The NCAA would consider him a pro if he did either of those things and he’d thus lose his amateur status.

Just what is happening with NIL in college hockey?

I don't hear much about it unlike the other majors.

There’s not a lot of confirmable details out there. I’ve heard it’s not much but I’ve also heard numbers ranging from $100k to $250k thrown out there for big names like McKenna and Martone. I’ve heard the teams from the Big East and the Big Ten are the ones with the most money to throw around. Yet I’ve also heard that the visa Canadians (and anyone from. Europe as well) would be on, would make it impossible to take NIL money. And yet I’ve heard there’s a work-around for that.

Sounds all pretty wishy washy? Yeah, it does. The TL;DR version is: I don’t know. There’s a lot of conflicting info out there. Probably because it’s so new but also because it’s something a lot of people probably don’t really want the details to be known about.

Unless it’s an older article pretty sure McKenna committed to Penn St today. Safe to say with all the NIL money in Happy Valley that he broke the record for college hockey. I’d love to know what they are paying him. Guessing it’s WELL north of 250k.

Yep, McKenna to Penn State now seems official.

According to this Penn St recruiting twitter page, he got in the neighborhood of $700k to play there.

https://x.com/hvhorizonspsu/status/194 ... 1K-FGmcAg

That is pretty low in relation to other sports, we are a wrestling family and the latest top recruit was just offered 5 million, A local D1 All American just took I believe 250K and that is in a sport less main stream than hockey.

[hornetfb52]

This is a bit off topic, but where does everyone see Stenberg slotting in, and how long till he makes it on the roster?

[BluesDom]

This is a bit off topic, but where does everyone see Stenberg slotting in, and how long till he makes it on the roster?

Next year I think. He should have a full AHL year and be a team leader and earn a call up.
He got his feet wet. Now lets see him for a full year in AHL. If he sets the world on fire--maybe sooner. Its up to him.

[hornetfb52]

This is a bit off topic, but where does everyone see Stenberg slotting in, and how long till he makes it on the roster?

Next year I think. He should have a full AHL year and be a team leader and earn a call up.
He got his feet wet. Now lets see him for a full year in AHL. If he sets the world on fire--maybe sooner. Its up to him.

Thanks for the reply. Sounds like a good plan.

[STL fan in MN]

This is a bit off topic, but where does everyone see Stenberg slotting in, and how long till he makes it on the roster?

Next year I think. He should have a full AHL year and be a team leader and earn a call up.
He got his feet wet. Now lets see him for a full year in AHL. If he sets the world on fire--maybe sooner. Its up to him.

I generally agree with this. He came over to N.A. half a season early but did surprisingly well for a 19 yr old in the 2nd best league in the world. Give him this year in the AHL and then we’ll see.

Obviously, the main unknown is what roster needs may be later this season or next. Are there any injuries that could open up an opportunity for him? Do other forwards get traded away like Bolduc was to open up an opportunity? That we don’t know yet but I feel pretty comfortable projecting Stenberg as becoming a solid middle-6 contributor for a long time. My hope is he can have an Alex Steen type of career but my guess is he ends up a notch below that. But still a very valuable piece to a team.

But with him, Stancl, Kaskimaki, Pekarcik, Carbonneau etc…if they all hit we could have a glut of wingers on our hands in a couple years. A good problem to have btw.

[STL fan in MN]

I really don’t expect Carbonneau to make the team but he sure looked like a man against boys at the development camp. Perhaps because I had my eye on him but he looked very talented.

I think he’d be much better served going to BC than to attend camp and try to make the NHL. I think the thought of him being close to NHL ready is a crock of poo. He’s more physically developed than most 18 yr olds and he’s on the older side of his draft class but he really needs to work on passing, playmaking, utilizing teammates more etc. He’s simply not pro ready.

He could do that development in the Q but he’s already played 3 years there and college hockey is a higher caliber and l think he’d be better served going that route. But…he’d have to delay signing a contract and thus the $97.5k signing bonus that’d come with it. My guess is he may choose to take the money (he’ll get the money either way but it’d be delayed a bit if he went the college route).

