It was quite the wild weekend at the NHL Draft in Pittsburgh. Four Wolverines were taken, one in the first round, two in the second, one in the fifth and Jordan Staal was informed at his wedding reception that he had been traded to the Carolina Hurricanes…this brings an entirely new meaning to the expression “living the hockey life”. You can’t escape what you do or who you are…even for a day!

The Winnipeg Jets, who last year selected Michigan defenseman Brennan Serville, added another Michigan defenseman, Jacob Trouba with the 9^th overall pick on Friday night. Trouba graduated from Pioneer High School this month and has spent the last two years training with the NDTP at the cube. He was drafted in the 2010 OHL draft by the Kitchener Rangers. He says he’s coming to Michigan…who are we to not believe him?

**It’s important to note, the only defenseman Michigan lost last year was Greg Pateryn to graduation. That means there are currently six defenseman on the team: Mike Chaisson, Kevin Clare, Brennan Serville, Lee Moffie, Jon Merrill, and Mike Szuma. This doesn’t count another incoming freshman Connor Carrick, who is also a graduate of the NDTP in Ann Arbor and Trouba. 8 defenseman, 6 spots…something may or may not give!**

Michigan sophomore, Phil DiGuiseppe was selected 38^th overall by the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round.

In round 2, the New York Rangers selected Cristoval “Boo” Nieves with the 59^th overall pick. He’s a forward out of New York who played 13 games in the USHL last year with the Indiana Ice after his school season (Kent School) ended.

He wants to go the college route according to this interview.

In the 5^th round, 137^th overall, the Washington Capitals selected Connor Carrick. Check out the interview below!

Carrick’s OHL rights were also traded to the Plymouth Whalers this week.

A huge congratulations to all the guys. It was a busy weekend for them and exciting to see and hear so many people talking about how talented and hard working they are. Michigan is lucky to have them, if they show up, and if not, good luck to them in whatever path they choose.

It’s that lovely time of year. A bunch of 18 year olds, some getting ready to go to college while others are electing to play juniors, are preparing for the rest of their hockey lives.

What team is going to draft me?  Where will I end up? Will I even play for the team that does draft me?

There are so many questions and so many variables that go into this weekend. One things for sure, these kids have earned every right to enjoy this weekend and all the draft has to offer them!

Who does Michigan have representing them in this year’s draft?

Phil Di Giuseppe just finished his freshman year in the maize and blue uniform. Going into the world junior tournament last December, he was third in overall points on the team with 14 (6 goals and 8 assists). He was selected to try out for Team Canada, but didn’t make the cut. He finished the season with 11 goals and 15 assists and was awarded CCHA All-Rookie Team Honorable Mention. He’s ranked 22^nd in the NHL Scouting Report.

The USA NTDP will give the Wolverines a few guys this fall.

Connor Carrick (defense), ranked 124^th in the NHL Scouting Report, has a good shot from the blue line. He’s not the biggest guy on the ice, but he’s a hard worker, the grinder type who won’t back down from anything. He’s also doesn’t back away from physical play, liking more to be involved in it than waiting in the wings. Many a time, I sat in the stands at the cube and Carrick was involved in some sort of scuffle. He’s smart on and off the ice and you can usually find him in the weight room.

Jacob Trouba (defense), ranked 9^th in the NHL Scouting Report, is being projected as a first round draft pick. Trouba has played for team USA in the last two World Junior Championships, winning two gold medals.

From Allan Muir:

Regarded as one of the best athletes in the draft, he’s a defenseman in the mold of Dion Phaneuf — nasty in his own end with the ability to make things happen in the offensive zone as well. He’s quick on his feet and makes the most of his size to intimidate opposing forwards. If there’s a chance to make the big hit, he’s happy to oblige. He’s aggressive with the puck and has a big bomb from the point. There are some questions about his ability to read the game defensively, but if a team thinks they can address this, Trouba could mature into a top-two defender.

Trouba has been in Pittsburgh since Wednesday participating in activities for the top prospects like taking batting practice at PNC Park and media day. Follow is twitter for updates.

I’ll be biting my nails over the next 24 hours while the draft is on…

A huge good luck to our Wolverines and just because, a huge good luck to Collin Olson (Ohio State)—favorite goalie ever!!, Brady Skjei (Minnesota), and Frank Vatrano (Boston College).

Sunday at 10 am, you should turn on TSN and watch the U-18 IIHF World Championship. If you don’t have TSN, you can watch the game on FastHockey.com. Fast Hockey does require you to register and pay to watch the game ($7.99).

Why?

