I hate the OHL

So this story came out late last night, but the Kitchener Rangers are intending to make good on their earlier threat of Legal Action. One quote that I found interesting was:

“By people out there saying whatever the hell they want, with not having to back it up and hiding behind sources, that damaged us,” said Bienkowski (Rangers Chief Operating Officer). “I don’t take it personal but it’s frustrating. You work pretty hard to build what we think is an outstanding reputation in the CHL and then you have all this sort of stuff.”

Which is complete rubbish. The reputation of the CHL isn't to be tarnished based on one student reporter, especially since this isn't the first time this issue has come up. Hearing their reasoning behind another similar case is ridiculous too.

It’s not the first time the Rangers have been accused of paying to attract players. Three years ago, Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson told The Record he heard the Rangers offered $500,000 to American rearguard Cam Fowler, who had committed to attend the school. Fowler’s family denied the allegations but the damage was done. Bienkowski said, in the wake of reports, that the defenceman cancelled meetings with the Rangers and the club was forced to put him back into the OHL draft. Windsor scooped him up and the Michigan native played one season with the Spitfires and never attended Notre Dame.

They threatened legal action against Jackson but never followed up, my guess is now they think they have an easier case. From the story, the Daily and Slovin have yet to respond

Link: http://www.guelphmercury.com/sports/article/757933--rangers-sue-michigan...

After the draft, sources were saying that Trouba was around 50/50 toward Michigan or the OHL. Well that all changed earlier tonight. From a Matt Slovin article, a new OHL source speaking anonymously spoke that apparently the Kitchener Rangers have put a huge new offer on the table for Trouba. Huge as in Trouba could be compensated around 200,000 dollars in place of an education package. This same source went on to say that he "believes it will happen.”

Hopefully this doesn't happen, but I'm not so optimistic about our chances. And if (when?) Trouba leaves, I think Yost Built might just spontaneously combust from all this

Source: http://www.michigandaily.com/blog/hot-commodity-trouba-5050-between-mich...

Now the Kitchener president has responded on his twitter page, that the source in Slovin's article is "utterly false"

For those of you don't know, the OHL draft is today and it's currently going on right now (9th rd as of 4 pm EST). This is where many a college hockey fan finds out whether we can expect Player X to ever suit up in a college uniform.

General rule of thumb seems to be early rounds (1-4) are more likely to go while later rounds indicate that that team / the OHL don't think it's likely they'll be able to sign that player.

Bob Miller assembled a list at CHP (link) of notable american prospects and their current commitments (if any). I made a table of those players and their current draft status

Notable findings:

• Kyle Connor and Dylan Larkin (Michigan commits) have not been drafted yet which is great news because as I saw on the twitter:
  
  Chris Dilks ‏ @ChrisDilks

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  Both Michigan commits. RT @RyanHPscout: The 2 best players we have on our draft board are Dylan Larkin and Kyle Connor both 1st rd talents.

• Brendan Perlini (MSU, younger brother of current MSU skater Brent Perlini) looks like he might be going OHL
• MSU had 4 guys on Bob Miller's list. One went in the first, two in the fourth, and one in the 9th. I'm not sure what to think of the guys going in the fourth round, but I'd be nervous if they were ours
• Darby Llwellyn is indeed Tristin Llwellyn's younger brother. No word on whether Darby has the same love for incredibly stupid penalties

EDIT: Dylan Larkin just got selected. 10th round, 1st pick to Erie. Looking good.

EDIT2: MacEachern from MSU hasn't been drafted yet. I recorded the draft info wrong

EDIT3: And Kyle Connor finally gets taken by Saginaw. 14th Rd, 11th pick. Looks good there too.