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Frozen Four + Post-Season Signings

March 29, 2012, 11:30 AM ET [8 Comments]
Julie Robenhymer
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Boston College, Minnesota, Ferris State and Union are packing their bags and heading to Tampa next week for the 2012 NCAA Frozen Four. Although not the four teams I had pegged to make the trip (Minnesota-Duluth, Miami, Michigan and North Dakota), I can't really say I'm surprised considering all four of them were the regular season champions of their respective conferences. Speaking of conferences, this is the first time in nearly a decade that we've had four different conferences represented at the season's grande finale. High five for cross-conference parity!

That said, this is a match up of David and Goliath. On one side of the bracket, you have Ferris State and Union who have a combined seven games of NCAA tournament experience and are both making their first trip to the Frozen Four and are doing so without a single NHL draft pick. On the other side, you have Boston College and Minnesota who have won nine national titles - five in the past decade - and boast 26 NHL draft picks.

Considering BC has been a Top Three team for the majority of the season, it would be easy to predict them to win their third NCAA Championship in five years, but the beauty of a single-elimination tournament is that anything can happen and you need to expect the unexpected.

That said, I know you all too well and will soon have a plethora of emails and tweets asking me what we can expect this time next week. So here we go…..

All four of these teams boast a solid goaltender, yet none of them - with maybe the exception of BC's Parker Milner who is riding a 1.000 save percentage from the Northeast Regional - have proven themselves on a big stage. That said, none of them have really had the opportunity to either as they're all upperclassmen who have had to bide their time behind All-Americans the past few years. In addition, all four of these teams employ an excellent brand of team defense. They're all about puck possession, blocking shots and capitalizing on mistakes. So, I'd say if you can expect anything it would be that all three of these games will be low scoring affairs, which of course means they'll all be blowouts.

As far as players to watch…

BC's Chris Kreider is expected to sign a contract with the Rangers about a nanosecond after the Eagles season ends. Brian Dumoulin is also expected to forgo his senior season at the Heights and sign with Carolina this summer. Freshman Johnny Gaudreau is a Flames prospect and is unbelievably crafty with the puck.

Minnesota's Nick Bjugstad is a Panthers prospect with a big body up front and great hands. Wild draft pick, Erik Haula, has been carrying the Gophers offensive efforts the second half of the season and another Flordia draft pick is Kyle Rau who is smaller in stature, but makes up for it with speed and skill.

Union has Hobey Baker finalist, Troy Grosenick between the pipes with a 1.64 GAA this season and Jeremy Welsh who has 27 goals so far this season and is averaging a point per game. While both still have eligibility left on the NCAA clock, it is likely that both will receive offers to go pro after the season. Question is...will they bite or return for another year?

Ferris State is a team of what I like to call glue guys. I doubt that any of them will become NHL superstars, but it's possible that several of them could have solid professional careers as muckers, grinders and loose puck finders. For example, their leading scorer - senior Jordie Johnston - ranks 80th among all Division I skaters, but they have eight players with 20+ points and 14 in double digits. No superstars but they get the job done. Can't overlook senior Taylor Nelson though with his 2.10 GAA….he'll have the attention of more than a few scouts next weekend.

Moving on to guys who have signed professional contracts this past week and two in particular who didn't…

Fifteen underclassmen have signed contracts, two have already made their NHL debuts - Jaden Schwartz (CC-STL) and Reilly Smith (Miami-DAL) - with a third - Jason Zucker (DU-MIN) set to do so tonight and possibly a fourth - JT Brown (UMD-TBL) by the weekend.

San Jose cleaned up on the free agent market by signing Matt Tennyson (Jr-WMU), Sebastian Stalberg (Jr-UVM) and Travis Oleksuk (Sr-UMD) who was often overlooked with teammates JT Brown and Jack Connolly receiving much of the attention.

Dallas did well signing their draft picks. In addition to Smith out of Miami, they also signed Alex Chiasson (Jr-BU) and Austin Smith (Sr-Colgate).

Boston did a little bit of both as they signed draft picks Zach Trotman (Jr-LSSU) and Justin Florek (Sr-NMU) and managed to sign UFA puck-moving defenseman Torey Krug (Jr-MSU)

Toronto nabbed UFA Spencer Abbott (Sr-Maine), the leading scorer in the country.

Vancouver signed draft pick Joe Cannata (Sr-Merrimack) creating more of a log jam at goal. (At some point, something has to give here...)

Chicago signed UFA Terry Broadhurst (Jr-UNO) and possibly the coolest story so far has been Columbus signing 5-7-ish goalie Shawn Hunwick (Sr-Michigan) to an ATO yesterday after starter Steve Mason got hit in the head with a puck at the morning skate.

In total….89 guys have signed professional contracts with more to come over the summer, but one guy who has had scouts drooling over his smooth skating and smart decisions with the puck was sophomore defenseman Danny DeKeyser out of Western Michigan, who announced on twitter earlier this week that he'd be back for another season in Kalamazoo. Smart decision by him as I'm sure he was faced with a plethora of offers by teams wanting to secure his services for the future, but I'm willing to bet that none of them were ready to pencil him into their NHL lineup next season. He's 6'3, 185 and could use another year to develop his "man strength" before taking on the challenge of playing with the big boys and effectively using his size which would only add another dimension to his already stellar game. Why play in the A when you can enjoy another year of the college experience and train under former NHL coach and IIHF Hall of Famer, Andy Murray?

But the most intriguing player yet to sign has been Wisconsin junior, Justin Schultz. It was assumed that as soon as the Badgers' season ended that he would sign with Anaheim, who holds his draft rights, and hop right on into their lineup, but he shocked just about everyone when he didn't. There was speculation that he was going to wait until July and become a free-agent a la Blake Wheeler and Billy Sweatt, but now it seems like his decision is based on the possibility of an NHL lockout. Why be forced to play in the A when you can play in Madison for another year? Makes some sense and isn't that far out of the realm of possibility considering the NHL has decided not to have any games in Europe to start the season next year because they can't guarantee that they will have a CBA by then. He might not be as crazy as some thought two weeks ago.

Finally, rumor has it that UConn will soon apply to be the 12th member of Hockey East - currently there are 10 members and as of the 2013-14 season they will also have Notre Dame. The Huskies are already part of Hockey East through their women's program so bringing them aboard on the men's side seems a natural fit, but they will have to expand the financial commitment to their program and offer athletic scholarships and since their current rink is too small to meet HE standards, they will need a new place to play whether that be a new facility on campus or the XL Center in downtown Hartford, currently home to the AHL Connecticut Whale.

Should this happen, it could be fantastic news for the University of Alabama Huntsville who were set to fold their program after this season. Through rigorous efforts by the local community they were able to secure funding to keep the program alive for the time being with the understanding that they must find a conference to call home sooner rather than later. UConn's potential departure from Atlantic Hockey could be a ray of hope for the Chargers' program.

If you have any questions about the Frozen Four or any of the recent signings …or I guess anything hockey related, let me know!

Julie
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