Wolverine318

July 27th, 2011 at 10:38 AM ^

this is the exact same thing that happened with Jack Campbell. Some douchebag from the OHL snake oils him away, leaving us fucked in terms of our goaltending training. We were lucky as hell Hunwick turned into tiny Jesus on hockey skates.

man I am disappointed. Honestly, I am starting to come around to the belief that it is better to sign a middle of the road class rather than a blue chipper that will just get stolen away at the last second.  

Mr. Robot

July 27th, 2011 at 10:06 AM ^

Can we just destroy the OHL? I'm sick of these guys butting into commits, and especially our goalies. Just the other day an OHL team signed away a sophomore from Northeastern and they had the gull to say "We've been after him for a few years." So you've been actively trying to get a kid playing hockey in college to abandon his education and commitment to his school to come play for you? Awesome.

If this turns out to be true, you can probably chalk it up to more of the same, since they won't buzz off after a kid makes a decision and then snake-oil them at the last moment with a lot of sweet-talking BS.

bacon1431

July 27th, 2011 at 10:19 AM ^

Are you shitting me? If it wasn't for Hunwick coming out of nowhere, I'd say there's a curse surrounding the goalie position at UM since Al Montoya left.

Also re: Gibson - he had this whole time to decide between college or the OHL and you decide NOW? At least Jack Campbell was considerate enough to defect on signing day. I know he's just a kid, but man. But this is what we get when we put our faith in 18 year olds. Not his fault. 

SamGoBlue2

July 27th, 2011 at 1:21 PM ^

Yeah, it would have at least been common courtesy to tell the coaches that he was still on the fence, but judging by this interview with Red just two days ago (Monday), he clearly did not do that:

I think our strengths will be our goalkeeping with Shawn Hunwick returning and with freshman John Gibson (Note: On July 27, 2011, John Gibson decided not to attend the University of Michigan). They should be as good as any tandem in the league and maybe in the country.

You gotta be kidding me.

skunk bear

July 27th, 2011 at 10:34 AM ^

If they really, really want to play in the OHL,why commit to a US college in the first place?

If not, then why not go ahead and play for UofM or whomever?

It isn't that guys play for OHL teams that is the matter, it is that they commit to us, so that we don't recruit someone else instead, and only THEN decide to go to the OHL. And leave us in the lurch.

Trebor

July 27th, 2011 at 11:55 AM ^

Gibson's situation is a bit different since he's already been drafted, but you'll see a lot of kids in their OHL draft year play the "I'm going to the NCAA" card in order to make sure they get drafted by a specific OHL team.

My guess with Gibson was pressure from Anaheim, Kitchener, whoever his "advisor" is, or some combination of the three were what pushed him to the OHL.

There's been a rash of defections lately too, as Connor Murphy is skipping out on Miami, JT Miller passed on North Dakota, and Jamie Oleksiak spurned Northeastern. Hopefully this is an aberration and not a sign that the NCAA is seriously losing the fight against the OHL for American kids.

Blue In NC

July 27th, 2011 at 10:43 AM ^

Can't wait to hear from our resident OHL suckup about this.  Not going to wish anything bad to the kid other then I hope he realizes that he has caused a bunch of harm from his indecision.  I hope all of this was handled openly rather than just a simple call or text saying he is not coming.  I can't imagine what it's like to try and assemble a team when a goalie is willing to just bail on his obligations on a whim.

Blue In NC

July 27th, 2011 at 1:21 PM ^

Certainly not you.  I didn't mean to imply that.  IMO one poster always seems to defend the OHL whenever there is a hint of negativity and appeared in your diaries about your experience and the Domi threads.  Not that I am anti-OHL but at times it seems like there is OHL propaganda that is a bit misleading and I have developed a sore spot because of it.

MattC87

July 27th, 2011 at 10:49 AM ^

Per Twitter- @INCH

 

Michigan press release quotes Red Berenson: "John Gibson has decided not to attend the University of Michigan or to play college hockey.”

