3 M hockey players/recruits projected to the 2012 1st Rd
The title pretty much says it all. NHL.com released 3 different 2012 mock drafts today. Jacob Trouba and Boo Nieves are both projected in there but Phil Di Giuseppe is also listed as high as #11 overall (!) which is just astounding to me. I thought he was a bit of an under-the-radar guy.
Adam Kimelman's:
Trouba, 1st rd #8
Nieves, #26
Steve Hoffner's:
Trouba, #5
Nieves, #19
PDG, #28
Mike Morreale's:
Trouba, #10 (to the Red Wings, if only)
PDG, #11
Nieves, #28
I can't say for sure, but that probably gives us solidly 3 of the top 10-15 kids in all of college hockey per NHL standards at least
Also, former commit Matia Marcatuoni shows up in two of the drafts at #18 and #20
H/T: michiganhockey.net
EDIT: While I'm talking hockey, I thought it would be humorous to point out that the state of michigan has 7 D1 teams...and MSU is the only one not ranked in USCHO's top 20 right now. #HALOL
October 31st, 2011 at 10:36 PM ^
Never actually committed to Michigan. Just said if he went the college route, he was "very likely" going to Michigan. Then it turned out to be all talk so he could get drafted by "the only team I would play for" in the OHL--Kitchener. Basically the same thing Max Domi just did...claim to be leaning Michigan just so he could end up with the OHL team of his choice.
October 31st, 2011 at 10:36 PM ^
Phil was always a highly regarded prospect and if he was eligible for the NHL draft last year he would have been taken. When the draft took place he was only 17.
October 31st, 2011 at 10:46 PM ^
Trouba is, I think, pretty much a slam dunk first-rounder and we all knew that throughout his recruitment.
Nieves was always listed as a "potential first-round pick", which, when so many people are saying it, as in his case, I take to mean someone's probably going to take him late in the first round, because he hasn't shown he's completely elite-level prospect that you want to take in your first round, but he's shown enough for you to know that he's at the least, very, very good and he has the potential to become so much better.
DiGiuseppe didn't have a lot of hype coming into Michigan, but mostly just because he is so young. I'd heard first-round in his draft year murmers the last several months after he committed, but because he was younger, the focus was mostly on the players about to get drafted for real and he never really blew the doors off overall in his league, just did great in his league compared to the rest of the kids his age in juniors. I think the spread on mock drafts for him is about right, actually. Being at Michigan it's probably going to be a little difficult for scouts to get a completely awesome read on him, because he is going up against competition that is in most cases still several years older that him. If he doesn't produce is that becuase he's not good enough, or because he's not good enough yet? If he does produce, that's a pretty good sign he'll probably be pretty good. Recall the Red Wings drafted Notre Dames Riley Sheahan 21st overall a few years ago, ater he put up 6-11-17 in 37 games as a freshman there and Phil's already got 5-4-9 after only 8 games. PDG does have NHL size and he's on pace to finish with something better than 20-16-36. If he falls off completely, he still has his relative youth and his performance in juniors, so it's hard to say precisely where he'll go, but I could see some team wanting him somewhere near the middle of the first round, especially if he keeps producing here and I could see him slipping maybe to the third or fourth round.
Regardless, all three players should have a real nice career at Michigan and defintely are/were great pick-ups by Red and the coaches!
November 1st, 2011 at 12:02 AM ^
At this point all you can hope for is they get drafted by organizations that will not pressure them to leave college before their sophomore or junior seasons. We'll just have to wait and see how that works out.