I have been refreshing this page daily to see if his name pops up under the Brigadoon-Bologna Armoire
https://www.sportsnet.ca/juniors/articl ... ege-ranks/

Incidentally I count about 20 players going to the ECAC mostly to Clarkson, Quinnipiac, St. Lawerence. 0 for my team. I notice a lot of the players heading to college are undrafted older players, and there could be reasons both general logical college decisions as well as potential extensions of career reasons for that.

If he goes Q he remains open for the 9 game trial, but I wouldn't expect him to go to college midseason, nor would I expect him to commit all next season to college if he doesn't commit before the beginning of this one. Would he really play a long competitive year on an excellent team in juniors and then emerge from that with the mindset he's not quite ready? You can tell he thinks he is readier than he is.

Yeah, lots of undrafted 20 yr olds and CHLers that have aged out of Jrs are now going the NCAA route instead of USports or trying to get a AHL/ECHL deal.

There would be no going to college mid-season if Carbo attended Blues training camp or signed an NHL contract. The NCAA would consider him a pro if he did either of those things and he’d thus lose his amateur status.

Just what is happening with NIL in college hockey?

I don't hear much about it unlike the other majors.

There’s not a lot of confirmable details out there. I’ve heard it’s not much but I’ve also heard numbers ranging from $100k to $250k thrown out there for big names like McKenna and Martone. I’ve heard the teams from the Big East and the Big Ten are the ones with the most money to throw around. Yet I’ve also heard that the visa Canadians (and anyone from. Europe as well) would be on, would make it impossible to take NIL money. And yet I’ve heard there’s a work-around for that.

Sounds all pretty wishy washy? Yeah, it does. The TL;DR version is: I don’t know. There’s a lot of conflicting info out there. Probably because it’s so new but also because it’s something a lot of people probably don’t really want the details to be known about.

Unless it’s an older article pretty sure McKenna committed to Penn St today. Safe to say with all the NIL money in Happy Valley that he broke the record for college hockey. I’d love to know what they are paying him. Guessing it’s WELL north of 250k.

Yep, McKenna to Penn State now seems official.

According to this Penn St recruiting twitter page, he got in the neighborhood of $700k to play there.

https://x.com/hvhorizonspsu/status/194 ... 1K-FGmcAg

That is pretty low in relation to other sports, we are a wrestling family and the latest top recruit was just offered 5 million, A local D1 All American just took I believe 250K and that is in a sport less main stream than hockey.

$5M for a college wrestler??! What school can afford/justify that?

Yeah, hockey is just getting started with NIL stuff. But if this $700k number is true, it’s groundbreaking, at least in the world of hockey.

[bstpete11]

I don't think Carboneau has a chance at making the roster this year. If he signs a contract, I think that makes him ineligible to play NCAA and he'd have to go back to the Q if he doesn't make the team. He's probably too physically developed for the Q to continue to help his development and would be much better served going to BC and playing against older competition. He'll also make at least some NIL money, albeit not anywhere close to the $700k McKenna just got, so he's not totally passing on a paycheck. Maybe we see him as a late season call-up like Snuggerud was this year, but realistically he probably signs his contract next off-season if the Blues think he's ready for the big club or he plays at BC for the next 2 seasons.

Ideally, Dvorsky makes the team out of camp and he's your 3rd line RW with Suter and Neighbours. Everything I've read about Suter is he is excellent defensively and he could help cover some of Dvorsky's mistakes as he develops his defensive game and adjusts to the NHL. A top 9 of: Buch-Thomas-Snuggy; Holloway-Schenn-Kyrou; Neighbours-Suter-Dvorsky; is pretty solid with some upside if some of the young guys breakout.

However, if they think it'd be better for Dvorsky to continue playing C in the AHL, then maybe we see someone like Stennberg grab that last top 9 spot. Worst case scenario, our third line is Neighbours-Suter-Toropchenko/Texier/Joseph. Which isn't horrible, it'd just be nice to push those 3 down into the 4th line rotation so that 3rd line can provide a little more offense.

[skilles]

I really don’t expect Carbonneau to make the team but he sure looked like a man against boys at the development camp. Perhaps because I had my eye on him but he looked very talented.

I think he’d be much better served going to BC than to attend camp and try to make the NHL. I think the thought of him being close to NHL ready is a crock of poo. He’s more physically developed than most 18 yr olds and he’s on the older side of his draft class but he really needs to work on passing, playmaking, utilizing teammates more etc. He’s simply not pro ready.