VictorsValiant09

July 27th, 2011 at 10:53 AM ^

That takes a lot of balls to say you're going to commit, and then just up and leave.  We should've seen this coming when he de-committed from OSU so quickly. 

And, one of the top goalies taken in the Draft?  Further evidence.

I hate the OHL.  Why can't people give their word anymore?

That sucks for The University of Michigan, and it damages our hockey program.

Thanks, John.

flaproosta08

July 27th, 2011 at 11:44 AM ^

At this point, I hope his career path goes similar to one Mr. Campbell.

Everyone is entitled to their choice(s), but have the courtesy to make that choice in a respectable time frame. July 27th does  not fall in that time frame.

redwings8831

July 27th, 2011 at 11:45 AM ^

I'm pretty sure the Ducks pressured him into chaning his decision. Though he did flip his college commitment from Ohio State to us, so you never know.

lhglrkwg

July 27th, 2011 at 11:48 AM ^

they play dirty, especially compared to how the ncaa tries to handle themselves. absolutely no respect for other leagues. I don't know how the ncaa can compete with a league that can contact your players whenever, and contact them earlier than the ncaa can. the OHL is hurting college hockey far more than any conference realignment ever will. F the f'ing OHL

Wolveryan

July 27th, 2011 at 12:11 PM ^

but i feel like you could replace OHL with michigan and michigan with Tsio and we would have a relatively close replica of the kyle kalis threads from the blogs down south.

the kid is young and trusting bad people, he doesn't know better.

Mr. Robot

July 27th, 2011 at 12:27 PM ^

There are two problems with your argument:

1. Kalis defected about 7ish months away from signing day. Ohio State has that long to replace him, even if its not with a prospect of his hype. Gibson is doing this 1 month before he was suppose to be on campus getting ready to play for us this season, and well, WELL after signing a LOI for us. We have absolutely no ability to replace him at this point per NCAA rule, and with the way hockey recruiting goes, puts us seriously behind for trying to replace his absence in the following year.

2. We have shown displeasure at the rather rude timing of his decision, but I think most of the reponses have shown far more disdain to the dirty, backhanded conduct of the OHL. They never give up on poaching college commitments, even after they've played a year in college (See: Northeastern), and they like to sell their education package to people like it could compare to a bachelor's degree at pretty much any one of the D1 schools. It takes a guy like JimLahey for it to actually matter for anything because he recognized the importance of an education on his own without somebody like Red pounding it in his head, because no OHL coach is likely to. I really wish the NCAA would get their head out of their butt and give hockey coaches more tools to compete in the unique environment of hockey recruiting. Just letting them keep in contact would be a huge step.

I really hope hockey works out for him and he does indeed make it to the NHL and has the wisdom to use his earnings to prepare for his future. Regardless of his reasons though, this has set our goaltending situation back worse than I can ever remember it being. Unless Janecyk turns out to be Hunwick 2.0, we're completly hosed if 1.0 goes down and again next year if we can't snipe a goalie from somebody else in the next several months.

GOBLUE4EVR

July 27th, 2011 at 1:33 PM ^

the windsor spitfires how they feel about NCAA hockey, if it wasn't for michigan they would have gotten montoya and TJ and i think there is one more... because of those 2 that is why they went after campbell so hard to get him in my opinon...

i worked at a sports complex/bar over in windsor for 7 years and we were the home arena for one of the major travel hockey teams in the area. The parents with the top players from this one travel team had an advisor who would help them make the "correct" choices of where their kids should go and play at the next level. This advisor told them all that the OHL was the only way that their son could make it in the NHL. I know of one kid who had college offers and soon as his parents were told by the advisor the he should go the OHL route he signed with the spits... the spits wasn't the only team he was doing this for.

the other thing that is tempting to  18 y/o kids about playing in the OHL, is that they don't really have to go to school. when i was in HS in windsor there were a couple of spits that went to school with me. you never saw them until the season was over. When my cousin was playing for the london knights back in the early 90's he almost didn't graduate from HS.

i'm in no way defending the CHL (OHL/WHL/QMJHL) for what they do with NCAA hockey players or kids who are commited to a school. These advisors are no better then angents. I'm just relaying what I have seen/heard since I grew up in windsor and spent time around the process if you will... Blue in Yarmouth might be able expand on this better since he played in the QMJHL...