• We are Americans and our Team is going for their 4^th gold medal in a row!
• We have an amazing team that consists of college bound players—except for a few, one is going to the Q and at least 3 are only juniors!
• This is the future of hockey in America as we know it!
• Seth Jones, a junior forward, is predicted as being the number 1 pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft and he currently sits in a tie for 14^th overall in the tournament with 3 goals and 4 assists. He’s also received 2 Best Player of the Game awards this tournament.

And if American pride and watching good, quality hockey won’t persuade you, four Michigan recruits are involved in tomorrow’s gold medal game vs. Sweden.

This is not a typo, 4 Michigan recruits!

Connor Carrick (D), Jacob Trouba (D), and Jared Rutledge (G) will all be on campus in August. J.T. Compher is a junor forward who will be in Ann Arbor next August.

Compher is tied for 9^th overall on +/- ratio with +6. Tied with teammate Brady Skjei who will be a Minnesota Golden Gopher come fall.

Ohio State recruit—don’t hold it against him—Collin Olson is listed as the number one goalie in the tournament with a save percentage of 95.51% through 4 games.

Jared Rutledge has played one game and he shut out Denmark, who USA beat 4-0.

So watch the game tomorrow!

USA! USA! USA!

Michigan recruit Jacob Trouba and Michigan  player Jon Merrill have both been named to the Team USA World Junior Championship Roster.

USA has put together a very experienced team–There are 22 members of the team, 19 of them are 19 years old (the cutoff is 20).

It is a huge accomplishment and pat on the back for Trouba to be selected to this team as a 17 year old.

From the Edmonton Jounral:

On the defensive end, I think 17-year-old defenceman Jacob Trouba makes this team as a third-pairing defenceman. Although he looked a little lost in his own end at times, his raw potential is pretty evident. Here’s what head coach Dean Blais had to say about Trouba’s game.

“He was very physical. He’s probably a year younger than most of the guys here. You like those 92s, as many as you can get. He’s definitely a strong hockey player, he plays with intensity and we need more like that from our entire defensive core. We need some hits. After two periods, there were three defencemen who didn’t have one hit. You’ve got to muck and grind and be a little bit more physical.”

Merrill is still on an idefinite suspension from the Michigan hockey team. This looks to be a good opportunity for him to show USA and the Michigan coaching staff that he is committed to the game. I’m not sure if his suspension will be re-evaluated now that the fall semester is complete, but it might. Maybe his play will be taken into consideration if there is talk he will be reinstated. I honestly have no idea and can only speculate.

This is the fourth time Merrill has played on the WJC team. In 2011, USA finished in third place. Merrill scored one goal and had 4 assists. In 2010, he had one assist. In 2009, Team USA won gold. 

From the College Hockey News:

“We’ve been in communication with Red Berenson and the University of Michigan,” USA Hockey assistant executive director, hockey operations, Jim Johansson, said in a recent conference call. “Jon’s situation at Michigan is that he’s being supported by Michigan and his participation with us is being supported by Red and Michigan. That was important for us in Jon’s involvement and his continued development as a student-athlete.

“With us, Jon’s got a long history in our programs and has performed extremely well for us and carried himself well in everything he’s done with us. For him to be involved with us, we, number one, wanted to make sure Michigan was on board with it and they are. Second, can he help our team? We think he can help our hockey team. So that led to his involvment with us. He’s been skating and he’s in great shape and should be ready to go, if his playing history carries with him, we expect him to be a big part of this team.”

The World Junior Championship will begin on December 26th in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Team USA will face Demark in their first game. Click here for the official IIHF site.

Good luck to Jacob and Jon! Go USA!

Michigan has World Junior prospects on their team!

The 2012 IIHF World Junior Championship will be held December 26, 2011 through January 5, 2012 in Calgary/Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

The Canadian Selection Camp Roster includes Michigan freshman Phil DiGiuseppe. He is one of two college players on the selection roster of all major junior players.

Phil is from Maple, Ontario and is leading the team in points this year with 14 along with junior Chris Brown. Phil has scored 8 goals and had 6 assists. His eight goals have him tied for most goals on the team with freshman Alex Guptill. He is a +10, second only to sophomore A.J. Treais  who is a +14.

Michigan Head Coach Red Berenson has stated that DiGiuseppe will miss this Saturday’s game versus Michigan State in East Lansing to attend WJC Camp.

The Team USA Preliminary WJC Roster lists Michigan sophomore defenseman Jon Merrill.

Merrill has not yet played a game for the maize and blue this year. He started off the year with a 12 game suspension for violation team rules—what rules, we don’t know, but if you’re going to suspend a player for nearly 1/3 of the season, there has to be a good reason! That 12 game suspension was later turned in an indefinite suspension.

Now would Team USA take into consideration that Merrill has not played a game since last April? Would they take into consideration that he has been suspended by the team he currently plays for?—well at first he was suspended only for 12 games and then it was changed to indefinite so something else must have happened to warrant that change (I’m speculating/assuming/my own opinion here)!  I have no idea what Team USA is planning, but I would assume so they would take this into consideration.

