Exit Jon Merrill, Trouba Yet To Decide
As expected, John Merrill has signed with the Devils:
Junior defenseman Jon Merrill has signed with the New Jersey Devils, voiding his final year of eligibility, TSN.com's Bob McKenzie is reporting this morning, and rookie blue liner Jacob Trouba might be next, though there is reason to believe he could return to Ann Arbor.
After a Lidstrom-like freshman year, Merrill was beset by personal issues and a broken vertebra this year. He never really recaptured the thrilling—subtly, anyway—puck possession game he displayed in year one, but after shaking off the rust this year he was a major part of Michigan's turnaround. His loss is pretty bad. Not that Michigan expected to get four years out of him anyway. If my apartment was on an Indian burial ground I'd probably be out, too.
Meanwhile, some guy on twitter hears Trouba will follow him. Spath is holding to his 60-40 stay prediction. Red's departure rage level remains at zero; he seems to think either guy is capable of playing in the big leagues next year.
Evan Allen update. Allen is regarded as something of an OHL flight risk after telling some guy on the internet he was keeping his options open earlier in the year. Some twitter chatter suggests he will indeed find his way to Yost:
Wearing #15 at Michigan next year, so excited to start a new chapter in my life in the fall with the maize and blue
#GoBlue
Take it FWIW.
If the inevitable WTF departure is not Allen, something comical will befall someone else over the offseason. We should have a pool. I'm taking Zach Hyman, June 18th, vision quest ends with Hyman learning to fly and leaving for Tibet. I'm not good at pools.
March 27th, 2013 at 11:26 AM ^
If Allen jumps ship it will be after the NHL draft.
TSN did their predraft rankings a month ago and Allen was very low, for whatever reason he went from 3rd-4th round projection to just a few ranks higher than Copp at the tail end of the 7th.
March 27th, 2013 at 11:56 AM ^
I had no idea he had shown up on people's radars so quickly. He sure deserves it though. We're all going to love him by the time he graduates as a captain
March 27th, 2013 at 12:18 PM ^
TSN has Copp at #189 in their North American Skater Rankings. That would put him between the end of the 7th round and undrafted.
March 27th, 2013 at 12:06 PM ^
Hopefully, Mac Bennett gets in Trouba's ear like he says he's going to and gets him to stay. I, like Red, think he's ready to play in the NHL. I'd love to see him stay.
Has the second part of that Spath article already been discussed here? Because it's pretty interesting:
Berenson considered stepping aside
Speaking of departures, Berenson admitted yesterday that when the season appeared unsalvageable he questioned whether he was part of the problem and perhaps no longer the right man to continue leading the Wolverines.
"If there's a time where I'm in the way, and the team is not responding … like if this team wouldn't have gotten any better, I would have really thought about not coming back next year because I don't want to get in the way of this program doing well," he said.
Man, sounds like it was a rough season inside the lockerroom. Lockerroom divided and Red considering stepping down. It would be an understatement to say that the team hasn't experienced anything like this. At least the 2010 team had some little winning streak. This years team was pretty consistently bad
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