JimLahey

July 27th, 2011 at 1:56 PM ^

Those players ditched Windsor when they had the old coaching staff, played in a crappy barn (although I loved it), and were perpetually crappy.

The new staff has absolutely cleaned up with snatching college-bound players. They have an amazing new arena, have put countless players in the NHL in just a few years, and have won two memorial cups, including the 2010 team which IMO is the best junior team in history.

I'm trying to stay out of this for now, because everyone is angry, and I'm not happy either. Check back later tonight for my diary.

GOBLUE4EVR

July 27th, 2011 at 7:00 PM ^

coaching staff in windsor still did a good job getting players: Jason Spezza, Steve Ott, Kyle Wellwood, Steve Downie...

you're right windsor arena was great...

as for saying that montoya and TJ ditched windsor, there is/was a rumor flying around during montoya's time a michigan that the reason why he chose michigan over the spits is because his "advisor" came into some money, if you catch my drift...

JimLahey

July 27th, 2011 at 8:57 PM ^

Kyle Wellwood, Steve Ott, and Steve Downie.....combine for an IQ of about 90. I was talking about players who may choose to play in college, and those guys never would have qualified for ANY university. Kyle Wellwood didn't finish grade 11, I know that for a fact.

Spezza is much more intelligent, but was too good to wait for college. He was a prodigy and it would have really hurt his development to wait until age 18 to play at a higher level. He had to go to the OHL.

GOBLUE4EVR

July 28th, 2011 at 11:58 AM ^

with amount of brain power those 3 had... i worked for steve otts dad at the sports complex/bar in windsor, so i know where he gets it from... :) (oh and by the way otts dad is the advisor that i was talking about)

downie i only met a couple of times and that was when he was in his first year with the spits so he was only 17... i didn't know that about wellwood but that explains a lot, i also know that he was high before every game that he played for the spits.

i wouldn't say that spezza is the smartest person out there he did get busted with a fake id at the windsor casino, not the smartest thing to do in windsor when everyone knows who you are.

JustGoBlue

July 27th, 2011 at 1:56 PM ^

Beyond just having Hunwick and then a prayer as our goalies this year, it makes it incredibly hard to recruit another goalie for next year and possibly even the next.  Twice in a row, Michigan gets someone that could be considered a "franchise goalie", especially since Red doesn't really care to have a goalie rotaiton and will happily give one goalie most of the work, the staff probably hasn't been hard at work trying to recruit the next Turco, they have enough concerns without that.  So now, Michigan's going to have to try and go after someone decent, when Michigan is probably just starting to seriously talk to him and other school's have been after him for years.  And those are the ones that haven't committed yet.  It puts Michigan a few years behind the ball.  And Michigan has a pretty big recruiting advantage, just with having the resources of Michigan, the success of the program and Red, but there's only so much that can be made up in a short time.  Gibson this year was an aboslute gift this year, after Campbell decommitting last year, this puts Michigan in a bad spot this year and a worse spot next year.  One year spent not going after other top goalies is one thing, two is quite another.  Lots of ground to make up for the staff to try and find somebody to bring in with the 2012 class.

Canada loves S…

July 27th, 2011 at 2:02 PM ^

They're way to close to that freakin' Dean Lombardi, arch-nemesis of Red.

But seriously, why would the Ducks pressure him to play in the OHL?  Sure it's great hockey but they play way too many games. I'll bet their injury rate for goalies is much higher than NCAA.

Mr. Trailer Park Supervisor:  What say ye?