hunter brzustewicz

It's been a couple months since I last did a Hockey Weekly piece. The previous one checked in on the Mel saga, talked about the transfer portal, and then checked off a few odds and ends. Today's will be similar- we know how the Mel saga ended, so instead I will devote time to digging into new head coach Brandon Naurato before checking off some offseason topics including the non-conference schedule release, the NHL Draft, and the World Juniors. 

Hello: Brandon Naurato 

I wrote a little bit about Naurato on Sunday when he was announced as the interim head coach of Michigan Hockey and David and I discussed him on the HockeyCast yesterday. As a brief primer, I will quote what I wrote on Sunday here first: 

Naurato is a 37-year-old who has one year of experience as a coach at Michigan but glowing reviews. Michigan Hockey fans of the late 2000s may remember Naurato as a rather middling forward on the late 2000s juggernaut teams (including the 2008 Frozen Four squad), where he played 130 career games for the Wolverines, scoring 32 goals and 32 assists in his career. After that, Naurato bounced around the lower minor leagues before retiring from his playing career at age 27 in 2012. 

After retiring, Naurato became a skills specialist and hockey consultant in the Metro Detroit area (Naurato is a Livonia native), specializing in prospect development. He founded his own business, Naurato Consulting, and in the 2010s he worked with nearly every notable Michigan player who went to the NHL during the summers, from Connor to Copp to Hughes to Larkin to Werenski. His excellence as a development coach led the Red Wings to hire Nuarato in a player development capacity in both Detroit and Grand Rapids, with the AHL affiliate. Last fall, Michigan hired Naurato to join the staff as an assistant. 

That's the sort of information you can glean from the Michigan Hockey bio of Naurato, but let's try and dig a little deeper. As I said on the podcast, Mel's decision to hire Naurato seemed to come from asking his players "what did you do in the summer?" and they all replied "working with Brandon Naurato", after which he made the logical next step to bring the guy on board. He explained as much in this short video from around the time Naurato was hired: 

Brandon Naurato returns to Ann Arbor - a home run hire for Michigan Hockey#GoBlue〽️ pic.twitter.com/IavE6gGbTB

— Michigan Hockey (@umichhockey) September 3, 2021

Little did he know, he was actually hiring his replacement. Connor Earegood of the Michigan Daily has a collection of good quotes from players last season citing Naurato as the reason they improved in different facets of the game and he wrote in his introductory column on Naurato that the youthful assistant's primary responsibility had been the power play. While there wasn't the sort of gigantic PP improvement like we saw with the PK when Kris Mayotte was on staff, Michigan did improve last year on the PP, from 23.7% (7th) to 26.8% (3rd). Coaching a PP with the talent Michigan had on it last season is kind of like teaching Clayton Kershaw how to pitch, but at least it's a point in Naurato's favor as a piece of evidence that he can coach team hockey.

[AFTER THE JUMP: digging into the paper trail] 

Finally! Finally writing about hockey recruits who won't arrive for multiple years is the most sensible thing to do! I knew my day would come! Previously: 2020 and 2021.

Now with fewer alarmingly young people

College hockey passed some legislation that prohibits early contact between players and programs, which is stupid for a couple reasons. One: CHL teams have no such restrictions. Two: these restrictions are all but unenforceable anyway. Instead of talking to the recruit you talk to his advisor, coach, or parents.

But since this legislation included a prohibition against commitments—which are made up things the NCAA does not regulate in any way—there's been a halt to super early commits. Publicly, anyway. It is a stone cold fact that NCAA programs are going to privately offer and accept commitments from guys who are about to get drafted by the CHL.

A guy like, say, Adam Fantilli isn't allowed to commit to a school until August because schools aren't technically allowed to offer (again, an offer is a made up thing the NCAA does not regulate) until August 1st before a player's junior year of high school. They implemented this rule in college basketball and exactly one guy followed it: John Beilein.

So far the dam has held in college hockey. Expect to see a blizzard of guys go off the board in August.

I can't wait for August (NCAA commitment window).

Tons of uncommitted 04s who top programs must champing at the bit over.

Maddox Fleming
Adam Fantilli(?)
Cutter Gauthier
Jimmy Snuggerud
Charlie Stramel
Ryan Chesley
Chase Pietila
Jimmy Clark#2022NHLDraft #2023NHLDraft

— Sam Stern (@SternScouting) March 10, 2020

Future editions of Chris Hansen's Hockey Recruiting may have to wait until mid-August. The just-named NTDP U17 team has seven uncommitted guys on it, which is an unusual number. In the future it's going to be zero… publicly. Pointless window dressing.

Anyway.

[After THE JUMP: hurling!]

God bless the machinations of junior hockey, which is busy making #content when the rest of the sports world slumbers.

There has been a Palpable Development in Adam Fantilli's recruitment, and since Fantilli looks like the kind of generational talent who could end up going first overall in the NHL draft it's worth talking about. The development: Fantilli signed a tender* with the USHL's Chicago Steel.

This does not necessarily mean he's headed to college. Folks are correct to point out that this is peak OHL draft manipulation season, especially if they're going to expose local bloggers to incredible names:

Just last year Davis “T-Bone” Codd signed a tender w/ Youngstown and report to Saginaw a week later.

Have to wait and see.

— Sam Stern (@SternScouting) March 25, 2020

Getting "T-Bone" to stick as your kid's nickname is a major Dad Achievement Unlocked moment. I've been calling DRC "Hambone" since his birth and I have to admit I don't think it's gonna catch on.

[After THE JUMP: it could happen]