USA Under-18 stalwart goalie Jack Campbell is rumored to be signing on with Windsor after this year is over in favor of attending the University of Michigan.
Michigan announced their early signers today with no mention of Campbell.
Windsor is becoming quite the NHL training grounds. Hard to believe they own the rights to so many quality players.
Not really. They just continue to draft a lot of the high profile Americans that were supposed to be going the NCAA route. They then benefit from having enough money that few other teams have aside from London, Kitchener etc. to attract these kids later on.
It's a risk that they won't come, but for every one they do get, they're landing a prime time player that probably would have been a sure fire first round pick if they were intent on going the OHL route all along.
"I am honored the University of Michigan recruited me to play college hockey. My goal is to be playing in the National Hockey League within a year or two, and I did not want to put Michigan's hockey program in a bad position where I left after one season.
"By going to the Ontario Hockey League, I feel it will accelerate my development so I will be able to more quickly achieve my goal of being an NHL goaltender.
"I feel awful about breaking my commitment to U of M. It's something that was not easy to do or that I intended to do. College hockey is a great game that produces a lot of NHL players and I am grateful for the opportunity the University of Michigan gave me."
He's a very talented goalie... U of M has some great recruites for next season... While Windsor will be losing Hall and probably Fowler next season... Wonder why he did that...
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He's a very talented goalie... U of M has some great recruites for next season... While Windsor will be losing Hall and probably Fowler next season... Wonder why he did that...
Windsor is going to reload not rebuild...They will try to get Stephen Johns to come over, Austin Czarnik, import Tom Kuhnhackl, and whoever else will listen to them. This doesn't include trades.
Yes losing Hall, Fowler, and Ellis will hurt if all three move to the NHL but the younger guys like Watson, Justin Shugg,Kenny Ryan, Austen Brassard, and Panik will fill the shoes of those who left.
For goaltenders, the CHL has to be a little more appealing. A school like Michigan attracts top recruits every year. If Campbell had a slow start, he could end up the back up without any way to guarantee minutes without taking a redshirt year.
The CHL has trade possibilities and he may have a negotiated guarantee that he will get minutes with the CHL team he signs with.
The fact that they play about twice as many games means that they have that much more time on the ice to develop.
For goaltenders, the CHL has to be a little more appealing. A school like Michigan attracts top recruits every year. If Campbell had a slow start, he could end up the back up without any way to guarantee minutes without taking a redshirt year.
The fact that they play about twice as many games means that they have that much more time on the ice to develop.
This is actually quite true. How many drafted goalies are there that aren't playing pro this year... like 30? You've got 60 teams in the CHL, 58 teams in the NCAA (only about half of them would ever have a drafted goalie), 13 teams in the USHL, and a bunch of places to play in Europe.
Going to a school like Michigan would almost surely mean you're going to compete with another drafted goalie for playing time. Jack's likely to get the lion's share of games in Windsor. Heck, even SCSU has two drafted goaltenders! It's a nice situation for them as the two fellas push eachother to perform, but there's always the risk that one will bolt for more playing time. Even in the CHL, a backup draft pick is probably going to ask to get traded if he's not getting at least 2/5 of the playing time.
Windsor is going to reload not rebuild...They will try to get Stephen Johns to come over, Austin Czarnik, import Tom Kuhnhackl, and whoever else will listen to them. This doesn't include trades.
Yes losing Hall, Fowler, and Ellis will hurt if all three move to the NHL but the younger guys like Watson, Justin Shugg,Kenny Ryan, Austen Brassard, and Panik will fill the shoes of those who left.
Hall/Panik/Neimsz/Timmins/Young/Mitchell/Henrique/Cundari (maybe OA) are all likely to be for sure gone to either the AHL or NHL.
I think Ellis and Fowler will both get 9 games in the NHL next year and be back. Unless they dominate in those games. Ellis might stick but would be as a pp specialist but same time look at Blum whose been brought along slowly and he's an impact guy.
There are strong rumours that Austin Cznarik is coming over next season and believe he backed out of his commitment or de-committed. Also, very strong rumour that Johns is interested in coming over once more time opens up (Basically once Cundari/Young are gone) Ellis, Fowler (maybes), Johns, Dunick, Bezzo, and then Trojanovic or whoever slides in...maybe Posa.
Khunackel was rumoured to be on his way over after the WJc but I'm not sure we see this happen this year. He's supposively recieving very nice offers from teams in Germany to stay there in the DEL next year. Who knows though.
Going to a school like Michigan would almost surely mean you're going to compete with another drafted goalie for playing time.
Only it's not the case. Junior Bryan Hogan, Michigan's current starter, went undrafted. Hogan put up super numbers last season as he took the starting job away from Billy Sauer. He was 24-6-0 with a 1.97 GAA and .914 save percentage.
However, as Michigan's lone #1 goalie this year and no one to push him (their two backups are walk-ons who aren't going to play unless something drastic happens...knock on wood), Hogan has struggled. He's 5-7-0 with a 2.51 GAA and .887 save percentage. He has been giving up big rebounds and a soft goal or two every game.
Campbell would most certainly have had a great chance to compete for the starting role. Fans kind of expected them to split time at first, but ultimately Campbell taking the starting job away (same fashion Hogan took it from Sauer). After next year, the job would have been Campbell's for certain as Hogan graduates.
Michigan has made a habit, for better or worse, of trying to recruit one top goalie every three or four years to replace the outgoing goalie. Steve Shields, Marty Turco, and Josh Blackburn were all four year starters, with each coming in the year after the other graduated. Al Montoya came in the year after Blackburn and started three years, left for the pros, Billy Sauer then came in, but after he struggled through two years they brought in Hogan to compete with him. Campbell was looked at as next in line.
Instead, U-M is now hoping Hogan can regain his form as they either try to find any capable goalie recruit for 2010 or recruit from behind for a top 2011 goalie (Campbell committed to U-M in October 2008, so they most likely haven't been actively recruiting any other goalie for this year or 2011 believing he was their man).