He could do that development in the Q but he’s already played 3 years there and college hockey is a higher caliber and l think he’d be better served going that route. But…he’d have to delay signing a contract and thus the $97.5k signing bonus that’d come with it. My guess is he may choose to take the money (he’ll get the money either way but it’d be delayed a bit if he went the college route).

I have been refreshing this page daily to see if his name pops up under the Brigadoon-Bologna Armoire
https://www.sportsnet.ca/juniors/articl ... ege-ranks/

Incidentally I count about 20 players going to the ECAC mostly to Clarkson, Quinnipiac, St. Lawerence. 0 for my team. I notice a lot of the players heading to college are undrafted older players, and there could be reasons both general logical college decisions as well as potential extensions of career reasons for that.

If he goes Q he remains open for the 9 game trial, but I wouldn't expect him to go to college midseason, nor would I expect him to commit all next season to college if he doesn't commit before the beginning of this one. Would he really play a long competitive year on an excellent team in juniors and then emerge from that with the mindset he's not quite ready? You can tell he thinks he is readier than he is.

Yeah, lots of undrafted 20 yr olds and CHLers that have aged out of Jrs are now going the NCAA route instead of USports or trying to get a AHL/ECHL deal.

There would be no going to college mid-season if Carbo attended Blues training camp or signed an NHL contract. The NCAA would consider him a pro if he did either of those things and he’d thus lose his amateur status.

Just what is happening with NIL in college hockey?

I don't hear much about it unlike the other majors.

There’s not a lot of confirmable details out there. I’ve heard it’s not much but I’ve also heard numbers ranging from $100k to $250k thrown out there for big names like McKenna and Martone. I’ve heard the teams from the Big East and the Big Ten are the ones with the most money to throw around. Yet I’ve also heard that the visa Canadians (and anyone from. Europe as well) would be on, would make it impossible to take NIL money. And yet I’ve heard there’s a work-around for that.

Sounds all pretty wishy washy? Yeah, it does. The TL;DR version is: I don’t know. There’s a lot of conflicting info out there. Probably because it’s so new but also because it’s something a lot of people probably don’t really want the details to be known about.

Unless it’s an older article pretty sure McKenna committed to Penn St today. Safe to say with all the NIL money in Happy Valley that he broke the record for college hockey. I’d love to know what they are paying him. Guessing it’s WELL north of 250k.

Yep, McKenna to Penn State now seems official.

According to this Penn St recruiting twitter page, he got in the neighborhood of $700k to play there.

https://x.com/hvhorizonspsu/status/194 ... 1K-FGmcAg

That is pretty low in relation to other sports, we are a wrestling family and the latest top recruit was just offered 5 million, A local D1 All American just took I believe 250K and that is in a sport less main stream than hockey.

$5M for a college wrestler??! What school can afford/justify that?

Yeah, hockey is just getting started with NIL stuff. But if this $700k number is true, it’s groundbreaking, at least in the world of hockey.

Iowa is where Bo Basset(wrestler) was offered 5 million , NiJaree Canady (Fastpitch softball pitcher for Texas Tech) just signed her second 7 figure deal.

NIL money does not come from the university, it comes from various Brand Endorsements and Sponsorships etc. outside of the university (allows athletes to sell their name/brand etc.)

I follow this stuff a little as I have a HS age (15) athlete daughter and other girls that I work with that have or will soon be entering the recruiting process.

[skilles]

It used to be easy

"win/dominate, have a great attitude, and have perfect grades"

Now there is much more on the table with social media presence, personality etc. having potential to draw life changing money.

Bo Basset is not just a great wrestler but also comes with a huge social media presence.

My daughter on the other hand is just a great athlete but not so great with the social presence stuff.

[BalotelliMassive]

Iowa is where Bo Basset(wrestler) was offered 5 million ,

I've been following wrestling since Ben was at Mizzou - this whole Bo Basset saga is a joke now. God told him to go to Iowa until they said that they wouldn't break NCAA rules for him to fly in for practice (he's not even a freshman in college yet) and at that point God told him that he was better off going somewhere else. I'm with the Brands on this one....this NIL money is ruining college sports quickly.