Tyler Motte To Forgo Season, Sign With Blackhawks
Really thought he would come back next year.
Breaking: Red Berenson has told me Tyler Motte will forgo his senior season and sign with the Chicago Blackhawks
— Jason Rubinstein (@jrubinstein4) April 6, 2016
I needed another reason to hate the Blackhawks.
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This is GERG's fault. GERRRRGGGGGG!!!!
Can we ever get some non-football related good news around here.
Michigan is a football school and mediocrity is completely acceptable in all other sports. You should be happy we have a hockey team at all.
This is very disappointing for next year's team. Motte has really come on strong, and him paired with Compher would continue to be a dynamite offensive force even if (when really, c'mon) Connor leaves.
On the other hand, this is a "sell high" situation for Motte. He and Compher could be transcendant next season... but then, it's hard to top a year like this when you're playing next to Connor. Even a slight regress in stats next season would not look good on a pro resume. If he is offered anything that is not the pro minimum, this is the time to sign in your career.
We'll always have the great season, and the great OT winner against ND.
And, more personally, I'll always have that time at warmups at Mariucci where he flipped my daughter a puck and became her favorite player.
@tmotte_14 Thanks for flipping my daughter a puck during warm-ups. She'll remember it forever. pic.twitter.com/r3ZqLRB0EX
— Steve King (@stephenrjking) February 27, 2016
Fare well, Tyler. Make us proud.
I would say it's a sure sign that Motte knows Connor is gone. Like, he has been explicitly told.
Sad to see him leave but he now has a chance to live his dream to play in the NHL. Can't fault him for that. Next man up. And remember, Red and his staff helped him achieve his dream. What a great bunch of coaches.
what he is doing is dumb. The chances he makes the big club are very, very slim and there is a lot of talent ahead of him. He'd be better off returning to Michigan for another season.
He's not doing it to make the Blackhawks. He has probably been offered more than a rookie minimum, and he is taking the next step to develop his game in the minors, where he will play twice as many games by the end of next season.
As sharp as he is on offense at Michigan, he needs to develop an all-around game to make it in the NHL. His skill set is not strong enough to be a top-2-line scoring option in the NHL right now. He will need to have a well-rounded defensive/checking game to find a spot, a place where his offense (if any) is more of a bonus than an integral skill. Being the sniper for JT Compher's wizard passes, should they be headed his way, is not going to develop that part of his game.
They have multiple forwards that are UFAs after this year that aren't going to be signed again. He was the guy they seemed most excited about at last year's prospect camp. And then he went out and had the year he had. He'll get a shot at making the team.
Interesting. Source?
An example from back during the camp:
http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/blackhawks/post/_/id/4690295/blackhawks…
Also a quote from a January article:
“He’s just a heart-and-soul player,” said Mark Kelley, Chicago’s senior director of amateur scouting. “He plays hard. He contributes offensively. He can win a game by blocking a shot or tipping a puck in. He’s in the dirt the whole time, there’s no hard area for him, he makes it a hard area because he’s there.”
Great, thanks.
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I'm another Blackhawks fan. This is great, from my perspective as a Hawks fan, although it is crummy for Michigan. As regards the Blackhawks, it will take a couple years before he makes the big club. But might as well get started. Great to have a great player join a great team. To be the best, you have to play with and against the best. Oh, and now I will be cheering on not only the Blackhawks, but also a fellow former Michigan student. It doesn't get better than that!
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I actually prefer this to the old summers where we basically had to wait until August to find out if our key players were coming back. Spring signings hurt but at least we know where we stand ahead of time.
In the late 90's, we got stung in August with Van Ryn and Comrie going to the CHL.
Then in 2002, I think Cammalleri and Komisarek both left on a late July day.
It's sad to see him go but it would be a risk for him to assume he will have a year next year as good as this year if he stayed. I'm assuming Connor is waiting for the Hobey ceremony to be over be he announces anything. I've heard rumblings that Compher is coming back to finish his degree but who knows?.
Connor doesn't need to wait for the ceremony to announce, and I believe the voting is already done. However, he may wait until the summer to sign. Other people understand the details better than I do, but if I recall correctly holding until after this season is over extends the amount of time Connor would be protected from a hypothetical expansion draft, among other things. It seems Winnipeg will wait.
Funny how even with all the success the Blackhawks have had, your go-to example for why someone would dislike the Hawks, is bragging about beating a .500 team that iced Damien Brunner, Daniel Cleary, Jordin Tootoo, Cory Emmerton, and Joakim Andersson for ~80% of the season.
Very little brother-ish of you
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I was just discussing with someone this weekend what the possibility of the entire CCM line returning was......