Michigan recruit and will be freshman next year, Jacob Trouba was also named to the Team USA Preliminary WJC Roster.  Trouba currently plays for the U.S. NTDP U-18 team.

Through 23 games this year, Trouba has 3 goals and 6 assists.

Michigan played their second and final exhibition game on Monday night when the hosted the team from literally 2 miles down the road–the under 18 USA NDTP–beating them 3-1. 

The first period was owned by the under 18 squad who got on the board first six minutes into the game on a goal from Nicolas Kerdiles. Assists came from Michigan recruit Jacob Trouba and Minnesota-Duluth recruit Kyle Osterberg.

Michigan was able to tie it up eight minutes later when Lindsay Sparks scored. Michigan outshot Team USA 12-7 in the first period, but Team USA had control of the game. USA was winning battles, was first to the puck, and was passing circles around the maize and blue. There was a lot of chasing going on with moments of clarity…

Then again, Michigan had seven of their freshman in the lineup, so you knew going into the game that it was going to be a bumpy ride, with only the game against Ontario Institute of Technology two nights before.

The second period saw 12 shots on goal for Michigan, but 14 shots on goal for Team USA. The tempo was taken up a notch, and Michigan seemed to start figuring things out. They began fighting back against the Team USA attack and creating some chances of their own.

USA defeseman and Michigan recruit Connor Carrick had to skate back to save what would have been a Michigan breakaway and distracted the forward enough that he only hit the post. Gasps were uttered around Yost Ice Arena, although their seemed to be hardly anyone in attendance–maybe 600 people?

Also in the second period, Michigan was able to score on a power play and take the lead for the eventual win when Luke Moffat found the back of the net.

The third period was when Michigan actually started looking like a team. All of a sudden they weren’t chasing Team USA around the ice, but skating with them and then eventually causing Team USA to have to chase the puck.  They started throwing their weight around.

Michigan increased their lead one minute into the third period which seemed to set the tone. Freshman Phil DiGiuseppe scored his second goal in as many games. He looks like a kid who is going to be fun to watch this year and is really finding his feet on the ice with his new teammates.

Random Notes:

Lindsay Sparks was EVERYWHERE last night….all over the ice and scored a goal.

The only time  I really saw Chris Brown was when he almost got into a fight with Connor Carrick in the third period. He was on the scoresheet with an assist, but the big guy really wasn’t knocking any of the high schoolers around like you would have figured he would. In fact, the high schoolers seemed to be knocking Michigan around a whole lot more than they were knocked around!

I am a HUGE Chris Brown fan, so I was shocked that I didn’t hear more of the high schoolers hitting the boards or landing on the ice.

****UPDATE******I guess Chris Brown knew I was writing about him because he just scored a goal to put U-M up 5-0 over Niagra in their first official game of the season!! WOHOOO Chris!!!

AND Lindsay Sparks has a hattrick!! Wowsers this is a different team than the one I saw play on Monday night!*******

A.J. Treais was 12/16 in the faceoff circle and had 2 assists.

This team has a LOT to work on, but I think with time they will work a lot of their kinks out. It also doesn’t help that their All CCHA Rookie team defenseman Jon Merrill is sitting out for another 10 games with a suspension for violating team rules. The good news is the newbies are getting some very needed playing time. There are a lot of holes that need to be filled…only a matter of finding the right group of guys on the ice.

“We got Jacob Trouba!” Sounds good to say, doesn’t it? It will sound even better if he does show up on campus next fall.

Personal opinion, we’ve got a 50/50 shot of him coming now that’s he’s verbally committed, but I believe him when he said the following this past summer:

“I don’t want to make a commitment and then back down from it,” Trouba told the media during the NHL’s Research, Development and Orientation Camp in August.

But Michigan fans have have been left with a bad taste in their mouth this past 2 years when recruits have jumped to the OHL after saying they would be wolverines–Jack Campbell and John Gibson. Granted, those guys were goalies and if you’re a hockey fan, you know that goalies are a little weird anyway!

Trouba is a defenseman, and one heck of a defenseman at that. He currently lives in Ann Arbor and plays for the Under 18 NTDP.

From nhl.com:

Al Jensen of NHL Central Scouting paid close attention to Trouba during the USHL Fall Classic last week. He liked what he saw.

“I really liked the way he played in all three games I viewed; he’s a very good size D man,” Jensen told NHL.com. “He skates exceptionally well and likes to rush up ice with the puck and with good speed. He’ll also join the rush himself, is very confident and has great agility. He’s strong physically, can handle the puck and is always alert. He also did a good job with one-on-one rushes against … he has great upside.”

We will see what happens…no one knows the future!